decompile exe
in [Visual Basic]
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From: Big D on 17 Sep 2005 14:21 Is there anyway to decompile a exe? We deployed a new exe in production and one of the guys who did the work left the company and he left the code(project) checked out from sourcesafe and the destop team wipe the drive. I have the latest exe but the code is with changes is gone.
From: Ralph on 17 Sep 2005 17:12 "Big D" <BigDaddy(a)newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message news:%23oweQS7uFHA.3780(a)TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl... > Is there anyway to decompile a exe? > > We deployed a new exe in production and one of the guys who did the work > left the company and he left the code(project) checked out from sourcesafe > and the destop team wipe the drive. I have the latest exe but the code is > with changes is gone. > It is very very difficult to decompile an exe back to VB source code. However, you may be able to retrieve some information. If it was compiled to pcode, it is a little easier [a very very relative term] than if compiled to native code. It also depends on what kind of changes were made - new classes, form design, new navigation or validation, queries, ???? and what it is you feel is so valuable to 'know'. Many times you don't necessary 'decompile' the code, you just 'decode' it enough to figure out how it works so you can write VB code to mimic the process and add that to the existing source. Now, with that said, I highly doubt you will want to go there. It is expensive and time consuming. In my experience no case has ever turned out to be cheaper or easier than just re-writing it from scratch. -ralph
From: Chris Dunaway on 19 Sep 2005 16:40 Big D wrote: > left the company and he left the code(project) checked out from sourcesafe > and the destop team wipe the drive. I have the latest exe but the code is I think it's time to enact a new checkin/checkout policy!! Code should, at least be checked in each day, and depending of the nature of the changes, more often than that!
From: Carlene on 21 Sep 2005 20:57 | It is very very difficult to decompile an exe back to VB source code. | However, you may be able to retrieve some information. If it was compiled to | pcode, it is a little easier [a very very relative term] than if compiled to | native code. It also depends on what kind of changes were made - new How do I know if it's pcode or native ?
From: Ralph on 21 Sep 2005 21:30
<Carlene> wrote in message news:u9IEvCxvFHA.1560(a)TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl... > | It is very very difficult to decompile an exe back to VB source code. > | However, you may be able to retrieve some information. If it was compiled > to > | pcode, it is a little easier [a very very relative term] than if compiled > to > | native code. It also depends on what kind of changes were made - new > > How do I know if it's pcode or native ? > That's a darn good question. I am sure there must be some hex code/flag at the start, but what I do is run "dumpbin /imports myprog.exe" and kind of just scan the output. If it is pcode you will see "MethCallEngine" listed along with the EVENT_SINK_xxxxxx 's, but not many bizzare sounding methods proceeding with underscores. Native code will have a ton of the latter, but no "MethCallEngine". It seems to be accurate most of the time. -ralph __ |