WinHex 15.0
July 24th, 2008 by admin
WinHex 15.0 is in its core a universal hexadecimal editor, particularly helpful in the realm of personal computer forensics, info recovery, low-level info processing, and IT safety.
An advanced utility for everyday and emergency use: inspect and edit all kinds of files, recover deleted files or lost info from hard drives with corrupt file systems or from digital camera cards. This hex editor grants access to info other programs hide from you.
Main features:
- RAM editor e.g. for debugging purposes (programming), for examining/manipulating any running program and in particular personal computer games (cheating). Tools | RAM Editor
- API (Application Coding Interface) Expert PC users may also produce good use of WinHex 15.0′ advanced capabilities in their own programs written in Delphi, C/C++, or Visual Basic. The WinHex API provides a convenient interface for arbitrary access to files and disks (at the sector level). The provided functions are similar to the scripting commands. Details
- Hiding info or discovering hidden info e.g. behind the supposed end of safety.jpg files (steganography), or in unused parts of logical drives or physical disks. WinHex specifically supports access to surplus sectors that are not in use by the OS because they do not add to an entire cluster or cylinder.
- Binary, Hex ASCII, Intel Hex, and Motorola S conversion z. B. for (E)PROM programmers. Edit | Convert
- Scripting Automated file editing using scripts, to accelerate recurring routine tasks or to carry out certain tasks on unattended remote computers. The capacity to execute scripts other than the supplied sample scripts is limited to owners of a proficient license. Scripts can be run from the Start Center or the command line. While a script is executed, you may press Esc to abort. With its wider range of programm, scripting supersedes the Routine highlight famous from previous WinHex versions. Detect out more about scripts in the program aid.
- Finding interesting values (e.g. the number of lives, ammunition, etc.) in saved game files using the Combined Search or using the File Comparison tool, for later manipulation
- ASCII EBCDIC conversion Allows to exchange content between mainframe computers and the computer in both directions. You may even tailor the character translation table in WinHex (ebcdic.dat) for your own needs. Edit | Convert
- Copy & Paste Use copy & paste or copy & write (=overwrite) with files, disks, and RAM. You may freely copy from a disk and write the clipboard contents to a disk, without regard to sector boundaries!
- Upgrading MP3 jukeboxes and Microsoft Xbox with larger hard drive To upgrade, the new hard disk drive must be prepared first. This is where you need WinHex. Instructions for Creative’s Nomad MP3 jukebox, DAP jukebox and Microsoft Xbox. You can also modify the name of your Xbox.
- Viewing, editing, and repairing system fields such as the Master Boot Record with its partition table and boot sectors. Tools | Disk Editor | Access button
- Conveniently editing info structure using custom skins. Download a tutorial. View | Style Manager
- Checksum/digest calculation to produce sure a file is not corrupt and was not manipulated, or to identify common famous files. Tools | Calculate Hash.
- Data recovery for erroneously deleted files or generally after an experienced loss of info. Can be done manually or automatically. There is an automatic recovery mode for FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS drives called âFile Recovery by Nameâ that simply requires you to specify one or more file masks (like *.gif, John*.doc, etc.). WinHex will do the rest. Via the Access button menu, a recovery mechanism is accessible for FAT drives which re-creates entire nested folder structures (details here). Another mechanism (”File Recovery by Type”, formerly “file retrieval”) can be used on any file system and recovers all files of a certain type at a time. Supported file types: jpg, png, gif, tif, bmp, dwg, psd, rtf, xml, html, eml, dbx, xls/doc, mdb, wpd, eps/ps, pdf, qdf, pwl, zip, rar, wav, avi, ram, rm, mpg, mpg, mov, asf, mid. In particular owners of digital cameras quite often encounter problems with their media. WinHex 15.0 is likely to aid with this automated function that makes good use of the existence of file headers (characteristic signatures at the beginning of a file). Tools | Disk Tools | File Retrieval
- Wiping unused space and slack space either to close safety leaks, to securely destroy previously existing classified files that have been deleted in the traditional path alone, or to minimize the size of your disk backups (like WinHex backups or Norton Ghost backups), since initialized space can be compressed 99%. On NTFS drives, WinHex 15.0 will even offer to wipe all currently unused $Mft (Master File Table) file records, as they may still contain names and fragments of files previously stored in them. File slack can be found in the unused end of the last cluster allocated to a file, which usually contains traces of previously existing files. Slack space like everything else is processed by WinHex 15.0 very fast.
