How do I set the version information for an existing .exe, .dll?

Question

While it's not a batch process, Visual Studio can also add/edit file resources.

Just use File->Open->File on the .EXE or .DLL. This is handy for fixing version information post-build, or adding it to files that don't have these resources to begin with.

Unlike many of the other answers, this solution uses completely free software.

Firstly, create a file called Resources.rc like this:

VS_VERSION_INFO VERSIONINFO
    FILEVERSION    1,0,0,0
    PRODUCTVERSION 1,0,0,0
{
    BLOCK "StringFileInfo"
    {
        BLOCK "040904b0"
        {
            VALUE "CompanyName",        "ACME Inc.\0"
            VALUE "FileDescription",    "MyProg\0"
            VALUE "FileVersion",        "1.0.0.0\0"
            VALUE "LegalCopyright",     "© 2013 ACME Inc. All Rights Reserved\0"
            VALUE "OriginalFilename",   "MyProg.exe\0"
            VALUE "ProductName",        "My Program\0"
            VALUE "ProductVersion",     "1.0.0.0\0"
        }
    }
    BLOCK "VarFileInfo"
    {
        VALUE "Translation", 0x409, 1200
    }
}

Next, use GoRC to compile it to a .res file using:

GoRC /fo Resources.res Resources.rc

^{(see my comment below for a mirror of GoRC.exe)}

Then use Resource Hacker in CLI mode to add it to an existing .exe:

ResHacker -add MyProg.exe, MyProg.exe, Resources.res,,,

That's it!

Or you could check out the freeware StampVer for Win32 exe/dll files.
It will only change the file and product versions though if they have a version resource already. It cannot add a version resource if one doesn’t exist.

rcedit is relative new and works well from the command line: https://github.com/atom/rcedit

$ rcedit "path-to-exe-or-dll" --set-version-string "Comments" "This is an exe"
$ rcedit "path-to-exe-or-dll" --set-file-version "10.7"
$ rcedit "path-to-exe-or-dll" --set-product-version "10.7"

There's also an NPM module which wraps it from JavaScript and a Grunt task in case you're using Grunt.

What about something like this?

verpatch /va foodll.dll %VERSION% %FILEDESCR% %COMPINFO% %PRODINFO% %BUILDINFO%

Available here with full sources.

There are multiple tools, mentioned by many great answers, I'm going to pick one.

Resource Hacker

I downloaded latest version (5.1.7) from [AngusJ]: Resource Hacker. All the needed information can be found on that page (command line options, scripts, ...). In the following walkthrough I'm going to operate on 2 executables (lab rats) which (for obvious reasons) I've copied in my cwd:

• ResourceHacker.exe: I thought it would be interesting to operate on itself
• cmake.exe: random executable with no Version Info set (part of v3.6.3 installation on my machine)

Before going further, I want to mention that ResourceHacker has a funny terminal output, and the the following copy / paste fragments might generate a bit of confusion.

1. Setup

This is more like a preliminary step, to get acquainted with the environment, to show there's no funky business going on, ...

e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258> sopr.bat
*** Set shorter prompt to better fit when pasted in StackOverflow (or other) pages ***

[prompt]> dir
 Volume in drive E is Work
 Volume Serial Number is 3655-6FED

 Directory of e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258

2019-01-28  20:09    <DIR>          .
2019-01-28  20:09    <DIR>          ..
2016-11-03  09:17         5,413,376 cmake.exe
2019-01-03  02:06         5,479,424 ResourceHacker.exe
2019-01-28  20:30               496 ResourceHacker.ini
               3 File(s)     10,893,296 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  103,723,261,952 bytes free

[prompt]> set PATH=%PATH%;c:\Install\x64\CMake\CMake\3.6.3\bin

[prompt]> .\cmake --help >nul 2>&1

[prompt]> echo %errorlevel%
0

[prompt]> .\ResourceHacker.exe -help

[prompt]>

==================================
Resource Hacker Command Line Help:
==================================

-help             : displays these abbreviated help instructions.
-help commandline : displays help for single commandline instructions
-help script      : displays help for script file instructions.




[prompt]> echo %errorlevel%
0

As seen, the executables are OK, they run fine, and here's how their Details (that we care about) look like:

2. Resources

Resource files are text files that contain resources. A resource (simplified) has:

• Name
• Type
• Value

For more details check [MS.Docs]: About Resource Files. There are many tools (mentioned in existing answers) that facilitate resource file editing like:

• VStudio creates a default one when starting a new project
• One can create such a file manually

• But, since it's about Resource Hacker, and:

  • It is able to extract resources from an existing executable
  • It has resources embedded in it (as shown in the previous picture)

  I'm going to use it for this step (-action extract)

Next, In order for a resource to be embedded into an .exe (.dll, ...) it must be compiled to a binary form, which fits into the PE format. Again, there are lots of tools who can achieve this, but as you probably guessed I'm going to stick to Resource Hacker (-action compile).

