EXE Loading

Previous Top Next

Thinstall can be used to link several EXE files into a single EXE file. There is always one "main" EXE that will be executed by Thinstall first. This main EXE can choose to run other bundled EXEs using CreateProcess or ShellExecute. Any loaded bundled EXE will have access to the rest of the files in the archive, including DLLs and the main EXE. When a secondary EXE is loaded by Thinstall (any EXE inside the archive other than the main EXE), a small stub file will be created in the TEMP directory. This stub file is 4k in size and contains no information about your executable. On the Windows 95/98/ME platforms, the stub file may also contain program resource (such as Icons, Version Information, Dialog Templates, etc).

Internally bundled EXE files can be executed by ShellExecute or CreateProcess. Higher level process creation functions provided by your programming language will also allow internal execution. For example in C++ system() and execv() could be used.

More information

·	Using the Module Search Path option you can control the search order used to locate the EXE file to run when no path is specified.

·	Using the Extraction/Caching Options you can ensure that your executable data is never present on disk.

·	Using External Module Loading to control if Thinstall loads external & internal processes.