- Splitting files that do not fit on a disk File Manager | Split/Concatenate
- Analyzing files e.g. to determine the type of info recovered as lost cluster chains by ScanDisk or chkdsk. Examples. Tools | Analyze File
- Unifying and dividing odd and even bytes/words for (E)PROM programmers. File Manager | Unify/Dissect
- Wiping confidential files or disks so no one (not even personal computer forensics specialists) will be capable to retrieve them. To securely erase a file, use File Manager | Delete Irreversibly. For disk wiping, open the disk with the disk editor and use Edit | Fill Disk Sectors. E.g. fill with zero bytes (hexadecimal value 00) or arbitrary bytes. WinHex 15.0 works in accordance with the standard outlined in DoD 5220.22-M (for information, please see this white paper). Also see X-Ways Security.
- Manipulating saved game files for any personal computer game, following existing instructions from cheat sites on the Web or for developing your own cheats.
- Manipulating content that one is not supposed to edit, e.g. in binary files. It is not convenient, but possible to translate practically any software into another language by editing content in the executable files, e.g. if the source code is not accessible (e.g. lost). Or you would like to edit content in files of a certain binary type that the native solution does not permit you change. For instance, programmers may detect their compiler automatically creates a configuration file for their project whose filename (application name + safety.cfg) conflicts with a file their own software uses. If your home laws and the license let that, edit the compiler’s executable file such that it works without problems (e.g. with the filename extension â.cnfâ).
- Generating pseudo-random info for several (e.g. scientific simulation) purposes. Edit | Fill File
- Trusted download (a safety issue) When transferring unclassified material from a classified HDD to unclassified media, you need to be certain that a copied file will have no extraneous details in any cluster or sector “verhang” spuriously copied along with the actual file, since this slack space may still contain classified info from a time when it was allocated to a different file. The command Tools | Specialist Tools | Copy exactly copies the file in its current size, no entire sectors or clusters. Not one byte beyond the end of the file will be copied to the destination disk. Minimize your IT risks. Requires a specialist license.
- WinHex 15.0 as a reconnaissance and learning utility Are you sure Microsoft Word really discards previous states of your document? You may be surprised to detect content deleted long ago in your safety.doc files. Maybe content that you really do not wish to be seen by the person you are going to password the safety.doc file to? Discover what several software programs save in their files. Study unknown file formats and learn how they work. Investigate e.g. how executable files are structured and how they are loaded in RAM. The possibilities are practically unlimited.
- 128-bit encryption to produce files unreadable by others. Edit | Convert
- Viewing and manipulating files that usually cannot be edited because they are protected by Windows (e.g. the swap file, temporary files of the Web Explorer), using the disk editor. Tools | Disk Editor
- Computer examination/forensics WinHex 15.0 is an invaluable utility in the hands of personal computer investigative specialists in private enterprise and law enforcement. Details
- Drive cloning, drive imaging to make recise duplicates of disks/drives, e.g. to save the time for a full installation of the OS and other software for various computers/disks of the same type, or to be capable to restore a running installation in case of info loss/screwed up Windows (restoration of a backup). Also for personal computer forensics specialists, since they need to work on a copy when searching for evidence on the object disk. You can clone directly, or from an pic file. Menu: Tools | Disk Tools | Clone Disk
- Jump back and forward WinHex 15.0 keeps a history of your offset jumps, and lets you go back and forward in the chain, like an Web browser does. Level | Back/Forward
- Unlimited Undo When editing, reverse any of your steps. Alone restricted by accessible disk space. Edit | Undo
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