Must have: Resource Hacker, the resource editor

If you want to add or modify shortcuts and menus in your programs or favorite apps to make them more consistent or easier to use, there is a free tool to do it easily.

Resource Hacker^TM is a handy 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.

Key Features:

Viewing Resources:

• Images: Cursor, Icon, Bitmap, GIF, AVI, and JPG
• Audio: WAV and MIDI
• Decompiled script: Menus, Dialogs, MessageTables, StringTables, Accelerators, Delphi Forms, and VersionInfo.
• WYSIWYG: 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)
• Script files (*.rc)
• Binary resource files (*.res) or
• 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)
• 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.

This Resource HackerTM software is released as freeware by Angus Johnson, © Copyright 1999-2004.

Download Resource Hacker 3.4
Resource Hacker tutorial