Hi Guys!
Resource Hacker is a very interesting tool to change Windows look-and-feel and its my favorite one. You can edit system files to give your system a new look and to change the functionality.
I have divided this article into 2 parts:
PART1 : BASIC INFORMATION
PART2 : ADVANCED INFORMATION
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Basic part contains Basic details, like viewing/replacing resources, etc.
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Advanced part covers some advance information which is described for geeks. Like Adding your own resources, using scripts with resource hacker, etc.
BASIC INFORMATION
What is Resource Hacker:
Resource Hacker is a Free s/w to edit 32-bit windows files (DLL, EXE, CPL, and many other). U can add/delete/view/rename/modify existing resources in a file using this gr8 piece of s/w.
Download Link:
You can download Resource Hacker from here.
You don’t need to install it, simply extract the files and run the s/w. It also doesn’t make any entry in Registry!
Using Resource Hacker:
When you open a file in Resource Hacker, it shows various directories in left-side pane, like:
AVI
Cursor
Bitmap
Icon
Menu
Dialog
String Table
Accelerators
Version Info
These directories vary from file to file!
Following is a small description of these directories:
AVI : This directory contains AVI files.
Cursor : This directory contains Cursor files.
Bitmap : This directory contains Bitmaps.
Icon : This directory contains Icons.
Menu : This directory contains various Menus.
Dialog : This directory contains various Dialog boxes.
String Table : This directory contains various Strings.
Accelerators : This directory contains Shortcut keys.
Version Info : This directory contains version information of the file.
Viewing Resources:
You can view any resource embedded in the file. Simply expand the directory and click on the name of the resource.
Actually each resource contains 3 parts:
Resource Type
Resource Name
Resource Language
Resource Type : Its indicate that the resource is an AVI/Bitmap/Menu/Cursor/Icon/String/etc.
Resource Name : It describes the name of a resource, no 2 resource can have the same name.
Resource Language : Its the language used in the file. For ENGLISH its 1033.
Changing the Resources:
=> For Icon/Cursor/Bitmap:
1.) Select the resource ( Ex: Bitmap -> 131 -> 1033 ).
2.) Click on Action -> Replace Icon/Cursor/Bitmap….
3.) It’ll open a new window, click on Open file with new Icon/Cursor/Bitmap button.
4.) Select the desired resource in the OPEN dialog box and click on Open button and then Replace
=> For other resources like AVI:
Its a little bit different.
1.) Click on Action -> Replace Other Resource….
2.) It’ll open a new window, click on Open file with new resource button.
3.) Select the file and click on Open button.
4.) Now you have to give the required information for this resource, which I mentioned earlier.
Resource Type
Resource Name
Resource Language
In type give the type of resource, Ex:if u r replacing AVI file then give the type as AVI.
In name give the exact name of the existing resource which u want to replace with this new one.
In language give 1033 for English.
5.) And finally click on Replace button.
=> For Menus/Strings/Dialogs:
To change String/Menu/Dialog boxes, Select the desired resource, Ex: String Table -> 4 -> 1033, and make your changes and then click on Compile Script button. It’ll compile the script and will give ERROR if something goes wrong so that u can correct the problem!