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Resources can be composed of a wide range of elements, including interface elements that provide information to the user (for example a bitmap, icon, or cursor); custom resources that contain data an application needs; version resources that are used by setup APIs; and menu and dialog box resources.

You can add new resources to your project and modify those resources using the appropriate resource editor. Most Visual C++ wizards will automatically generate an .rc file for your project.

Note   Because managed projects (Visual Basic, Visual C#, and Managed Extensions for C++) do not use resource script files, you must open your resources from Solution Explorer. You can use the Image editor and the Binary editor to work with resource files in managed projects. Any managed resources you want to edit must be linked resources. The Visual Studio resource editors do not support editing embedded resources.

For information on adding resources to managed projects, please see Resources in Applications in the .NET Framework Developer's Guide. For information on manually adding resource files to managed projects, accessing resources, displaying static resources, and assigning resources strings to properties, see Walkthrough: Localizing Windows Forms and Walkthrough: Localizing Web Forms.

In This Section

Resource Files

Describes resource files and how they are used in Win32-based applications. Also provides links to topics that describe how to use resource files.

Symbols: Resource Identifiers

Describes symbols and provides information on using the Resource Symbols dialog box to manage symbols in your projects.

Resource Editors

Describes the resource editors provided in Visual Studio, the types of resources you can modify with each editor, and provides links to detailed information on using each editor.

Related Sections

Resources

A section of the Platform SDK that provides general information on resources you can add to Win32-based applications.

Visual C++

Provides links into the Visual C++ documentation.

Introducing Visual Studio .NET

Describes the complete set of development tools that all use the same integrated development environment (IDE), allowing them to share tools and facilitates in the creation of mixed-language solutions.

Getting Assistance

Provides links to information on using the documentation set, contacting product support, and employing accessibility features.