Want smaller program files?

[MotoMan_Yz400]

http://upx.sourceforge.net/

I've used this when it first came out (around 3-4 years ago) and it did wonders for my programs! 50% packed was the norm. and it still runs like a standard EXE file, no unzipping, so messing around! One program i was able to reduce it's size by 88%!!!!! and still have it run like normal! I'm not advertising for them, nor do I care if you use it. But i thought for those people who may have multi meg programs, and need quick movibility of the files, might want to give it a try! Now i havent used any updated versions of this software, so not too sure what they've been up too. Just a friend of mine was asking about shrinking program size, and i'd thought hey, the VB Forum world might like this too. So, ENJOY!

[Ellis Dee]

Reminds me of lzexe, circa 1989.

I'd point out that if you're zipping up the exe (like in an install package), this technique gains you nothing. The only real use for it is if (like back in 1989) you're running without a hard drive. When your total storage capacity consists of a floppy disk, compressing executables really helps.

[DigiRev]

ASPack is another good one. Not sure how it compares to UPX, I haven't used UPX in a looong time. ASPack also works for DLL and OCX files.

The best thing you can do to minimize program (installation) size is limit the number of dependencies in your app and also use images correctly. ie: If you have a bunch of images that are used on multiple forms, put them all into a resource file and load them using the LoadResPicture() function. Those are just a couple things that are usually the cause of large installations and EXE sizes.

[Hack]

Moved

[smUX]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_compression has information on a number of types of packing program. Be aware that some of these programs use unorthodox methods to compress the EXE and the compressed EXE does NOT work the same way as the original. MEW, for instance, gave me better compression than any other program but I found that ToolTipText entries seemed to have been removed completely. Because I didn't know what other methods it used, I switched back and stopped using MEW.

And what Ellis Dee says is true, but the thing to think about is whether a compressed EXE would be smaller than a RAR compressed EXE...I've actually found that compressing the EXE with RAR after compressing with UPX, the file *has* got even smaller than RAR alone on occasion and only maybe 1-2k larger at worst

[nuclear112]

This program works real well thanks 10/10