RES Converter

Extract text from RES files

Select File
Drop or upload your .RES file

Online File Converter

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How to extract text from your RES file

Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your RES file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert RES to another file type

To convert your RES file to another format, you need Microsoft Visual Studio or other Developer software.

Convert a file to RES

To convert other file formats to the "Compiled Asset Library" file type, you need software like Microsoft Visual Studio or a similar tool.

About RES files

A .RES file is primarily a Windows Compiled Resource Script, a binary file type generated by C++ development environments like Microsoft Visual Studio. These files act as containers for application assets - storing icons, cursors, menus, dialog boxes, and string tables separate from the main source code. While efficient for the operating system, the .RES format presents significant challenges for users: it is unreadable by standard text editors, cannot be directly edited without recompilation, and locks valuable visual assets inside a proprietary binary structure.

Beyond Windows development, the .RES extension is heavily used in gaming. It serves as a binary resource format for the Godot Engine (storing scenes and settings) and defines user interface layouts for the Valve Source Engine (used in games like Half-Life 2). Users frequently encounter these files when trying to mod games, extract textures, or recover source code from compiled applications.

Conversion Recommendations:

For Developers (Windows): To edit the contents, you must decompile the binary .RES file back into a human-readable RC (Resource Script) file using tools like Resource Hacker.
For Asset Extraction: If your goal is to retrieve images or icons trapped inside, convert the internal resources to ICO, PNG, or BMP.
For Godot Users: Convert binary .RES files to the text-based TRES format for easier version control and editing within the engine.
For Archiving/Medical: In rare cases (like Varian ARIA systems), a .RES file is simply a renamed ZIP archive; try renaming the extension to ZIP to access the contents.

Convert.Guru analyzes your RES file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted AZW, RESS, QVM, PNG, RESOURCE, RC, MD, AZW8, CTEX, KFX, PDF, IMPORT and MBPV2 files.

FAQ

If you want to convert RES file to PDF, JS, TS, PY, JAVA, CPP, C, CS, PHP, RB, GO or RS, you can use Microsoft Visual Studio or similar software from the "Windows Compiled Resource Script" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert SH, PY, KT, PS1, SWIFT, LUA, PL, JAVA, SCALA, JS, VBS or TS files to RES, try Microsoft Visual Studio or another comparable tool in the "Windows Compiled Resource Script" category.

The RES Converter Story

The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our RES converter.