Rising Star: Resource Hacker 3.4

Resource Hacker 3.4

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What is Resource Hacker^TM?

Resource Hacker^TM is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems.

Viewing Resources: Cursor, Icon, Bitmap, GIF, AVI, and JPG resource images can be viewed. WAV and MIDI audio resources can be played. Menus, Dialogs, MessageTables, StringTables, Accelerators, Delphi Forms, and VersionInfo resources can be viewed as decompiled resource scripts. Menus and Dialogs can also be viewed as they would appear in a running application.

Saving Resources: Resources can be saved as image files (*.ico, *.bmp etc), as script files (*.rc), as binary resource files (*.res), or as untyped binary files (*.bin).

Modifying Resources: Resources can be modified by replacing the resource with a resource located in another file (*.ico, *.bmp, *.res etc) or by using the internal resource script compiler (for menus, dialogs etc). Dialog controls can also be visually moved and/or resized by clicking and dragging the respective dialog controls prior to recompiling with the internal compiler.

Adding Resources: Resources can be added to an application by copying them from external resource files (*.res).

Deleting Resources: Most compilers add resources into applications which are never used by the application. Removing unused resources can reduce an application's size.

Last Updated:

24 March 2002
Version: 3.4.0

Author & Copyright:

Angus Johnson
© Copyright 1999-2004

Licence to Use - Terms and Conditions:

This Resource Hacker^TM software is released as freeware provided that you agree to the following terms and conditions:

This software is not to be distributed via any website domain or any other media without the prior written approval of the copyright owner.
This software is not to be used in any way to illegally modify software.

DISCLAIMER: A user of this Resource Hacker^TM software acknowledges that he or she is receiving this software on an "as is" basis and the user is not relying on the accuracy or functionality of the software for any purpose. The user further acknowledges that any use of this software will be at the user's own risk and the copyright owner accepts no responsibility whatsoever arising from the use or application of the software.

The above licence terms constitute "copyright management information" within the meaning of Section 1202 of Title 17 of the United States Code and must not be altered or removed from the licensed works. Their alteration or removal from the licensed works, and the distribution of licensed works without all the above licence terms in an unaltered way, may contravene Section 1202 and give rise civil and/or criminal consequences.

Resource Hacker is no longer being developed:

I have been overwhelmed by the interest in Resource Hacker^TM, the emails of thanks, encouragement and suggestions. It's been downloaded over 3 million times. However, I've moved on to other things and have no plans to continue its development. Please don't ask for the source code, I'm not releasing it, nor is it for sale. Colin Wilson has written an open source Resource Editor which may interest those looking for source code.

One off update - 19 December 2009 (version 3.5.2 beta):

I needed to access resources in a 64bit Windows executable so I've just updated Resource Hacker^TM to open (ie decompile/recompile) these files too. This new version also displays PNG image resources. However, please understand that I have no intention of reviving this project so please DON'T ask for other features. Also, because this version has only had limited testing I'm releasing it as a beta version. You can download this beta version here - reshack_setup.exe

Known Limitations:

Limitation:
Resource Hacker^TM is currently compiled with Delphi 3.02. When decompiling and recompiling Borland's Delphi forms in applications compiled with later version of Delphi, there may be errors in the recompiled forms if frames have been used to create the form. This error is due to the inline DFM keyword not being recognized. While decompiling, the inline keyword will be replaced by object and, if manually corrected before recompiling, inline will be rejected by the internal compiler.
Status:
I'm not rushing to make all the changes that are necessary to recompile Resource Hacker^TM with the latest version of Delphi.

Limitation:
To reduce the size of application files, some applications are "packed" or "compressed" using an EXE compressor once they have been compiled. This has a side-effect of making it more difficult to view and modify resources. When a "compressed" executable is viewed with Resource Hacker^TM, only resource types and names will be visible but not the actual resources.
Status:
This is not viewed as a bug. The application developer may well have viewed this as beneficial feature so no "fix" is planned.

Download Sites for Version 3.4.0