BHO File

What are BHO files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a BHO file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your BHO files.

What is a BHO file?

A .BHO file is a Behold Organize Data file.

Behold Organize Data files preserve settings used by the genealogy program Behold that determine which genealogy data to load and how to present it. They store references to one or more GEDCOM files, and configuration of display rules, family-group ordering, numbering, tags to include or exclude, report layout, and translated text where needed.

Behold writes these files when a user presses Save on its Organize pages. When such a file is loaded, Behold applies all the saved settings, then loads the specified GEDCOM files, and finally generates its Everything Report according to those instructions. The files contain neither the genealogical records themselves (born, died, married, etc.) nor family data, only links to them plus how to organize their display.

These files are plain text. Users may open them with basic text editors. They show readable keywords for GEDCOM paths and tag filters. Internally, they begin with a UTF-16 (little endian) header which includes human-readable English phrases like "This is a Behold file … for saving Behold Organize information … If you make any manual changes, please be careful …" at offset 0.

How to open BHO files

Important: Different programs may use files with the BHO file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your BHO file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

We have not yet verified any programs for Windows that work with this specific file format. If you know one, please use the 'Suggest a program' link below. Thanks!

Last updated: August 24, 2026

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