Extract text from PLUGIN files
To convert your PLUGIN file to another format, you need Khaos Control or other Plugin software.
To convert other file formats to the "Application Extension" file type, you need software like Khaos Control or a similar tool.
A .plugin file is a generic extension used to add functionality to a parent application, ranging from business logic in Khaos Control Cloud to game assets in TheoTown. Because this extension is a "container" rather than a standardized format, users often face significant friction: the file is essentially a black box that cannot be opened without the specific host software installed. In many cases, these files are actually renamed standard formats - Khaos Control plugins are often masked Windows Executables (.EXE), while TheoTown plugins are plain JSON text files, and generic application plugins are frequently renamed ZIP archives.
For users attempting to inspect, edit, or recover data from these files, the lack of a universal viewer is a major hurdle. You generally cannot "convert" a plugin to a standard document like PDF, but you can transform it into a format suitable for analysis or editing based on its internal structure. If dealing with game mods or macOS bundles, converting to ZIP allows you to extract and view the internal assets (images, scripts). For configuration-based plugins like those for TheoTown, converting to JSON or TXT enables code editing in standard text editors. Always verify the source before executing a .plugin file, as those associated with Khaos Control or Galaxy Swapper may contain executable binary code.
Convert.Guru analyzes your PLUGIN file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted JAR, ZIP, SMA, DLO, ESL and MOD files.
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 PLUGIN converter.