Resource Hacker: how to use, instructions, characteristics of the program, installation and features of operation

Do you know that it is relatively easy to change Windows XP on your own, say, to Windows 7? Of course, what I mean here is not the "filling", but the external design: dialog boxes, fonts, buttons. To change the operating system interface to your taste, it is enough to know how to use the Resource Hacker. This program allows you to open, change the resources of the Windows system files even to the average PC user. Advanced users are given additional opportunities to add their own resources to the menu, use scripts and so on.

What is it?

Resource Hacker is a free application for editing system files of the Windows operating system. In particular, it is used in relation to 32-bit documents. These are the formats DLL, EXE, CP and so on.

After learning how to use Resource Hacker, you can:

• add;
• browse;
• to modify;
• rename;
• delete resources in these files.

The essence of the program is in its name. From English literally translates as "Resource Hacker". The application provides access to change icons, buttons, styles, design dialog boxes "Windows", which is impossible to do within the framework of reconfiguration of system parameters. You can completely change the OS interface for yourself using such an application.

Download and install the program

Before using Resource Hacker, the program must be downloaded. It is simple to do: boot files are freely available on the Internet. You can download them from any resource you trust.

Note that this application does not need to install, activate or register! Open the archive you downloaded. Move all the files in it to a separate folder. Best of all is C: \ Program Files \ Resource Hacker.

After that, launch the application. That’s all, it’s ready to go!

Opening files in the application

So, let's figure out how to use the Resource Hacker. To edit a directory, you need to open it in this application. At the start, you will see the following items:

• AVI The open directory contains the extension files AVI.76.
• Cursor. The directory contains files with various variations of the appearance of the cursor.
• Bitmap. The catalog contains point images.
• Icon. The catalog contains icons, badges.
• Menu. It implies that the file has various types of menu design.
• Dialog boxes. The catalog contains several variations in the design of dialog boxes.
• Rows of the table. Accordingly, in the string version directory.
• Accelerators The catalog contains data on the applied key combination.
• Version Information What does it mean? The directory contains version information about the file.

View resources in the program

In the version of Resource Hacker RUS, as in the English-language version of the program, the option to view the resources contained in a particular Windows directory is available. In the program, you can easily demonstrate any of them. To do this, just expand the directory structure, click on the name of the resource that interests you.

In general, each of them will consist of three components:

• Type of resource. It will be indicated which of the above types refers to: cursor, accelerators, bitmaps, dialog boxes, and so on.
• The name of the resource. What name does this resource have in the Windows system.
• Resource language. Here, respectively, the language used in the file is indicated. The encoding is applied. For example, for English - 1033, for Russian - 1049.

But how to change the color of a button using Resource Hacker? We will talk about options for the most interesting application of the program further.

Change icon, icon, cursor or bitmap

We begin to introduce the Resource Hacker user guide. The algorithm for changing the resource here is simple:

1. Select the resource you want to change in the directory. For example, this is a bitmap in the interface. An approximate path is: Bitmap-> 131-> 1033 ...
2. Next, we go (in the Russian-language variation of the program) to "Actions", select the item "Replacing the cursor / bitmap / icon". In the English version, this path is intuitive: Action -> Replace Icon / Cursor / Bitmap ....
3. A new window will appear in front of you. Select in it "Open file ..." with the desired resource. It may be another bitmap, cursor variation, etc. Therefore, it is important to pre-download the new version of the image on your computer.
4. In the next dialog box, select the desired replacement resource.
5. Click on the "Open" button.
6. The next action is Change.

That's all the action. So you can easily configure Windows on a PC, focusing solely on your tastes. But this is only the beginning - move on!

Editing an AVI File

For files of this type, the instructions for Resource Hacker will be slightly different. However, the algorithm of actions here is not particularly complicated. See for yourself:

1. Select the resource you want to change.
2. In the menu, click on "Actions". It is important to dwell on the “Change another resource” item (in the English version - Replace Other Resource).
3. In the window that opens, stop at "Open file with a new resource." It must also be preloaded by you into the computer's memory.
4. Select the desired file from the list and click on "Open."

By the way, in this type of work it is important to pay attention to the interpretation of the categories that we have discussed above. Here is what they will mean in this context:

• Type of resource. For example, you chose the AVI file. Therefore, you can change it to any other, but only presented in AVI format.
• The name of the resource. It allows you to specifically determine which file to replace with a new one, which helps to avoid confusion.

You can finish the conversion by simply clicking on the "Change" button.

Change menus, dialogs, lines

Resource Hacker (the functions of the program are identical in Russian and English) also allows you to customize the Windows dialog boxes to your taste. The difficulty here is to find templates on the network to replace the standard ones.

The steps for replacing the interface here are slightly different from the previous ones:

1. Select the resource you want to change. For example: String Table -> 4 -> 1049.
2. Make the necessary changes.
3. After that, click on Compile Script.
4. Next, the script will be complemented. Which is good, if you make a mistake in the migration, a corresponding notification will appear. Changes will only take effect after the problem has been fixed. Therefore, errors will not affect the performance of the operating system.

Adding Your Own Resources

As we have already said, Resource Hacker can be conditionally classified into two levels: for ordinary users, beginners, and for professionals. The easiest options we have made out. Now we turn to more complicated cases.

You can not only find ready-made templates on the network to replace them with the standard Windows interface (for example, use the Windows 2000 icons in the most modern top ten), but also create resources yourself in a graphical editor. That is, draw, mount an icon, cursor, button. Really great? In creativity, it is important to remember one thing: the file format must be of the same type as the format of the resource being modified.

So, you have drawn or constructed your own bitmap, icon, cursor or AVI file. Save the resource, call it a recognizable name. Next, open the Resource Hacker:

1. Go to "Actions."
2. Dwell on the item "Add a new resource."
3. Now stop at the "Open file with a new resource" section.
4. Select your creation from the list.
5. Now designate the name, type and language of the new resource. Remember that these parameters must be different from the existing ones.
6. It remains to click on the "Add Resource" button.

Adding New Menu Items

Finally, the most difficult task. The program allows the user to independently add their own context menu items to the Windows interface. How to do this in practice, we will show later.

So, our task is to add some item to the menu. An example would be like this:

MENUITEM "ur_desired_string", 12345, MFT_STRING, MFS_GRAYED | MFS_DEFAULT

Let's see what's what:

• "ur_desired_string" - the text that will be displayed in the context menu.
• 12345 is a numeric identifier. It should be different from existing ones.
• MFT_STRING - Description of the text to be submitted.
• MFS_GRAYED - disable MENUITEM. For nasty action (activation) change to MFS_ENABLED.
• MFS_DEFAULT - makes the record bold. The parameter can be left unchanged.

To make it easy for you to add a new item, edit only the sections "ur_desired_string" and 12345. For all other parameters, leave the automatic values.

We presented the reader with the simplest, but at the same time interesting changes to the Windows OS interface that can be done with the Resource Hacker. The program also allows you to add newly created resources to existing dialog boxes, use scripts in two forms - single and multiple commands. Despite the fact that this is a “Resource Hacker,” the application (if downloaded from a reliable source) is safe for your computer and does not make fatal changes to the system. Its main purpose is to change the standard to its own resources for the design of the OS interface.