question about hardcoding

[Ibrahim90]

hey all,

I was wondering out of curiosity, and partly since I'm a n00b at programming: how does one change the hardcoding of a C++ language executable? or executables in general?

and I did look online, but none seem to give a straight answer-a program I can learn relatively quickly (say, a month) that could help.. 

in case anyone is wondering why: I just want to edit a copy of a favorite program of mine for personal (non profit) use, just to see what happens; it's how I learn most things 

I ask you guys, since it seems a few of you are clearly tech-savvy-certainly more so than I.

EDIT: it was apparently written in Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0

[MrBogosity]

Short answer: You can't. Executables are compiled into machine code; you'd need to get a disassembler and learn the assembly code for your processor.

There are programs out there that purport to "de-compile" the assembly code into C or some other language, but frankly they make code that's so horrendous you might as well just learn assembly.

[Ibrahim90]

Short answer: You can't. Executables are compiled into machine code; you'd need to get a disassembler and learn the assembly code for your processor.

There are programs out there that purport to "de-compile" the assembly code into C or some other language, but frankly they make code that's so horrendous you might as well just learn assembly.

I see. thanks!

I'll just go with the dissassembler then: I found one-IDApro-that might work, though I'm not sure how good it is. I got it for free because they offer older versions that way on their website; these aren't as powerful I suppose as the commercial version, but it will do-if it is any good.