A file is a document on a computer that can be an executable (EXE), dynamic link library (DLL), text (TXT, INI, LOG, etc), sound (WAV, OGG, etc), texture (BMP, TGA, JPG, etc), etc.
Second Life has a few important files:
- secondlife.exe - client
- settings.ini - preferences
- colors_base.ini - UI colors
- colors.ini - custom UI colors
- custom_keys.ini - avatar keyboard controls
- viewerart.ini - viewer UI, texture, and sound asset keys
Shader/lighting:
- cg.dll
- cgGL.dll
With the integration of Mozilla into SL 1.10, a few more files were added (to the PC version anyway):
- dbghelp.dll
- gksvggdiplus.dll
- js3250.dll
- msvcr71.dll
- nspr4.dll
- nss3.dll
- nssckbi.dll
- plc4.dll
- plds4.dll
- smime3.dll
- softokn3.dll
- ssl3.dll
- xpcom.dll
- xul.dll
These files, along with ~10MB in the ..\app_settings\mozilla\ folder, increased SL's installer by ~5MB (to ~25MB) and installed (uncompressed) size by ~20MB. An ever-increasing client doesn't make testing preview releases fun since the entire client is mindlessly redownloaded for each new build instead of SL having a more intelligent patch system whereby only relevant files are updated ("patched").