What is the PXL file format?
.pxl is the native spreadsheet format of Microsoft Pocket Excel, the spreadsheet application bundled with Windows CE and Pocket PC devices from 1996 through the Windows Mobile era. Designed for the constrained storage and screen size of handheld devices, Pocket Excel used a simplified binary spreadsheet structure that traded many desktop Excel features for a compact footprint.
Internally, .pxl files use the same OLE2 Compound File Binary Format (CFBF) container as standard XLS files - sharing the eight-byte magic signature D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1 at offset zero. The workbook stream inside is a reduced subset of Excel's BIFF8 format: cells hold numeric, string, formula, and date values with basic formatting, but VBA macros, pivot tables, complex named ranges, and many advanced BIFF8 record types are absent.
Microsoft renamed the application Excel Mobile in Windows Mobile 5.0 (2005) but continued using the .pxl extension. The format was effectively retired when Windows Mobile 6.0 (2007) added .xlsx support, and Windows Mobile itself was discontinued in 2010. Desktop Microsoft Excel and LibreOffice Calc can open .pxl files directly. SpreadCE, a third-party Pocket PC spreadsheet, also created .pxl-compatible files.
No current Microsoft mobile product reads or writes .pxl; modern Android and iOS Excel uses .xlsx exclusively.
Security & safety
RISK: LOWPXL files are OLE2 spreadsheet data from legacy Pocket PC devices. No modern macro execution risk (PXL does not support VBA). Open in LibreOffice Calc without concern.
Format details
in a nutshellPrograms that open PXL files
Windows2 apps
Microsoft Excel
Paid Rename .pxl to .xls, then open in Excel. Excel 97-2003 opens it natively; modern Excel 365 may open it via legacy BIFF compatibility. 
LibreOffice Calc
Open-source Rename .pxl to .xls, then open in LibreOffice Calc. Alternatively load directly and select 'XLS (Microsoft Excel 97-2003)' format. 
macOS2 apps
Technical details
deep spec| Container | OLE2 / CFBF (Compound File Binary Format) |
| Magic bytes | `D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1` at offset 0 (OLE2 signature) |
| Internal format | Simplified BIFF8 (Binary Interchange File Format) subset |
| Byte order | Little-endian |
| Encoding | Binary |
| Compression | None (OLE2 streams uncompressed) |
| Typical file size | 1 KB - 500 KB (optimized for Pocket PC storage) |
| MIME type | `application/vnd.ms-excel` |
| Missing vs XLS | No VBA macros, no pivot tables, reduced BIFF8 record set, limited named ranges and formatting |
| Associated OS | Windows CE, Windows Mobile, Pocket PC |
| Introduced | 1996 with Windows CE 1.0 / Pocket Office |
| Superseded by | Excel Mobile (`.xlsx`) on Windows Mobile 6.0+ (2007) |
| Desktop compatibility | Microsoft Excel (all versions), LibreOffice Calc, SpreadCE (third-party Pocket PC app) |
| Released | 1996 (Windows CE 1.0 / Pocket Office) |
| Latest version | Windows Mobile 6.5 era (circa 2009) |
PXL conversions
Community Q&A
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