Is there a way to dissect the content of a .EXE pre-installation, for the sake of viewing it's code?

dissecting* a .EXE

There are disassemblers/decompilers around BUT depending on what the program was built in you probably won't get what you expect.

For instance:
A Visual Basic coded exe file is NOT a monolithic stand alone program. The exe files are in what is known as "p-code", and mainly consist of external calls to the VB runtime library.
.NET compiled executable are the same (if not moreso). The .exe file is more of an extension of the framework than a separate entity. Though I must admit I have never attempted to decompile a third party .net exe, but I would guess it's not something you could work out howit does what it does exactly.

Even if the executable is a fully fledged, standalone, fully compiled machine code package created in C, C++, Pascal, Delphi etc. Unless you have the symbol files from the compile process all you will get is lines and lines of x86 machine code and the assembler mnemonics to go with that code.
Also included in that code will be calls to external functions, calls to windows API functions etc etc.

Now unless you are a super geek and have intimate working knowledge of the Windows OS at machine code level the chances of working out exactly what something does is pretty slim.

What you can get however, which is where I suspect your interest may lie , is you can find the internal values and strings and the code that examines these strings and internal values to look for serial codes, registration info etc. Which can then be changed using a hex editor if you know what you are doing

lol, that last paragraph basically sums it up exactly

Info on hex editors? never heard of 'em.

oOoOoOo: http://www.softcircuits.com/cygnus/

"Now unless you are a super geek and have intimate working knowledge of the Windows OS at machine code level the chances of working out exactly what something does is pretty slim."

i'm also a ways interested in this aspect too. Where do you suggest would be the best place to start? (i'm barely learning PHP!, lol)

i'm also a ways interested in this aspect too. Where do you suggest would be the best place to start? (i'm barely learning PHP!, lol)

Depends how serious you want to be, or rather how much do you want to spend

Learning C/C++ is pretty much essential, having a thorough working knowledge of x86 assembler is invaluable, and a MSDN subscription for access to the dark recesses of Windows is very useful but not 100% essential ($10k for the top level down to $1200 for the lowest) the level a new developer should be at is $2500
And then lots and lots of time experimenting and reading to get to grips with it all. Not forgetting several hundred thousand reboots because whatever you just did locked up the machine!

You mean to disassemble a program ? Look at the EULA (end user license agreement) of the concerned product whether or not this is allowed.

Spoken generally (as chrishirst did already), it is possible but surely not a task for an average computer user (not meant offending, but since you can't deal with the term "hex editor" it shows to me that you aren't a professional programmer, are you ?)

And even for an experienced programmer this is a challenge, because all descriptive elements like comments are missing (they are simply not compiled into the .exe - therefore they cannot be recovered). Also the produced source code may differ significantly from what the original programmer wrote.

I guess you would have more success by writing the software developer and asking for the source code directly ;-)

Originally Posted by chrishirst

.NET compiled executable are the same (if not moreso). The .exe file is more of an extension of the framework than a separate entity. Though I must admit I have never attempted to decompile a third party .net exe, but I would guess it's not something you could work out howit does what it does exactly.

Actually, I need to humbly suggest a visit to the 21st Century (a refresher course in .NET). In fact, there's a 1:1 mapping between MSIL (the "byte code" .NET source is compiled to, for the JIT compiler) and source code.

Using a freeware like the Lutz Roeder .NET Reflector, you can decompile the full source code of an EXE or DLL file. With variable names, if it was compiled in debug mode. Even dotfuscation won't make this impossible.

From here, it's very easy to read and comprehend the code. Perhaps not ethical, but very easy.

"...you aren't a professional programmer, are you ?"- tobias

Nope, but i'm willing to learn at a comfortable pace

"Using a freeware like the Lutz Roeder .NET Reflector, you can decompile the full source code of an EXE or DLL file. With variable names, if it was compiled in debug mode. Even dotfuscation won't make this impossible."- Learning Newbie

your username is misleading, lol

This sounds very nice, I will have to look in to this.

Lol, thanks. I know a fair amount about databases and .NET code. And politics! In other subjects I'm way behind, but even the stuff I'm good at, there's still plenty to learn.

Here's more info on Reflector.

MSDN's 10 Top Dev Downloads
Using Reflector To Build Custom Add Ins
Wikipedia Article
Add Ins for Reflector
The Lutz Blog - With Download

oh wow... This looks like hours, days, and YEARS of fun