Introduction
It is possible to "convert" the SWF to an EXE using HF Workshop, which is actually just using Adobe Flash Player Projector to create a standalone of the SWF. There are many versions of the FP available for download, and you may download them here here.
Note: If you are curious about the algorithm HF Workshop is using, you may check it here.
However, HF Workshop does not customize the FP projector. So here are some instructions on how you can achieve this.
Note: The EXE must not be compressed with UPX for this to work.
Changing the icon
For changing the icon, you'll need Resource Editor. Open the Flash Player projector file (SA.exe), before adding HF swf to it, with resource editor. Expand the "Icon" folder, right click on the first icon, click on "Load resource..." and select the ICO file you want. If you don't have a ICO file but only an image, you can convert the image to ICO using any online tool, like https://icoconvert.com/. The official HF ICO is available here. You may do this for all the icons there, though one should be enough to change the displayed icon of the EXE file. You may then use this modified SA.exe to convert HF swf to exe.
Notes:
- The EXE must not be compressed with UPX for this to work.
- This must be done before combining HF swf with SA.exe.
Removing the menu bar
The menu bar is not very useful. Of all of its options, full screen is probably the only useful one, but this can be achieved with CTRL+F too. Removing this bar is actually easy. With Resource Editor again, open the EXE with it, expand the "Menu" folder and delete all the menu entries.
Changing the window's title
This one varies with the FP version. On old versions, I was told that using Resource Editor, changing the title can be done on the "String Table" folder. But on more recent versions (the oldest I tried was version 11), changing the title must be done with an hex editor. In version 11 and version 20 (the ones I tried), you have to search for
Note: Resource Hacker appears to break Trong's Flash Player. Resource Editor is a good alternative that works.
It is possible to "convert" the SWF to an EXE using HF Workshop, which is actually just using Adobe Flash Player Projector to create a standalone of the SWF. There are many versions of the FP available for download, and you may download them here here.
Note: If you are curious about the algorithm HF Workshop is using, you may check it here.
However, HF Workshop does not customize the FP projector. So here are some instructions on how you can achieve this.
Note: The EXE must not be compressed with UPX for this to work.
Changing the icon
For changing the icon, you'll need Resource Editor. Open the Flash Player projector file (SA.exe), before adding HF swf to it, with resource editor. Expand the "Icon" folder, right click on the first icon, click on "Load resource..." and select the ICO file you want. If you don't have a ICO file but only an image, you can convert the image to ICO using any online tool, like https://icoconvert.com/. The official HF ICO is available here. You may do this for all the icons there, though one should be enough to change the displayed icon of the EXE file. You may then use this modified SA.exe to convert HF swf to exe.
Notes:
- The EXE must not be compressed with UPX for this to work.
- This must be done before combining HF swf with SA.exe.
Removing the menu bar
The menu bar is not very useful. Of all of its options, full screen is probably the only useful one, but this can be achieved with CTRL+F too. Removing this bar is actually easy. With Resource Editor again, open the EXE with it, expand the "Menu" folder and delete all the menu entries.
Changing the window's title
This one varies with the FP version. On old versions, I was told that using Resource Editor, changing the title can be done on the "String Table" folder. But on more recent versions (the oldest I tried was version 11), changing the title must be done with an hex editor. In version 11 and version 20 (the ones I tried), you have to search for
A\0d\0o\0b\0e\0 \0F\0l\0a\0s\0h\0 \0P\0l\0a\0y\0e\0r\0 \0X\0X
, where the \0
represents the null byte (00 in hexadecimal) and appears between every character, and XX represents the version (11, 20...). After you've found this, you can write your own title on top of this (keeping the null bytes intact), and you must terminate the title with a null byte, and you also cannot have a title bigger than the already existing one, using this simple method. So, your title could look like: H\0e\0r\0o\0 \0F\0i\0g\0h\0t\0e\0r\0 \0v\00\0.\07\0+\0\0\0X\0X
Note: Resource Hacker appears to break Trong's Flash Player. Resource Editor is a good alternative that works.