Viewing .exe File Source / Editing .exe File

[Eusha]

Hi Friends Is There Any Way To Open And ReEdit An .exe File... Suppose I Have a Portable .exe File Which Needs No Installation in My Windows. And I Want To Edit Some Icons or Some Text which is Given in The .exe File So What Should I Need To Do ???

I Have Drag And Dropped The .exe File on The Notepad But When Its Shows Me The Script its Impossible to Read The Signals or Commands..

Shortcutly "HOW TO EXTRACT AN .EXE FILE"

Thanks in Advance.

[dkalita]

I don't think so.
And if there is some way I would love to know it. :)

[twomers]

Well... were you to decompile to hex and then recompile from modified hex you might be able to squander something... don't know if it'd work, though. Especially if the program depends on libraries and such.
For a really simple

int main() { 
  printf( "1" );
  return 0;
}

you might be able to do something. But anything complicated... forget it, in my completely uneducated opinion on this matter.

[twomers]

Well... were you to decompile to hex and then recompile from modified hex you might be able to squander something... don't know if it'd work, though. Especially if the program depends on libraries and such.
For a really simple

int main() { 
  printf( "1" );
  return 0;
}

you might be able to do something. But anything complicated... forget it, in my completely uneducated opinion on this matter.

[Eusha]

Well... were you to decompile to hex and then recompile from modified hex you might be able to squander something... don't know if it'd work, though. Especially if the program depends on libraries and such.
For a really simple

int main() { 
  printf( "1" );
  return 0;
}

you might be able to do something. But anything complicated... forget it, in my completely uneducated opinion on this matter.

Hello Please Explain it...

Actually I Dont Understand What To DO With These Codes !!!!!!

[fanza]

thanks for this useful and informative posting here. i like this very much.

[JasonHippy]

Hi Friends Is There Any Way To Open And ReEdit An .exe File... Suppose I Have a Portable .exe File Which Needs No Installation in My Windows. And I Want To Edit Some Icons or Some Text which is Given in The .exe File So What Should I Need To Do ???

I Have Drag And Dropped The .exe File on The Notepad But When Its Shows Me The Script its Impossible to Read The Signals or Commands..

Shortcutly "HOW TO EXTRACT AN .EXE FILE"

Thanks in Advance.

Ok, well for starters what you're seeing in Notepad isn't any kind of script, it's actually machine code but rendered in notepad as ascii text. But if you view the .exe with a Hex editor, then things will become a little clearer...As long as you can read machine code that is! ;)

If you only want to edit text and icons in the program, then you could use something like resource hacker:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Programming/File-Editors/Resource-Hacker.shtml

Resource hacker can partially decompile an exe and will display any resources it uses (strings and bitmaps). You can then edit the resources, recompile the executable and save it. (but don't forget to keep backups of your original .exe files!)

Resource hacker won't necessarily work 100% of the time for all .exe's and there are no guarantees that the exported .exe will work properly after editing the resources and recompiling, but I understand that it does work sometimes!

I have seen tutorials online where Windows users have successfully used resource hacker to edit explorer.exe in order to customise the text on their start button in Windows XP....Again I couldn't really recommend this type of action as there are no guarantees that the exported .exe will work properly, if at all! And what with explorer.exe being a Windows system file, there are no guarantees that messing with the file won't screw your OS either!

Another thing to bear in mind is that a lot of programs prohibit decompiling in their license agreements. So by decompiling the code, even if you are only decompiling the resources; you could very well be breaking the law!

Personally I'd say as long as you are planning on modifying the program for your own personal use and as long as the programs license agreement does not prohibit decompilation, then fine...Go ahead and try resource hacker, but do so at your own risk. Just don't start whining if it completely breaks your .exe.

And whatever you do, DO NOT try to distribute any of your modified .exe's or attempt to pass them off as your own work as that would be considered both plagarism and piracy! (Two things that are severely frowned upon here at Daniweb and elsewhere in polite, civilised, law-abiding society!)

Cheers for now,
Jas.