.. I do know what you mean.

Here is what I do to fix the resources:

When my exe is at the point that I want to fix the resources, I make a copy of the exe. So now I have 2 identical exes: Resbldr2.exe and CopyOfResbldr2.exe

Now, I load my first exe (Resbldr2.exe) into a resource editor (personally, I just use Visual Studio, since it does a good job and I already have it installed; so I know this process works with VS, but I can't guarantee that it will work with another resource editor), and simply delete all resources that fall in the offending section: in this case, the 3 icons, the version info, and RT_MANIFEST (what you called 24). Save that and close it, and now, .data in your first exe should have no resources in it. (It is at this point that I go and delete the .data section and wipe its section header from the PE.)

Now, open both exes in your resource editor. In your second exe (CopyOfResbldr2.exe), select all the resources that you deleted in the first exe and Copy them (standard clipboard Copy is what I'm referring to), then paste them into your first exe. Save the first one, then close both files (and now you can delete CopyOfResbldr2.exe). When VS saves the changes, it puts the new resources you've pasted in into the .rsrc section, as it should. Now you have successfully transplanted the resources from the .data section to the .rsrc section, without a lot of hassle.

One note, VS, when it saves the resource changes, screws up the VSize of the .rsrc section for some reason. So once I'm done I go into LordPE and fix .rsrc's VSize back to the same as RSize.

Indeed, you are correct here! Congratulations, most people wouldn't have bothered to even try these things, muchless follow through all the way (and by hand, as you did, at that) . I hope you learned a good bit about PE structure in the process .

Now, there are 2 problems left with your exe. One you will notice immediately once you remove the .data section and try to run the app. The problem you will see is much the same as the problem when you try to get into the program's Options (though the way I fixed those two problems is very dissimilar).

Lucky for you, you chose a very easy app to begin learning ASPR with. Once you get this all finished, I'll give you a link to an app that actually uses ASProtect effectively .

Regards,
Satyric0n