BLI File

What are BLI files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a BLI 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 BLI files.

What is a BLI file?

A .BLI file is a BLINK Compressed Archive file.

BLINK Compressed Archive is an old DOS/Windows archive tool named Blink (by D.T.S.) that combines multiple files into a single compressed package. It supports several compression methods (including RLE, FIN, LZE) and can create self-extracting executables (SFX) so the archive can be unpacked even on systems without Blink installed. Files within the archive include metadata like original names, file sizes, attributes, timestamps, and a checksum. The tool allows viewing and extracting individual files, testing the archive integrity, adding files using different compression methods, and creating archives as executables. Blink was originally written in C, with separate versions for DOS real mode (16-bit), DOS protected mode (32-bit), and a Windows version (beta) using Win32s. It can handle archives containing up to 65,535 files, but does not support full directory path recursion. Blink has limits on file size (cannot handle files larger than 4 GB) and requires minimal system resources (e.g. 256 KB RAM for 16-bit DOS version).

Files are created by Blink's command-line interface (BLINK.EXE / BLINKX.EXE / BLINKW.EXE) which packages selected files into the archive; archives may also be built into self-extracting executables via specific options. Extraction, testing, and viewing are done by the same program.

The archive format uses an ASCII header "Blink by D.T.S." at byte offset zero (or elsewhere when used in custom SFX stubs) to identify the archive. Following the global header, each file entry has its own header containing the filename, compressed size, uncompressed size, checksum, file attributes, and timestamp. Then one or more compressed blocks follow, each block prefixed with its own compressed size and uncompressed size and a tag indicating compression method ("store", "RLE", "FIN", or "LZE"). The ASCII signature "Blink by D.T.S" appears at offset 0 of standard archives.

How to open BLI files

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

While we have not verified the app ourselves yet, our users have suggested a single BLI opener which you will find listed below.

Last updated: August 24, 2026

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of BLI files. Remember, different programs may use BLI files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

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