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I've been looking through files since I got Notepad++, and realized that I could edit them with it, so that's what I did, but just got something like this:

uí9öuókuø9öu¸huû9öu¸h+uü9öu#Æ=ué9öuþ9÷u:öuK§uß9öuók-uÿ9öuþ9auÿ9öuK§(uÿ9öuRichþ9öu. At first, I thought that I was looking at a computer programming language that I didn't yet know.

But then I realized that it was compiled code that was converted to ASCII by Notepad++, so how could I decompile a file to its' original language (say C++ or Assembly)? So that I could change it or just look at the code so that I could study how it works.

Would I have to download something so that I could accomplish what I'm trying to do? Or is there a way to do it with Command Prompt?

Ans thanks for taking the time to look at this!

Community
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Flostin
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  • Possible duplicate of [General purpose utility or library for compiling/decompiling binary data files?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2146192/general-purpose-utility-or-library-for-compiling-decompiling-binary-data-files) – Kaz Mar 30 '16 at 22:18
  • An executable file contains a lot more than compiled code. Check PEDump and similar utilities. Determining the original language can only be guessed at, though some programming systems leave very strong clues. – Tom Blodget Apr 01 '16 at 00:46

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You are effectively asking how to turn ground beef into a cow. There are disassemblers that will convert executables into assembly code because that is easy to do. Going to C++ is extremely difficult and not reliable.

Some languages with limited optimization, such as Visual Basic have had decompilers that work fairly well. C++ is not one of them.

Consider the case were an application is written in multiple languages.

user3344003
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  • Dissasembly is a very practical tool in higher level languages. If you wanted to decompile to assembly like OP asked, that is certainly feasible. – TheNorthWes Mar 30 '16 at 22:29