Edit version resources in exe

Watson, Keith R.

2015-10-30 11:13:03 UTC

I had similar problems. Through trial and error I figured out that the location in the resulting .exe file for storage of the icon and file details is limited.

The icon I was using was too large and was overwriting the details resulting in a corrupted .exe.

The solution was to use a smaller icon (16x16 32bit) and limit the length of the detail fields.

I use the Perl module Win32::Exe to modify the file icon and details instead of a third party utility.

I haven't done the research to figure out the size limitations. Now when I have a problem it is due to a detail field being too long so I shorten it till it works.

If anyone on the list knows the exact size limits for the icon and detail fields please share the information.

keith
--
Keith R. Watson Georgia Institute of Technology
Information Security Engineer Lead College of Computing
***@cc.gatech.edu 801 Atlantic Drive NW
(404) 385-7401 Atlanta, GA 30332-0280

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2015 18:55
Subject: Edit version resources in exe
I am trying to modify a pp-wrapped exe on Windows to use a custom icon
and custom version information. I'm aware that support for this has been
dropped from par/pp, so I have been using other tools. After carefully
constructing an icon in Gimp to include a 16 and 32-pixel image in 256
colors, as documented in the list archives and at SO, I have gotten the
icon replaced without issue.
The remaining issue is the version information. Changing the version
information in any form whatsoever results in the endless array of
garbage "bad signature" error messages coming up when the app
launches--a terrible user experience. Is there any way to change the
information to avoid these errors? I've been using Resource Hacker and
::C:\Users\kevin\Desktop\resourcehacker\ResourceHacker.exe -modify
"FileMorph.exe",
"FileMorph.exe", "filemorph.ico", ICONGROUP, WINEXE, 0
C:\Users\kevin\Desktop\resourcehacker\ResourceHacker.exe -delete
FileMorph.exe,
FileMorph.exe, versioninfo, 1, 1033
set VERSION="2.5.0.0 (%date%)"
set FILEDESCR=/s desc "File modification tool"
set COMPINFO=/s company "WordTech Communications LLC" /s (c) "(c) 2015"
set PRODINFO=/s product "FileMorph" /pv "2.5.0.0"
"verpatch.exe" /va /langid 1033 FileMorph.exe %VERSION% %FILEDESCR%
%COMPINFO% %PRODINFO%
This approach follows the same approach as the icon replacement,
ovewriting the version data at the same ID point in the exe. However, it
still triggers the bad signature spew.
So I'm a bit stuck as to how to proceed. Has anyone found a way to do
this without these errors? exe_update, some other process?
Thanks,
Kevin
--
Kevin Walzer
Code by Kevin/Mobile Code by Kevin
http://www.codebykevin.com
http://www.wtmobilesoftware.com