Tirc mIRC32 Hexed Tutorial

You've been waiting for this, and now it's finally here! The first MHN tutorial: How to Customize Your mIRC "Help" Menubar. Without any further delay, we shall start this tutorial immediately.

   Now first thing's first. What are the tools we need? Since this is basically a hex-editing tutorial, therefore we obviously need a Hex Editor to proceed with this tutorial. What? You don't know what a Hex Editor is? Well, it is basically a program that you can use to edit files.

   So how is it different from an ordinary text editor like Notepad? A Hex Editor (at least a good one at that) will give you a Hex view (sequence of numbers representing the characters) as well as an ASCII view (the actual characters that the Hex sequence represents).

   So do you have a Hex Editor with you right now? No? Well, you can get Hex Workshop, an excellent Hex Editor by Breakpoint Software. This program is Shareware, but at this moment, I don't think Breakpoint Software exists anymore (the website is dead)... Therefore, I'm not sure whether you can register this program if you want to. You can get Hex Workshop from my website by clicking here.

   You can use any other Hex Editor of your choice, but preferably it should have a feature to search for Hex sequences. Otherwise it will be hell for you to manually find the necessary Hex sequences. Got your Hex Editor ready? Let's proceed then!

   Now follow these instructions step by step, especially if you are new to programming and/or hex editing. The more advanced readers can proceed to the steps that you find important.

Open mirc32.exe with the Hex Editor.
Find this Hex sequence: 2600520065006700690073. You'll see that it's ASCII equivalent is: &.R.e.g.i.s. You can refer to the image below if you have problems.
Look a few lines above that until you see the following: &.H.e.l.p.... This will be the line that we will modify. You can see that the Hex sequence for that line is: 2600480065006C0070000000. Need help? Refer to the image below:
Now change &.H.e.l.p... to &.T.e.s.t... and save the file. WARNING: Leave the dots alone! You should not type in the dots, skip over them using the arrow keys. They are not normal dots. They represent the Hex null character 00. Refer to the image below for better understanding.
Run the modified mirc32.exe to see if it works. If you did it correctly, you can see that your Help menu has been replaced by Test. (Don't tell me you need a screenshot for this too!!!).
Now for the more difficult part. We want to change the line to Modified mIRC, and also dispose of its submenus.
Change this line: T.e.s.t.......&.C.o.n.t.e.n.t.s. to: M.o.d.i.f.i.e.d. .m.I.R.C........ As usual, leave the dots alone. Just change the letters. To clear up the extra letters from C.o.n.t.e.n.t.s., type in 00 for n, t, and s at the Hex section (the left hand side in Hex Workshop). Refer to the screenshot below:
Save the mirc32.exe file and run it. If everything goes well, you should see that your "Help" menu has been changed to Modified mIRC. However, its submenus can still be seen, but without Contents that is usually the first submenu. Want to see a screenshot?
We will now attempt to hide the submenus. Look at this ASCII String: ..&.M.o.d.i.f.. Its Hex equivalent should be: 900026004D006F00640069006600. We will only be interested in the Hex string, particularly the first two digits which is 90. Screenshot is below:

By modifying this two numbers, we can change the appearance of our Modified mIRC menu. I've done some experimenting and the results are as follows:

Change 90 To	Effect of change
91	Totally disabled
92	Enabled, but no submenus
93	Totally disabled
94	Enabled with submenus, but shifted to the right
95	Totally disabled, and shifted to the right
96	Enabled, but no submenus, and shifted to the right

I'd really like to show a screenshot, but I guess you'll be more excited to see the real thing in action. So I'll save some time and web space by not showing a screenshot.

Other Important Notes:
- After running mIRC to see the results of your hex editing, please close it back before you hex edit it again. Otherwise you'll get a sharing violation error in windows
- I DO NOT endorse hex editing mIRC to make it look the way you want it to be. It is NOT my program, nor is it yours (unless you are Khaled Mardam Bey). This tutorial is meant only for those who are curious on how I did this in my previous patches.
- If you love mIRC, please register it, Khaled has put in tremendous efforts to make it the best IRC client there is for the Windows platform. Please visit the mIRC Web Site for details on how to register mIRC.