Resource Hacker FX: the improved Resource Hacker

Note: The most recent version of Resource Hacker incorporates most of the changes that this patch offers. Therefore, Resource Hacker FX is considered obsolete, and the post is here mostly for historical reasons.

Remember the good ol’ Resource Hacker?
It’s a popular Resource viewer/editor, I use it to quickly view and edit resources. I tried to find an alternative, but I did not find any that I liked, so I decided to just improve Resource Hacker.

Here is a patcher that needs to be used on the original Resource Hacker v3.6.0.92:
zip Resource Hacker FXer.zip (117.97 kB, changelog)

Here is how it looks:

What does the patcher change:

  1. Partial Unicode support.
    More details.
  2. A new interface with modern icons and a manifest.
    Icons by Yusuke Kamiyamane.
  3. Resource Hacker FX does not create tree nodes for every language. Usually only one language is used anyway, so it makes it much faster to navigate through resources.
  4. Resource Hacker FX uses the new open and save common dialogs instead of the old outdated ones. Also, some saving as parameters got improved: the directory of the current file is initially shown, the file name gets filled, the extension is automatically added if not specified.
  5. If you have a modified file open and you close Resource Hacker FX, you have a Cancel option when asked whether you would like to save the file. Also, if you choose to save it, it just gets saved instead of saving as.
  6. The Hex viewer shows only the first 10 KB of the binary resource by default to prevent hanging Resource Hacker FX. I could not really fix it, as it’s the Rich Edit control’s fault, it’s quite slow with large texts. Well, it’s not too smart to use Rich Edit to view a Hex dump, but that’s how it works. 10 KB should be usually enough to understand what the resource is about. If it isn’t, you can hold shift to load the whole resource.
  7. Other minor additions, like e.g. double click to replace resource, minimizing/maximizing effects.
  8. Lots of bug fixes.
Posted in Releases, Software by Michael (Ramen Software) on March 13th, 2011.
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395 Responses to “Resource Hacker FX: the improved Resource Hacker”

  1. Hiren says:

    I can add the button but not sure for adding code on button click event.

    Can you please assist?

  2. kennedy says:

    You have future updates? This fix is very good!!!

    You. Can send for my e-mail the Angus Johnson E-mail?
    The new version of Resouce Hacker have a little bug: “some Delphi dfms not displayed in the version.”
    You can pass Angus Johnson E-mail? I am need send feedback.

  3. Дима says:

    Есть версия программы, где на добавленную кнопку можно привязать событие?

  4. Дима says:

    Is there a version of the program where you can tie an event to the added button?

  5. Stamimail says:

    Hi,
    A question regarding RTL system (Hebrew).
    From time to time I get an English app, aligned to the right (RTLed).
    Most of the cases, this can be fixed by changing the lang to English.
    But sometimes, you can’t, or there are few Dialog-Boxes with English text, that you have them RTLed.

    What is controling the RTL/LTR view of each Dialog-Box?
    Is this something I can edit by Resource Hacker?

    Thanks, Stamimail

    • Hi,
      It depends on the program. For example, in 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, the main and settings window’s RTL status is defined in the resources (WS_EX_LAYOUTRTL), since there’s a separate dialog resource for every language. On the other hand, the “Advanced Options” window’s RTL status is set with code in runtime, since there’s only one dialog for all languages. The strings are set with the correct language on runtime, too.

      • Stamimail says:

        I managed to change the layout by editing the WS_EX_LAYOUTRTL of the ex2 file. Cool.

        But I examined more programs, and not every program has Dialog entry in the Resource Hacker. But I know they do have Dialog-Boxes.
        Also, it seems most of the programs make use the same Dialog-boxes, windows made by Windows. Perhaps all these programs uses the same method\property to control the layout.

        Is there another tool to edit or view the “_LAYOUTRTL” of dialog-boxes?

  6. Stamimail says:

    “child windows”???
    I didn’t try to invert the whole program, only one Dialog-Box.
    When I tried to invert the tab, only the headaer was inverted, but not all controls in the tab.
    Unless, there is a way to invert all the controls at once that I am not aware of.

  7. Rouin says:

    Hello,
    Helpful article!
    I have one question: How can I use resource hacker to change an app background?

    • Hi,
      It depends on the method that the application uses to set the background. If that’s a dialog, you can try adding a static bitmap image. If that doesn’t work, then it might not be possible with Resource Hacker.

  8. Rinat says:

    if you add a resource from the template or an empty script, then there is one bug
    http://i.piccy.info/i9/d9c9bb8d0bcca233aac503680282fa70/1523796082/106311/1237391/Bezymiannyi.jpg
    in third versions, when the DIALOGEX box was removed, this part was not visible
    http://i.piccy.info/i9/355c21f1793c76b9da5a87b564e5b948/1523828522/90076/1237512/Snymok.jpg

  9. Augustin says:

    I have to change title in RCData it shows “Access Violation” any idea?

  10. Valokordin says:

    Hi! I need to mоdifу an executable that has Sаnsсrit text strings in its diаlоgs. I cаnnot add the Sаnsсrit suppоrt to our Windоws cоmputer (long story why…). Is there a way to modify DIALОGEХ so that a СОNTROL property will display Uniсоde correctly? I read about adding “L” before the string, but cannot figure out the соrrect sуntax. I tried something like this %u0904%u0905%u0906%u0907 instead of АNSI, but that did not work…

  11. Dave says:

    Anyone know how Resource Hacker plays back midi files? I am developing several applications that require playing back midi embedded in the executable.

  12. Axel says:

    Patcher is obsolete.

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