Development Windows
Resource Hacker
View, extract and edit resources in Windows executables with Resource Hacker, a freeware resource compiler and decompiler with visual dialog editing and command-line tools.
What is Resource Hacker?
Resource Hacker works with the resources embedded in Windows applications: icons, menus, dialogs and other resource data in files such as EXE, DLL and SCR. It can also open compiled resource libraries, including RES and MUI files, and compile RC resource scripts. It is a resource editor, not a tool for recovering an application's complete source code.
The graphical interface displays resources as images or decompiled text. Menu and dialog designers let you adjust those resource types visually, while command-line switches and scripts support repeated extraction, compilation and replacement tasks. This makes it useful when maintaining application resources or preparing localized dialogs and text.
Image editing has a separate workflow: export a binary image resource, modify it in an external image editor, then import it again. Resource Hacker does not unpack compressed executables, and resources with unknown binary formats appear as read-only binary text. The publisher distributes the program as freeware but requires prior written approval to redistribute the software; the download here links to the publisher's EXE installer rather than a hosted copy.
What it offers
- View and edit resources in 32-bit and 64-bit Windows applications, including EXE, DLL and SCR files.
- Compile RC scripts and work with RES and MUI resource libraries.
- Edit menu and dialog resources with visual designers.
- Extract, add, replace or delete resources through command-line switches and scripts.
Good to know
- Binary image resources need an external image editor; Resource Hacker can export and import them but cannot edit their pixels directly.
- Packed or compressed executables are not unpacked by Resource Hacker.
- Unknown binary resource formats are displayed as read-only binary text.
Product images
Sources
References used for this listing. Retrieval dates do not indicate hands-on testing.
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