Extract text from System information files (NFO)
To convert NFO Info files to another format, you need Windows System Information or other Text software.
To convert other file formats to the "Information Text File" file type, you need software like Windows System Information or a similar tool.
The .NFO (info) file format has multiple distinct uses depending on its origin. Most commonly, it acts as a plain text or XML file containing release information, metadata, or ASCII art. In the digital media realm, software like Kodi uses XML-formatted .nfo files to scrape and store metadata for movies and TV shows. In the software scene, these files accompany application releases to provide installation instructions and PGP signatures, often viewed using specialized tools like NFOPad or Notepad++ to render the ASCII art correctly. Alternatively, Windows relies on .NFO for its System Information utility (msinfo32.exe), saving hardware and software diagnostic reports in a UTF-16 (LE) structure, while legacy systems use it for Folio Views Infobase databases or Age of Empires player profiles.
A major disadvantage of .nfo files is extension hijacking. Windows automatically associates them with its System Information tool. If a user double-clicks a scene release or Kodi metadata .nfo file, Windows will throw a 'System Information cannot open this NFO file' error because it expects a specific Microsoft XML structure, not a plain text file. Furthermore, standard text editors often destroy the custom ASCII art encoding (Code page 437) found in release information files.
To read, share, or archive these files without errors, you must convert them. For general reading across devices, convert text-based .nfo files to TXT or PDF. For media scrapers, extract the structured data to XML. If you are dealing with a Windows System Information report, exporting to a standard text format ensures it opens natively on macOS or Linux.
Convert.Guru analyzes your NFO file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted SFV, INFO, TXT, ZIP, RHASH, SRT, DIZ, EXE, DMG, FOLIO, ISO, RAR and NFP files.
If you want to convert NFO file to SRT, TXT, TEXT, IMAGE, MP4, PDF, SYS, DLL, EXE, DRV, VXD or 386, you can use Windows System Information or similar software from the "Release Info & System Data" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MSI, EXE, REG, MST, LNK, CAB, CAT, DRV, INF, SYS, MSU or DLL files to NFO, try Windows System Information or another comparable tool in the "Release Info & System Data" category.
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 NFO converter.