Store files in C# EXE file

Question

It is actually useful for me to store some files in EXE to copy to selected location. I'm generating HTML and JS files and need to copy some CSS, JS and GIFs.

Snippet

System.IO.File.WriteAllBytes(@"C:\MyFile.bin", ProjectNamespace.Properties.Resources.MyFile);

doesn't work for me!

On "WriteAllBytes" it says: "cannot convert from 'System.Drawing.Bitmap' to 'byte[]'" for image and "cannot convert from 'string' to 'byte[]'" for text file.

Help!

UPDATE: Solved below.

Answer 1

Add the files you want to your solution and then set their Build Action property to Embedded Resource. This will embed the file into your exe. (msdn)

Then you just need to write the code to write the file out to disk when the exe is executed.

Something like:

File.Copy("resource.bmp", @"C:\MyFile.bin");

Replace resource.bmp with your file name.

Addendum:

If you keep the file in a sub-folder in your solution you need to make the sub-folder part of the path to resource.bmp. Eg:

File.Copy(@"NewFolder1\resource.bmp", @"C:\MyFile.bin");

Also, you may need to set the Copy To Output Directory property to Copy Always or Copy If Newer.

Answer 2

I assume you added the files through the Project Properties window. That does not allow you to add an arbitrary file but it does support TextFiles, Bitmaps and so on.

For an embedded TextFile, use

  File.WriteAllText(@"C:\MyFile.bin", Properties.Resources.TextFile1);

For an Image, use

  Properties.Resources.Image1.Save(@"C:\MyFile.bin");

Answer 3

You can embed binary files in a .resx file. Put them in the Files section (it looks like you used the Images section instead). It should be accessible as an array of bytes if your .resx file generates a .Designer.cs file.

File.WriteAllBytes(@"C:\foobar.exe", Properties.Resources.foobar);

Answer 4

Add files to project resources and set their "Build Action" as "Embedded Resource".

Now extract any file (text or binary) using this snippet:

WriteResourceToFile("Project_Namespace.Resources.filename_as_in_resources.extension", "extractedfile.txt");


public static void WriteResourceToFile(string resourceName, string fileName)
{
    int bufferSize = 4096; // set 4KB buffer
    byte[] buffer = new byte[bufferSize];
    using (Stream input = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName))
    using (Stream output = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create))
    {
        int byteCount = input.Read(buffer, 0, bufferSize);
        while (byteCount > 0)
        {
            output.Write(buffer, 0, byteCount);
            byteCount = input.Read(buffer, 0, bufferSize);
        }
    }
}

Don't know how deep is it correct according to this article: http://www.yoda.arachsys.com/csharp/readbinary.html but it works.