ICEWS Converter

Extract text from WebICE launch files (ICEWS)

Select File
Drop or upload your .ICEWS file

Online File Converter

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How to extract text from your ICEWS file

Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your ICEWS file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert ICEWS to another file type

To convert ICEWS launch files to another format, you need ICE WebStart or other Web software.

Convert a file to ICEWS

To convert other file formats to the "Trading Platform Launcher" file type, you need software like ICE WebStart or a similar tool.

About ICEWS files

A .icews file is a proprietary XML-based launch configuration used by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) to initiate their secure trading platforms, such as WebICE and Market-Q.

Technically, this file is a specialized variant of the standard Java Web Start (JNLP) format. It contains critical instructions - such as server IP addresses, memory allocation arguments, and required JAR file downloads - that tell the computer how to launch the trading application.

Why users struggle with this file:

Proprietary Dependency: Unlike standard JNLP files, .icews files are not meant to be opened by a standard Java installation or OpenWebStart. They require the specific ICE WebStart (IWS) client application to be installed.
Browser Confusion: Modern web browsers (Chrome, Edge) no longer support Java plugins. When you click 'Launch', the browser simply downloads the .icews file to your disk instead of running it, leaving users with a file they cannot open.
Text File Masquerade: Because the file contains plain XML text, double-clicking it on a PC without the ICE client often opens it in Notepad, displaying confusing code instead of the trading interface.

Best Conversion Targets:

For Inspection (.XML / .TXT): If you need to debug connection issues or view the server path, converting (or renaming) the file to XML or TXT allows you to open it in any text editor like VS Code or Notepad.
For Execution: There is no format conversion that will make this file run without the IWS software. The solution is to install the correct client from the ICE website.

Convert.Guru analyzes your ICEWS file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted JNLP files.

FAQ

If you want to convert ICEWS file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use ICE WebStart or similar software from the "Web Start Launch Configuration" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to ICEWS, try ICE WebStart or another comparable tool in the "Web Start Launch Configuration" category.

The ICEWS Converter Story

The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our ICEWS converter.