I was wondering if you technically minded folks could help me with something...

I am an artist using Windows XP and large icons. I finally got disgusted with how the emplode icon looked this way and I replaced it with a nice shiny 48x48x32 icon I made my self. When it wouldn't stick just by using "Change Icon..." I tried using Resource Hacker. It seems to work perfectly. The new icon appears everywhere the old icon did (as it should.)

My question is, "Is this a bad thing to do?"

It looks like modern programs are smart enough that you can change the size of a resource with out them blowing up. Can this become a problem? Will it corrupt my database or set my lawn on fire? If it's all kosher, I was thinking of XPing all the icons in emplode, upgrade, and clone...

As far as I know, updating the icons in a Windows EXE or DLL is a perfectly fine thing to do. This includes enlarging icons, adding extras, etc.

I use MicroAngelo for editing icon resources directly in EXE files, and I have never had a problem when I'm simply modifying or adding to the resource table. The editing software simply handles updating all of the necessary references in the file.

The only time I could see this being a problem is if the EXE did a self-checksum as part of a copy protection scheme. But I haven't seen a case of this before, this is only a theoretical idea.

In fact, I've gotten to the point where I'm so confident when editing icon resources that I don't even bother to make a backup copy of the DLL or EXE that I'm editing. I just save directly to it and get on with my life.

Related question, I'll throw it out to the BBS:

Back in the old 16-bit days, I used Borland's "Resource Workshop" from their IDE to edit resources directly in the EXE files. Not only could you edit icons, but you could also edit menus, bitmaps, and dialog boxes directly in the EXE. This allowed for nifty things, such as re-arranging the menu of a program to suit your tastes, or fixing the tab order of a poorly-written dialog box.

This program doesn't work on newer 32-bit EXEs. Is there an equivalent tool available for newer software now?

(Edit: /me goes looking for this "Resource Hacker" program mentioned in the original post)

ResourceHacker looks like exactly the thing I was looking for. Thanks.

Thanks for the speedy reply... and the answer I was hoping for.

Yes... Resource Hacker is a fun little tool. I haven't made many changes with it, but it seems very powerful. Considering the number of utilities lacking 32 bit icon support, I should be using it alot.

The software I'd really like to hack is Outlook for Office XP. Man... you'd think MS would update the icons in an XP branded suite to not look like they came from Win3.1...

I made a 48x48 icon for Emplode awhile ago because the original just looked too fuzzy and blocky for my tastes

If anybody wants it, I've attached it to this post.

- Trevor