Anyone know how?

by **Code** » Mon Sep 11, 2017 2:08 pm

Im recently experimenting with the Different Files, applications and folders ETC in my computer and one thing i really would like to know, is how to open Application Extensions... or I guess you can call them .dll's for short (Most of the time it is a .dll) With there being very smart and experienced Coders etc i figured asking here would be better, rather than to look it up on Google, or youtube... whatever But tell me if you know how!

by **Maestro** » Mon Sep 11, 2017 2:54 pm

The short answer is "you don't" unless you know how to write executable binary code by hand. The long answer is that you could potentially use a decompiler to get it back into the original programming language (i.e. C++), edit it in that language, and then compile it back into a dll... but I don't think that's up your alley quite yet.

by **Code** » Mon Sep 11, 2017 3:06 pm

Well you start somewhere! i was kind of expecting this kind of answer and Coding is nothing new just something i need to practice ALOT we are doing multiple courses in school because apparently now all they want is you to be a computing genius :p but thanks ill research into this

by **roncli** » Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:26 pm

DLLs can be decompiled using the right tools, but it's not fun, because not every tool can decompile every DLL. Typically you want to treat DLLs as unmodifiable code.

by **Sirius** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 10:11 pm

What do you want to do with the DLLs? While you can open them up in Visual Studio to get at some of the included resources (icons, mostly, maybe also string tables) I have a feeling that's not very useful to you.

Are you trying to learn how to write a DLL? In that case I'd recommend looking up sample projects on MSDN and studying those. They're small, they usually compile cleanly, and they show you how things work without having a lot of extra stuff that might just cause confusion.

Are you past that stage, but interested in studying how other people have written DLLs? In that case I'd suggest looking up open-source projects that have DLLs; that way you get access to readable code that you have a good chance of learning something from. The output of a decompiler may not be particularly comprehensible.