I've noticed that your pngout.[exe,dll] cause problems with a module dependency tool that I use. Actually, 'problems' is an understatement - the tool is a shell extension and the files cause Windows [9x] to hang. Probably the tool is at fault for failing to handle a valid PE file, but I can see (eg using PE Browse Pro, from www.smidgeonsoft.com) that the structure of pngout.dll seems unusual.
Do you use the VC6 linker with some interesting options, or some other linker? Or perhaps an exe packer?
Thx in advance for any information.
/df
--
Dirk Fieldhouse
London UK
Awesoken at
I'm a little suspicious of your intentions after finding this on Google:
http://www.codecomments.com/archive374-2006-1-759494.html Are you trying to incorporate PNGOUT into your product? If so, it might be in your interest to ask me for permission first.
Anonymous at
Awesoken said
I'm a little suspicious of your intentions after finding this on Google:
http://www.codecomments.com/archive374-2006-1-759494.html Are you trying to incorporate PNGOUT into your product? If so, it might be in your interest to ask me for permission first.
Hi Ken, nice Googling! I hope that solution to my own problem is useful to someone.
But that was my day job, which conveniently led me to the rather useful PE Browse Pro. Unfortunately my company's project has no use for PNGOUT.
Still I would quite like to be able to install the IrfanView plugin set on my personal system without it freezing. Maybe it's just because pngout.dll's sections have blank names that the tool in question gets confused (I guess) when it tries to read the import table. Depends.exe doesn't have any trouble. In the end I suppose I could rewrite the tool myself or just uninstall it, but I'd like to understand how the pngout builds are different from the other several thousand PE files on this system.
Awesoken at
Very well. So I guess you're using these utilities as a form of manual virus protection? I assure you there is no evil code in PNGOUT.EXE or PNGOUT.DLL. They do not access the Windows registry, use network code of any kind, or create any hidden files on your hard drive. They do just what they're advertised to do - compress and convert image files.
I'd rather not reveal the details of my packaging process because that would encourage reverse engineering. When I'm ready to make my algorithms public, I will release the source code.
yuriks at
From what I understood he is trying to do an IrfanView plugin of some sorts, that may be just what I understood tho. ;)
Anonymous at
yuriks said
From what I understood he is trying to do an IrfanView plugin of some sorts, that may be just what I understood tho. ;)
Ken provided pngout.dll as a plugin for iview. If I install the IrfanView plugin package containing this file, a utility loaded in my system causes Windows to freeze as pngout.dll is being written. pngout.exe does the same. I guess that the relevant utility is a shell extension that parses PE files to list the file's dependencies and associated COM classes in the file's property sheet. The authors of this tool have long abandoned it, but without leaving the source.
Apparently Ken builds his executables using a special procedure to discourage reversing, resulting in a valid but unusual PE format that confuses this utility. For instance, the section names are all blank.
As Ken doesn't seem keen to go into details (no reason why he should), the solution is not to try installing both pngout and the PE shell extension at the same time, at least until I get around to cloning the latter.