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What tool can I use to extract resources from a VB6 application?

One of my clients has an application written for them using VB6. They no longer have the source resources that were provided to the developer. The developer disappeared from the face of the earth. My task is to extract resources from the executable file and rebuild the application by adding new material to it.

I tried to use Resource Hacker, but it only finds the icon. Exe is more than 26 MB, I don’t see that the only resource built into it is the icon.

Edit: I am not extracting the source code from this. Decompilation is not the goal. I just want embedded media resources so that I can use them in an application that I rewrite from scratch. Do not confuse the word “resources” with “source code”.

Is there a way to extract only resources?

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vb6 embedded-resource reverse-engineering
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5 answers

Vanilla VB6 exe has the resources "Icon", "Icon Group" and "Version Info", which should be visible in the resource hacker, as well as any resources added through the resource tool VB6 or VS RC.EXE.

Its fat exe, maybe the author packed it? There are utilities that will try to determine which package (if any) was used.

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I think you wanted to return the source code from an exe file (compiled using VB6). It is almost impossible if the program is compiled in native code , but it is easier if the program is compiled in P-Code . You can try VB Decompiler and find a reverse engineer to manually convert some code of the read code into VB6 code. But I suggest you just find the program source code from the programmer, it's cheaper than decompilation.

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Try vbreformer. It will recover parts of the source code along with events connected to buttons and so on, and from its own code. I know that you do not want this, but it is part of a more complete application. It will also restore vb6 menu resources. It is limited, but it is more than what you get with a regular resource editor. There is also a trial version.

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http://strategoxt.org/Transform/VisualBasicDecompilers

Take a look at the tools from the link above and see if any of them can extract enough for you.

Hth

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