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AndrewRich
Level 5

IS 2008 Skins _IsRes.dll

In IS Premier 11.5, "C:\Program Files\Macrovision\IS 11.5 StandaloneBuild\Redist\0409\i386\Skins\_IsRes.dll" (and its full-install equivalent) is 376KB and the embedded string/dialog/icon resources can be viewed and edited with standard resource tools.

In IS Premier 2008, "C:\Program Files\Macrovision\IS 2008 StandaloneBuild\Redist\0409\i386\Skins\_IsRes.dll" (and its full-install equivalent) is 101KB and its embedded resources cannot be accessed. Visual Studio just complains that the resources are corrupted, but ResourceHacker tells me the file has been compressed with an EXE compressor. A bit of research leads me to believe the compressor in use is PECompact2.

This is a problem for us, because our automated build script exports, modifies and imports dialog resources from that DLL before calling ISSABuild to build the single-exe installer. The modifications are necessary to meet marketing requirements in phrasing and control placement that cannot (as far as I know) be achieved through the InstallShield UI. Unfortunately, now that the DLL is compressed, I can't access the resources.

Questions:

  • Is there a better way to modify strings and dialogs in _IsRes.dll than editing the embedded resources?
  • If not, does InstallShield 2008 include a method of editing the embedded resources?
  • If not, how can I either acquire an uncompressed version of _IsRes.dll or decompress the included version?


Thanks in advance.
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joshstechnij
Level 10 Flexeran
Level 10 Flexeran

The resource files (and all InstallScript engine files) were compressed with PECompact to attempt to reduce overhead from the script engine. An unintended side-effect of this is the resource DLLs could not be edited in any resource editor outside of InstallShield.

With InstallShield 2009, these files are no longer compressed since we added compression to our streaming code that was able to compensate for the uncompressed file size overhead.

I've attached a zipped copy of the uncompressed files for IS 2008. You can make a backup copy of the existing files and replace them with the ones from the attached zip.
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AndrewRich
Level 5

joshstechnij wrote:
I've attached a zipped copy of the uncompressed files for IS 2008. You can make a backup copy of the existing files and replace them with the ones from the attached zip.


Now that's what I call customer service! Much appreciated.

I'm trying to get approval to buy IS 2009 -- 2008 was a free upgrade under our maintenance plan, but 2009 would be a paid upgrade. Meanwhile, those files will get me back up and running under 2008. Thanks!
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