Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your START file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert START to another file type
To convert START Scripts to another format, you need Bash or other Developer software.
Convert a file to START
To convert other file formats to the "Shell Script / Project Archive" file type, you need software like Bash or a similar tool.
About START files
The .start extension is primarily associated with executable shell scripts on Unix and Linux systems, often used to launch applications or configure environments. These files are essentially text-based Bash scripts containing command-line instructions. Users frequently need to convert them to TXT to inspect the source code or edit parameters without triggering the execution. However, .start is also the proprietary project format for the StArt (State of the Art through Systematic Review) tool, used by researchers to manage systematic literature reviews. In this context, the file is actually a renamed ZIP archive containing study data, PDFs, and extraction forms. A common source of friction is trying to open a script file on Windows (where it is not recognized) or trying to access a StArt project without the legacy software installed. For script files, the best workaround is opening them in a code editor like Visual Studio Code. For StArt projects, renaming the extension to ZIP allows instant access to the internal data.
Convert.Guru analyzes your START file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert START file to , you can use Bash or similar software from the "Application Launching Script" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert files to START, try Bash or another comparable tool in the "Application Launching Script" category.
The START 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 START converter.