SAMPLE: ExeView.exe Extracts and Displays Application Resources

ID: Q81336

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows version 3.1

SUMMARY

There are situations in which an application extracts information from another application's executable image file without loading the other application. The Microsoft Windows Program Manager does this when it extracts an icon from an .exe file to represent the application.

.exe (and DLL) files contain many resources and tables that may be useful in various circumstances. ExeView.exe is a sample application that demonstrates how to extract and decode these resources from application and library executable image files.

MORE INFORMATION

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Software Library:

 ~ ExeView.exe (size: 48733 bytes)

For more information about downloading files from the Microsoft Software Library, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q119591
   TITLE : How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services

NOTE: Because EXEVIEW uses code from the common dialog boxes dynamic-link library (COMMDLG.DLL), version 3.1 of the Microsoft Windows SDK is required to build the sample. However, EXEVIEW will run under either Windows version 3.0 or 3.1 provided that the COMMDLG.DLL file is installed.

EXEVIEW uses the information in both the Old Executable Header and the New Executable Header, each of which are documented in "The MS-DOS Encyclopedia" (Microsoft Press). EXEVIEW loads both headers and all the tables to which they refer. These tables include: the entry table, the segment table, the resource table, the resident and nonresident name tables, and the imported name table. EXEVIEW loads the resources listed in the resource table and displays them. Windows resources (icons, cursors, bitmaps, menus, and so forth) are displayed graphically. String tables and resource directories (of icons, cursors, fonts, and so forth) are listed in text format.

For more information on the file formats and resource formats, see the Windows SDK "Programmer's Reference, Volume 4: Resources," "The MS-DOS Encyclopedia," the September, 1991, issue of the "Microsoft Systems Journal," or the Microsoft Open Tools documentation.

Additional query words: Keywords : kbfile kbsample kb16bitonly kbResource kbGrpUser kbWinOS310

Last Reviewed: December 24, 1998