Version Information Editor (C++)

Article
08/03/2021

Version information consists of company and product identification, a product release number, and copyright and trademark notification. With the Version Information Editor, you create and maintain this data, which is stored in the version information resource. The version information resource is not required by an application, but it's a useful place to collect information that identifies the application. Version information is also used by setup APIs.

Note

The Windows standard is to have only one version resource, named VS_VERSION_INFO.

A version information resource has an upper block and one or more lower blocks: a single fixed-information block at the top and one or more version information blocks at the bottom (for other languages and/or character sets). The top block has both editable numeric boxes and selectable drop-down lists. The lower blocks have only editable text boxes.

Note

While using the Version Information Editor, in many instances you can right-click to display a shortcut menu of resource-specific commands. For example, if you select while pointing to a block header entry, the shortcut menu shows the New Version Block Info and Delete Version Block Info commands.

How To

The Version Information Editor enables you:

To edit a string in a version information resource

Select the item once to choose it, then again to begin editing it. Make changes directly in the Version Information table or in the Properties window. The changes you make will be reflected in both places.

When editing the FILEFLAGS key in the Version Information Editor, notice you can't set the Debug, Private Build, or Special Build properties in the Properties window for .rc files:

The Version Information Editor sets the Debug property with a #ifdef in the resource script, based on the _DEBUG build flag.
If the Private Build key has a Value set in the Version Information table, the corresponding Private Build property in the Properties window for the FILEFLAGS key will be True. If Value is empty, the property will be False. Likewise, the Special Build key in the Version Information table is tied to the Special Build property for the FILEFLAGS key.

You can sort the information sequence of the string block by selecting either the Key or the Value column headings. These headings automatically rearrange the information into the selected sequence.

To add version information for another language (new version info block)

Open a version information resource by double-clicking it in Resource View.
Right-click within the version information table and choose New Version Info Block.

This command adds an additional information block to the current version information resource and opens its corresponding properties in the Properties window.
In the Properties window, choose the appropriate language and character set for your new block.

To delete a version information block

Open the version information resource by double-clicking its icon in Resource View.
Right-click the block header you wish to delete and choose Delete Version Info Block.

This command deletes the selected header and leaves the rest of the version information intact. You can't undo the action.

To access version information from within your program

If you want to access the version information from within your program, use the GetFileVersionInfo function and the VerQueryValue function.

Requirements

Win32

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