How can i build VC++ .dll file within (statically) in my .exe ?

Question

Hi All,

I have one VC++ project that is compiled and generated .dll file. I have made one application that uses above vc++ .dll file. Can i build my new application .exe and .dll statically i want only one .exe file that include .dll file (statically) How is it possible in visula studio ?

Thanks, Neel

Answer 1

Why have a DLL at all then if you just want to embed it inside the EXE?

[snip, edit]

So, to do this, you just need to add the DLL file as a resource, and use FindResource / LoadResource to extract it somewhere. You will need to write it to the filesystem if you want to load the DLL. Here's a function (C++) I use in a project to load a text file from a resource. You should be able to easily modify this for your purposes. NOTE that there is no error checking here; it's just to show you the basic idea.

std::string LoadTextFileResource(HINSTANCE hInstance, LPCTSTR szResName, LPCTSTR szResType)
{
    HRSRC hrsrc=FindResource(hInstance, szResName, szResType);
    if(!hrsrc) return L"";
    HGLOBAL hg1 = LoadResource(hInstance, hrsrc);
    DWORD sz = SizeofResource(hInstance, hrsrc);
    void* ptr1 = LockResource(hg1);

    // assume the encoding is ASCII.
    return std::string((const char*)ptr1, sz);
}