[prompt]> :: Extract the resources into a file
[prompt]> .\ResourceHacker.exe -open .\ResourceHacker.exe -save .\sample.rc -action extract -mask VersionInfo,, -log con

[prompt]>

[28 Jan 2019, 20:58:03]

Current Directory:
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258

Commandline:
.\ResourceHacker.exe  -open .\ResourceHacker.exe -save .\sample.rc -action extract -mask VersionInfo,, -log con

Open    : e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258\ResourceHacker.exe
Save    : e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258\sample.rc


Success!

[prompt]> :: Modify the resource file and set our own values
[prompt]>
[prompt]> :: Compile the resource file
[prompt]> .\ResourceHacker.exe -open .\sample.rc -save .\sample.res -action compile -log con

[prompt]>

[28 Jan 2019, 20:59:51]

Current Directory:
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258

Commandline:
.\ResourceHacker.exe  -open .\sample.rc -save .\sample.res -action compile -log con

Open    : e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258\sample.rc
Save    : e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258\sample.res

Compiling: e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258\sample.rc
Success!

[prompt]> dir /b
cmake.exe
ResourceHacker.exe
ResourceHacker.ini
sample.rc
sample.res

In your case saving and editing the resource file won't be necessary, as the file will already be present, I just did it for demonstrating purposes. Below it's the resource file after being modified (and thus before being compiled).

sample.rc:

1 VERSIONINFO
FILEVERSION 3,1,4,1592
PRODUCTVERSION 2,7,1,8
FILEOS 0x4
FILETYPE 0x1
{
BLOCK "StringFileInfo"
{
    BLOCK "040904E4"
    {
        VALUE "CompanyName", "Cristi Fati\0"
        VALUE "FileDescription", "20190128 - SO q000284258 demo\0"
        VALUE "FileVersion", "3.1.4.1592\0"
        VALUE "ProductName", "Colonel Panic\0"
        VALUE "InternalName", "100\0"
        VALUE "LegalCopyright", "(c) Cristi Fati 1999-2999\0"
        VALUE "OriginalFilename", "ResHack\0"
        VALUE "ProductVersion", "2.7.1.8\0"
    }
}

BLOCK "VarFileInfo"
{
    VALUE "Translation", 0x0409 0x04E4  
}
}

3. Embed

This will also be performed by Resource Hacker (-action addoverwrite). Since the .exes are already copied I'm going to edit their resources in place.

[prompt]> .\ResourceHacker.exe -open .\cmake.exe -save .\cmake.exe -res .\sample.res -action addoverwrite -mask VersionInfo,, -log con

[prompt]>

[28 Jan 2019, 21:17:19]

Current Directory:
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258

Commandline:
.\ResourceHacker.exe  -open .\cmake.exe -save .\cmake.exe -res .\sample.res -action addoverwrite -mask VersionInfo,, -log con

Open    : e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258\cmake.exe
Save    : e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258\cmake.exe
Resource: e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258\sample.res

  Added: VERSIONINFO,1,1033

Success!

[prompt]> copy ResourceHacker.exe ResourceHackerTemp.exe
        1 file(s) copied.

[prompt]> .\ResourceHackerTemp.exe -open .\ResourceHacker.exe -save .\ResourceHacker.exe -res .\sample.res -action addoverwrite -mask VersionInfo,, -log con

[prompt]>

[28 Jan 2019, 21:19:29]

Current Directory:
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258

Commandline:
.\ResourceHackerTemp.exe  -open .\ResourceHacker.exe -save .\ResourceHacker.exe -res .\sample.res -action addoverwrite -mask VersionInfo,, -log con

Open    : e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258\ResourceHacker.exe
Save    : e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258\ResourceHacker.exe
Resource: e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258\sample.res

  Modified: VERSIONINFO,1,1033

Success!

[prompt]> del /f /q ResourceHackerTemp.*

[prompt]> dir
 Volume in drive E is Work
 Volume Serial Number is 3655-6FED

 Directory of e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q000284258

2019-01-28  21:20    <DIR>          .
2019-01-28  21:20    <DIR>          ..
2016-11-03  09:17         5,414,400 cmake.exe
2019-01-03  02:06         5,479,424 ResourceHacker.exe
2019-01-28  21:17               551 ResourceHacker.ini
2019-01-28  20:05             1,156 sample.rc
2019-01-28  20:59               792 sample.res
               5 File(s)     10,896,323 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  103,723,253,760 bytes free

As seen, I had to d a little trick (gainarie) as I can't (at least I don't think I can) modify the .exe while in use.

4. Test

This is an optional phase, to make sure that:

• The executables still work (they weren't messed up in the process)
• The resources have been added / updated

[prompt]> .\cmake --help >nul 2>&1

[prompt]> echo %errorlevel%
0

[prompt]> .\ResourceHacker.exe -help

[prompt]>

==================================
Resource Hacker Command Line Help:
==================================

-help             : displays these abbreviated help instructions.
-help commandline : displays help for single commandline instructions
-help script      : displays help for script file instructions.




[prompt]> echo %errorlevel%
0

And their Details: