Redux: Which Windows Resource Editor do you use?
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/08/21
A long time I wrote about Which Windows Resource Editor do you use? containing a poll to choose between XN Resource Editor, IcoFX, ResEdit and Resource Hacker.
In the meantime and betweentime more than 10 years have passed and there seems to be little maintenance in (especially the non-commercial part of) Windows Resource Editor land.
From the poll back then, I also learned about a (for me) new [Wayback/Archive] Resource Editor | MelanderBlog which is still maintained every now and then. The download is at [Wayback/Archive] Downloads | MelanderBlog (at the time of writing [Wayback] ResourceEditor20190421b.zip).
More on that and download/install locations of various resource editors below a new poll.
This new poll adds Resource Editor and allows you to make multiple choices (in case you use more than one tool):
Chocolatey installs
These are the chocolatey installs I could find (some duplicate; versions at the time of writing):
IcoFx[Wayback/Archive] Chocolatey Software | Icofx 3.8.1icofx2[Wayback/Archive] Chocolatey Software | IcoFX 2 2.7 (I think this is still the free version)resedit[Wayback/Archive] Chocolatey Software | ResEdit (Portable) 1.6.6reshack[Wayback/Archive] Chocolatey Software | Resource Hacker 5.1.8 (for a while it did not check for SHA256 at all, see [Wayback/Archive] reshack seems not to check the SHA256 of the version 5.1.8 download · Issue #2100 · chocolatey-community/chocolatey-packages)reshack.portable[Wayback/Archive] Chocolatey Software | Resource Hacker (Portable) 5.1.8 (for a while had the wrong SHA256, which got quicly fixed and also taught me about the Chocolateyautoupdatemechanism throughupdate.ps1in the root of the package, see [Wayback/Archive] reshack.portable fails to install because it has the SHA256 code of the old version 5.1.8 · Issue #16 · SebastianK90/chocolateyautomaticpackages and these two commits:- [Wayback/Archive] Update update.ps1 · SebastianK90/chocolateyautomaticpackages@73ede3d
- [Wayback/Archive] AU: 1 updated – reshack.portable · SebastianK90/chocolateyautomaticpackages@c6ea313
)
resourcehacker.portable[Wayback/Archive] Chocolatey Software | ResourceHacker (Portable) 5.1.8
There is no chocolatey package for Resource Editor or XN Resource Editor:
- [Wayback/Archive] Chocolatey Software | Packages matching Resource Editor
- [Wayback/Archive] Chocolatey Software | Packages matching XN Resource Editor.
Downloads
- [Wayback/Archive] icofx – Download has both version 3 and version 2 as download, both as installer and portable version:
- [Wayback/Archive] ResEdit Resource Editor – free resource editor for Win32 vanished after 20210519 but you can still download these 2015 files:
- [Wayback/Archive] Resource Editor | MelanderBlog which is still maintained every now and then and about the only free editor that supports the Vista high-resolution/high-colour icons and bitmaps downloadable from [Wayback/Archive] Downloads | MelanderBlog (at the time of writing [Wayback] ResourceEditor20190421b.zip).
- [Wayback/Archive] Resource Hacker mentioned 5.1.7 until winter 2022/2023 but the action downloads were from 5.1.8.360, so I asked [Wayback/Archive] Why did Resource Hacker 5.1.8 got reverted to 5.1.7? · Issue #14 · AngusJohnson/Image32
- [Wayback/Archive] XN Resource Editor vanished after 20150910 and did not have a complete set of Delphi sources to rebuild it, but luckily TWM – Thomas Müller (often Mueller) also known as dummzeuch – chimed in, resurrected the 3.0.1. version from 2005 at [Wayback/Archive] XN_Resource_Editor download | SourceForge.net (where you can download the source, installer and portable version) and described the resurrection process at [Wayback/Archive] Colin Wilson’s XN Resource Editor – twm’s blog.Source code (which compiles in Delphi 2006 and 2007) is now at [Wayback/Archive] XN_Resource_Editor / Code / [r39] including all dependencies.
Earlier attempts at resurrecting were at:
Oh BTW, before I forget: Resource Hacker has a command-line interface which I described in Resource decompiler – converting/decompiling/extracting .RES files into .RC files and separate resources.
Queries
- [Wayback/Archive] view polldaddy poll by id – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] Colin Wilson delphi – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] XN Resource Editor chocolatey – Google Search
–jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
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