Version Resources

[Mark Newman]

I'm trying to use the standard GetFileVersionInfoSize(),
GetFileVersionInfo() and VerQueryValue() functions
to read the resources out of EXE files, but I'm getting
inconsistent results. For some files I can read the text
info but not the version and vice-versa for other files.
Yet when I look at the Properties dialog for the given
files (from Win Explorer) all the information is present.
Are the functions above outdated?

Thanks!


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Mark Newman

[Semen Matusovski]

Mark --
If you have VB, try http://www.mvps.org/vb/code/FileInfo.zip
If this program (written enough long ago) is able to display necessary
information, something wrong in your program.



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[Mark Newman]

Semen,

Thanks for the link, I'll look at it. The odd thing here
is that I can look at PBRES.EXE with my program and it
will report the "CompanyName" and "LegalCopyright" fields
correctly, but report 0.0.0 for the version; the Explorer
File Properties dialog shows "1.5.0000" for the version.

However, if I look at EXCEL.EXE (Excel 2000) it reports
that the text fields aren't available, but it correctly
reports the version as "9.0.2719". Again, the Explorer
File Properties dialog shows "Microsoft Corporation" for
the "CompanyName" field.

One possible answer is that the resources aren't being
stored in the standard format but are instead custom
resources that the Win Explorer File Properties dialog
can decipher.


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Mark Newman

[Lance Edmonds]

It is possible for a Version Info table to contain numeric and/or text-orientated version values - you code will probably need to handle either possibility.

Have you searched the BBS for "VerQueryVal"? I recall that there was some code posted in the past that handled this exact issue.


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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Mark Newman]

Before posting I had searched for the GetFileVersionInfo() and found
some stuff. I just searched again for VerQueryVal() and found some more.

I also tried Karl Peterson's VB FileInfo app that Semen suggested, but it
doesn't report anything about the PBRES.EXE resources, either text or
version data, yet it works okay for other apps, same as what I'm doing.

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Mark Newman

[This message has been edited by Mark Newman (edited June 30, 2000).]

[Tom Hanlin]

In most versions of Windows, the "properties" information shown will be the string version information. In Windows 2000, Microsoft changed this to use the numeric version information. So, the results you will see will depend on the version of Windows you're using, and whether both string and numeric version information is available for a file.

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Tom Hanlin
PowerBASIC Staff

[Mark Newman]

It does seem that there's a wide variation in resource version implementation,
both in setting up the resource in the EXE and in reading it.

Did the Win2K SDK add an additional 23 resource fields, only accessible
by an incredibly bizarre and complicated sequence of 12 API calls?
Sometimes the plumbing gets a bit over-thought...

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Mark Newman