Resource Hacker (RH) : View, Modify, Add, Rename and Delete Resources in Windows Executables and Resource Files

Resource Hacker (also known as ResHacker or ResHack) is a free resource extraction utility for Windows. It is used to view, modify, rename, add and delete program or operating system elements such as icons by extracting resources from executable program (.exe), program extension (.dll), and resource (.res) files.

Resource Hacker incorporates an internal resource compiler and decompiler. Works on Win9x, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP, Vista & Win7.

[ Main Functions ]

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.

[ Known Limitations ]

1. Resource Hackerâ„¢ will not read 16bit executables.
2. Resource Hackerâ„¢ 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 DFM keyword ‘inline’ 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 Resource Hackerâ„¢ compiler.
3. To reduce the size of application files, some applications are “packed” or “compressed” using an EXE compressor after 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 Hackerâ„¢, only resource types and names will be visible but not the actual resources.

[ Related Links ]

• All About Resource Hacker in a Brief Tutorial
• Various useful Resource Hacker tutorials and tips-n-tricks
• Resource Hacker video tutorials from YouTube
• Use Resource Hacker to Customize Application Icons

[ Official Download ]