Executable conversion issue with VB 2008

[womo1975]

My issue is when I read from an existing executable and convert it to string and back to executable windows says it is not a recognized 32 bit or 64 bit application? The code below is real code I have rewritten many times but to no avail. If I leave out the part where I convert the bytes to string and just copy the binary and create a new exe with the binary the program works. But the whole concept of string converting back to valid binary has me stumped? This is Visual Basic 2008 code:

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Text

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

        Dim tempPath = System.IO.Path.GetTempPath
        Dim inFile() As Byte
        Dim outFileB() As Byte
        Dim inFileString As String
        

        'read exe into byte array
        inFile = File.ReadAllBytes(Application.StartupPath & "\run.exe")

        'convert byte array to string and read into string variable
        inFileString = Convert.ToString(inFile)

        'convert string variable back to byte array
        outFileB = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(inFileString)

        'write byte array to newly created exe 
        File.WriteAllBytes(tempPath & "\happyfeet.exe", outFileB)

        'execute new executable in user temp path
        System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(tempPath & "\happyfeet.exe")

        Me.Close()

    End Sub

[womo1975]

I have figured out the issue. You have to use default encoding for both exe to string and back:

 inFileString = Encoding.Default.GetString(inFile)  AND

outFileB = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(inFileString)

Well this post is closed, but thanks for looking! Maybe this will teach somebody something.

[Killer42]

Thanks for posting your solution. It's likely to be helpful if anyone else comes looking with the same sort of question.

One point, though. The experts in VB2008 are more likely to be found over in our VB.Net forum. This is the forum for the old (and I do mean old) pre-dotnet versions of VB. There's overlap of course, but you'll likely get a better response if you hit your target audience. :-)

[PsychoCoder]

VB 8 is VB.NET so it's in the wrong forum. Fear not I'll move it to the VB.NET forum for you :)