Binding Windows Executables
This small program illustrates how to bind Windows executables to the DLLs they use so that their loading times are reduced and hence they start up faster. This is somewhat similar to the concept of “pre-linking” in Linux. It is used by several application installers to speed up the application startup times.
Remember that such an executable really cannot be then redistributed. Binding should be done on an executable after it is installed on a user's machine - you cannot generally ship an executable bound on your machine to others.
I have tested this program with the GCC C compiler available with MinGW.
#include <stdio.h>
#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
#include <windows.h>
#include <imagehlp.h>
/**
* Uses BindImageEx in the ImageHlp library to bind Windows
* executables.
* See the MSDN documentation for this function for more details.
* <p>
* This can potentially speed up the loading times of the executable.
* Note that such an executable cannot then be reliably redistributed
* due to the very nature of this operation.
* <p>
* To compile using the GCC in MinGW, use:
* <br/>
* <tt>gcc -Wall bind.c -o bind.exe -limagehlp</tt>
*
* @author Ranjit Mathew <rmathew AT hotmail DOT com>
*
* @version 0.1
*/
int main( int argc, char *argv[])
{
OSVERSIONINFO osInfo;
DWORD bindFlags;
if (argc != 2)
{
fprintf (stderr, "USAGE: bind <executable file>\n");
return 1;
}
ZeroMemory (&osInfo, sizeof (osInfo));
osInfo.dwOSVersionInfoSize = sizeof (osInfo);
GetVersionEx (&osInfo);
if ((osInfo.dwMajorVersion == 4)
&& ((osInfo.dwMinorVersion == 0)
|| (osInfo.dwMinorVersion == 10)
|| (osInfo.dwMinorVersion == 90)))
{
printf ("INFO: Windows 9x/ME detected - using BIND_NO_BOUND_IMPORTS.\n");
bindFlags = BIND_NO_BOUND_IMPORTS;
}
else
{
bindFlags = 0;
}
if (BindImageEx (bindFlags, argv[1], NULL, NULL, NULL) == TRUE)
{
printf ("INFO: \"%s\" has been successfully bound!\n", argv[1]);
}
else
{
char *bufPtr;
DWORD err = GetLastError ();
fprintf (stderr, "\nERROR: Could not bind \"%s\"!\n\n", argv[1]);
if (FormatMessage (FORMAT_MESSAGE_ALLOCATE_BUFFER
| FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM
| FORMAT_MESSAGE_IGNORE_INSERTS,
NULL,
err,
MAKELANGID (LANG_NEUTRAL, SUBLANG_DEFAULT),
(LPTSTR) &bufPtr,
0,
NULL) != 0)
{
fprintf (stderr, "REASON: %s\n", bufPtr);
LocalFree (bufPtr);
}
else
{
fprintf (stderr, "REASON: System error code: %lu\n", err);
}
return 1;
}
return 0;
}