merging exe files

Question

let's say i have a setup file called setup.exe

i want to make this setup.exe include another exe file inside of it !! how can i do that ? or what is this process called and i will try to search and learn

p.s i would do that with C , C++

p.s the other exe isn't a virus don worry :) it's a security file that will block that software on certain time , i just want to make sure that security is ran whenever that setup file is executed .

thanks in advance

Answer 1

You can pack one exe inside a resource file which you extract on startup and execute from the main exe. This seems to be a nice wrapper for easily working with resources. Otherwise you can directly use the Win32 API like FindResource, LoadResource, etc.

You could also perhaps use a program like NSIS which you can use to combine both .exe files. You could make a simple nsis script that when compiled produces an exe and simply calls one .exe after the other.