hex editing?

[rick311]

first off, sorry if i posted in the wrong spot.

secondly, i dont know how to hex edit. can anyone help me at all?

ive got a screen saver from an old computer that i want to run on a newer one. problem is its only for WIN XP Media Center Edition. I can get it to work for other OS's but i need to hex edit it first.

anyone willing to help? this is what it tells me to do:

"change the bytes 74 08 to EB 00 at the following offsets, in each:

WPGLDFSH.SCR: Offset 0xA4D9"

it may as well be greek to me. anyone willing to help me? i can email you the file if you want to do it for me, or if you can walk me thru it? please help!

[Jordan]

You need to open it in a Hex Editor and make the changes. Here is a free one (for Windows): HexEdit

[WingedPanther]

Also, be aware that making changes to a program someone else has provided may not be safe/legal. Those are the types of changes that were made to programs in the 80s and 90s for cracking programs. If you don't know what the change does, you may not be happy with the results.

[rick311]

i got it open in a hex editor, but it looked too crazy for me. i dont understand any of that stuff! thats why i need the help.

i just want to use the screen saver for the regular version of XP. editing it in the hex editor just makes that possible, it takes the windows MCE restriction off. how to do that in the hex editor is beyond me. even with instructions i cant figure it out.

[rick311]

anyone? im not looking for a hEXPERT, just someone who knows! haha! ok i may have just killed my chances . . .

[WingedPanther]

If you have it opened, it's just a matter of a search/replace.

[rick311]

if it were that simple i wouldnt be asking for help. i cant find what they are telling me to look for, and i wouldnt know how to go about replacing what needs to be replaced?

bottom line is i need someone to walk me thru it, or do it for me. any takers?

shoot, if you do it for me, i'll paypal you 10 bucks!

[WingedPanther]

I've attached an image of what you should be looking at when you open a file in HexEdit and press Ctrl-R.

To search for a Hex code, type in the code and uncheck "Find Text". Do the same with the replacement code.

To manually find the location (offset), pay attention to the 0x00000 number on the left of the grid. These are your offsets. Scroll down to find the specified offset and then you can place your cursor in the correct entry and change what you need to.

The way to think about a hexeditor is like this: you're using notepad, and you have REALLY funny stuff you're typing in it.

If you need more information, Google "hexadecimal", "decimal", and "ASCII".

[rick311]

is there an easy way to find the offset that i need? in this case i need to find the Offset 0xA4D9.

[rick311]

OMG! WINGED PANTHER, you are AWESOME!! your explanation and screenshot worked for me! i got this stupid screen saver to work! i can't believe it! youre the man!! i feel like a hero now! way to go dude, i appreciate the help!