The Windows Process Journey — “dialer.exe” (Microsoft Windows Phone Dialer)

“dialer.exe” (Microsoft Windows Phone Dialer) is a PE binary located at “%windir%\System32\dialer.exe”, which can be used to dial outgoing voice calls using the computer. It is done if the system has a modem supporting both voice and data (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-do-you-set-up-dialer/2aa4ef09-5a6d-4aa1-901b-557ff9ce0ef6) .On 64-bit systems there is also a 32-bit located at %windir%\SysWOW64\dialer.exe.

Thus, “dialer.exe” supports TAPI (Telephony Program Interface) based ActiveVoice (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/dialerexe/b859ea03-f8f5-4b45-ab3a-19ff032763ff). TAPI is an API (Application Programming Interface) allowing Windows systems to use the telephony services (https://documentation.avaya.com/en-US/bundle/IPOfficeSolutionDescription/page/Telephony_Application_Program_Interface.html).

Moreover, TPAPI is a COM (https://medium.com/@boutnaru/windows-com-component-object-model-71a76a97435c) based API that merges classic and IP telephony. It allows voice mailing, PBX control, basic voice over PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), call center applications, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), multicast multimedia and video conferencing (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/tapi/tapi-3-1-start-page).

Lastly, we can think about “dialer.exe” as a software based phone — as also shown in the screenshot below. See you next time ;-) You can also follow me on twitter — @boutnaru (https://twitter.com/boutnaru).