A Useful-Thing...selected by Dennis Cummins. Dennis and I are so excited about the following program that we felt we could not wait till the next weekend to tell you all about it. So here is a special issue of Useful-Things for you. Your regular weekend issue of U-T will resume next Sunday. Resource Hacker =============== I am sure that many of you are familiar with icon extractor programs that can look into an .exe file and extract all the icons in that file. But did you know that most .exe files contain much more? There are bitmaps, .gifs, .jpgs, .avis, .wavs, menus, dialogs, string tables, accelerators, Delphi forms, version info and more... Wouldn't it be cool if we could extract those various resources from our executables? Even cooler, could we change some of them? For example, if a splash screen presents itself to you when you first run a program, what would you think if you could substitute your own splash screen for the one inside the executable? What if the background music of a program sucked? Would you like to replace it with another one? Resource Hacker can allow you to do this and more! >From the website --- Resource Hacker is a freeware utility to view, modify, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables. It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler. [...] 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). 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. Resources can be added to an application by copying them from external resource files (*.res). ---quote end. In some cases you may be able to remove some bloat from the program that is never used, thus reducing run resources and making the program lighter to use. Dennis comments: "This one is fun. Before you start trying to modify any bitmaps, icons, wav file, etc be sure to make a backup of the file you are going to be working on. I used this to change the splash screens on a couple of apps here. It is very easy to do. I was surprised by that. <g> I will be trying later to change some wav files I do not like. I also used this to extract some bitmaps I liked. You can find other apps to extract icons, but not many to replace the icons you do not like. Say you do not like the systray icon of some app you use on a regular basis. Just replace it with one you do like. That easy. This app adds nothing to the registry or anywhere else in windows. It will add an ini file but it does that in it own folder. You just need to unzip it to wherever you like and create a shortcut to the exe. You can run more than one instance of this app so you could be working on more than one program at a time." Let me add that I too have tested this program and I am just as excited as Dennis. The possibilities are endless! :-) DISCLAIMER AND CAUTION: Dennis and I do feel a responsibility to caution you all on how and where you use this program. Many program licenses prohibit any reverse engineering or changes of a program as it is written. We suggest you use good judgement in how and where you use this program. For example, you might use extreme discretion in installing Resource Hacker on your employer's computers, but we feel you would be safe using the program "in the privacy of your own home." Also, let me repeat what Dennis suggested: MAKE A BACKUP OF ANY .EXE FILE BEFORE MAKING CHANGES TO IT." Okay, here are the particulars: Author: Angus Johnson URL of the author's Main Web site: http://www.rpi.net.au/~ajohnson/resourcehacker/ URL of the file to download (two choices 532 KB): Europe: http://delphi.icm.edu.pl/ftp/tools/ResHack.zip Australia: http://rpi.net.au/~ajohnson/resourcehacker/reshack.zip Requirements to install and run the program: This will run on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, and Win2000 operating systems. ~~~ Let me just take a moment to remind you all of our modest Useful-Things Web site. Usually I have the archives of the current U-T newsletter posted to the site within an hour of distribution of the newsletter. This means you can alternately download the presented program from ftp.ashlists.org instead of the author's chosen sites. Some of you might find that easier. You can either click the link in the Archives/Downloads page or set up your ftp client for anonymous ftp to: ftp.ashlists.org . Another use is if you find that you are missing an issue. Sometimes due to a bounce of your address, you might not get an issue on a Sunday. If you find that is the case, then the Archives/Downloads page has a copy of the U-T newsletter. http://www.ashlists.org/useful-things Enjoy! :-) Alan S. Harrell for himself and Dennis Cummins [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.ashlists.org/useful-things
