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Visual Basic .exe's Question..

Jaz

Ex-Mod
K, if I've got a program written in VB, just the exe file, is there anyway I can open it up to get the source code (seeing as I've only backed up the exe by mistake :doh: )?

Please say there's a way..
 

bjz

New member
Jaz said:
K, if I've got a program written in VB, just the exe file, is there anyway I can open it up to get the source code (seeing as I've only backed up the exe by mistake :doh: )?

Please say there's a way..

I dont know it cuzz i am a C coder, but know there is a way. I have seen it done.
 

Quvack

Member
Just meaning its only possible with apps made with VB version 3 or less, look around for dissasemblers/decompilers for whatever version your using though, i know theres some which will extract parts of source for newer versions.
 

Niggy G

HTAFC will rise again!!!
Unfortunately when an .exe file is compiled it becomes stand alone. I have never used a decompiler but my understanding of them is that they attempt to decompile by re-writing the program meaning if you succeed you may end up with completely different source code than the original.

In theory it should be possible to decompile a program written in C to VB.

I wish you look….
 

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
Yeah, once its in exe form, its gone to machine language. So unless your extremely good at binary, well your just out of luck.

On the other hand if you are good at binary, then ...

11010110101000101110111010111011100000011011
01010100010010011110110100010010100100001110
01100100100111100010010010010010010000111100
00101001001010010010010010101010111110000011
11001000100100010000011111000101011111000101
01010101001110010101100101010001001011110001

... and thats how you get your code back.
 
OP
Jaz

Jaz

Ex-Mod
Oh man you're joking. :p

Bang bang, there goes one Uni assignment.

/me gets out text book and starts again from scratch.. :p
 

2fast4u

New member
Niggy G said:
Unfortunately when an .exe file is compiled it becomes stand alone.

afaik a compiled vb exe is still not entirely stand alone. large parts are interpreted thats why you always need the runtime files (--> version 6, dunno about .net).

i have seen decompilers for vb a while ago, even for v5 but it only restored the basic structure (forms, etc.) but no code. you might wanna give http://protools.cjb.net a try, they have a rather large section of decompilers.
 
OP
Jaz

Jaz

Ex-Mod
2fast4u said:
i have seen decompilers for vb a while ago, even for v5 but it only restored the basic structure (forms, etc.) but no code. you might wanna give http://protools.cjb.net a try, they have a rather large section of decompilers.

Cheers mate, it's a start. Even if I just get the forms back, that'll be cool. I'll have a looky later.

For the record, I'm running VB6.
 

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
2fast4u said:
(--> version 6, dunno about .net)

VS.net is not a programming suite like classic VS. The easiest way to explain .net is that it is a C++ or VB approach to designing website code. You write the website in either C# or VB.net and it interprets it into a website. However, it is not designed to actually compile a VB or C++ program. I think it may be possible to do so, but you dont get a very good turn out. afaik .net is not meant to replace VS 6, in fact I believe VS 7 is still in development.
 

Doomulation

?????????????????????????
Hmm well, they say vs7 = .net.
Also to that, vb .net is so much better and less buggier than vb6. Thing is, however, if you're compiling programs to use the .net library, you need runtime files. And vb can't be compiled without it, while c/c++ can.
 
OP
Jaz

Jaz

Ex-Mod
Didn't bother in the end, just re-wrote the bloody thing.

Anyway, it's all done now and handed in, so feel free to close this thread, or.. whever. ;)
 

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