Updating Resources

The following example copies a dialog box resource from one executable file, HAND.EXE, to another, FOOT.EXE, by following these steps:

1. Use the LoadLibrary function to load the executable file HAND.EXE.
2. Use the FindResource and LoadResource functions to locate and load the dialog box resource.
3. Use the LockResource function to retrieve a pointer to the dialog box resource data.
4. Use the BeginUpdateResource function to open an update handle to FOOT.EXE.
5. Use the UpdateResource function to copy the dialog box resource from HAND.EXE to FOOT.EXE.
6. Use the EndUpdateResource function to complete the update.

The following code implements these steps.

HRSRC hResLoad;     // handle to loaded resource 
HANDLE hExe;        // handle to existing .EXE file 
HRSRC hRes;         // handle/ptr. to res. info. in hExe 
HANDLE hUpdateRes;  // update resource handle 
char *lpResLock;    // pointer to resource data 
BOOL result; 
 
// Load the .EXE file that contains the dialog box you want to copy. 
hExe = LoadLibrary("hand.exe"); 
 
if (hExe == NULL) 
{ 
    ErrorHandler("Could not load exe."); 
} 
 
// Locate the dialog box resource in the .EXE file. 
hRes = FindResource(hExe, "AboutBox", RT_DIALOG); 
 
if (hRes == NULL) 
{ 
    ErrorHandler("Could not locate dialog box."); 
} 
 
// Load the dialog box into global memory. 
hResLoad = LoadResource(hExe, hRes); 
 
if (hResLoad == NULL) 
{ 
    ErrorHandler("Could not load dialog box."); 
} 
 
// Lock the dialog box into global memory. 
lpResLock = LockResource(hRes); 
 
if (lpResLock == NULL) 
{ 
    ErrorHandler("Could not lock dialog box."); 
} 
 
// Open the file to which you want to add the dialog box resource. 
hUpdateRes = BeginUpdateResource("foot.exe", FALSE); 
 
if (hUpdateRes == NULL) 
{ 
    ErrorHandler("Could not open file for writing."); 
} 
 
// Add the dialog box resource to the update list. 
result = UpdateResource(hUpdateRes,       // update resource handle 
     RT_DIALOG,                   // change dialog box resource 
     "AboutBox",                  // dialog box name 
     MAKELANGID(LANG_NEUTRAL, SUBLANG_NEUTRAL),  // neutral language
     lpResLock,                   // ptr to resource info 
     SizeofResource(hExe, hRes)); // size of resource info. 
 
if (result == FALSE) 
{ 
    ErrorHandler("Could not add resource."); 
} 
 
// Write changes to FOOT.EXE and then close it. 
if (!EndUpdateResource(hUpdateRes, FALSE)) 
{ 
    ErrorHandler("Could not write changes to file."); 
} 
 
// Clean up. 
if (!FreeLibrary(hExe)) 
{ 
    ErrorHandler("Could not free executable."); 
}