Version reference: 4.9
Website: http://www.htmlexe.com
HTML Executable™ is copyright © G.D.G Software 2006-2016. All Rights Reserved.

Description

HTML Executable™ is a versatile and feature-packed HTML to EXE software compiler that turns HTML and/or PDF documents, simple or complex websites into stand-alone Windows applications for the desktop called digital publications or ebooks. You can select between three "classes" of ebooks to create: Self-Extracting, digital publications featuring a built-in HTML Viewer or ebooks having the same navigation features as Microsoft Internet Explorer. All source files (HTML, graphics, media...) are strongly compressed in order to make compact executable files useful for distribution or archiving purposes.

Everything of the ebook application can be customized according to your needs: apply skins to the user interface; choose GUI items; display splash screens or custom messages; integrate a stand-alone PDF viewer; add a table of contents, a search engine and a favorite manager; restrict access to pages; create trial ebooks and define user rights; use software activation to protect your digital property; lock your ebooks with dongles; use scripting to extend the behavior of your ebook; include automated web updates when you release new ebook versions; make portable versions that run on USB drives; change the icon, the version information of your .exe files and digitally sign them.

You can almost compile any website even using HTML5, JavaScript, Flash, XML, PDF, video (MP4, FLV and Windows Media files), audio (MP3, WMA...), Java applets, Silverlight (XAP, XAML...), HEScript…

HTML Executable has an intuitive interface that lets both inexperienced and advanced users get the most of their first ever executable website.

Use HTML Executable to make unique full-featured ebooks, presentations, digital publications, CD autoruns, Rich Internet applications, demonstrations, offline documentation and compact archives for easier, efficient and secure distribution or backup of your websites...

System Requirements

• Microsoft Windows® 10.1, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP SP3, Server 2008, Server 2003, or higher.
• 1 GB RAM (Recommended: 2 GB RAM or greater).
• Hard Disk: about 50 MB free space. More will be required for creating publications.

HTML Executable 4 is compatible with x64 editions of Windows.

For HTML 5 and CSS 3 support, at least Windows 8 OR Internet Explorer 9 or higher is required.

Old Windows versions (95, 98, Me, 2000) are not officially supported.

Installation Steps

Change History

Version 4.9

• New Web Update feature: it enables publications to check for updates, download them and automatically install them. A Web Update Wizard guides end users through the updating process. No additional software is required, but you must have a web server where to host public update files generated by HTML Executable. Watch our video tutorial about web update for ebooks
• Publications can automatically check for updates at startup. A "What's new" text can be optionally displayed.
• New global HEScript function to trigger a check for updates: Global.HEStartWebUpdate. This can be invoked from menu items or toolbar buttons for instance.
• New ability to encrypt external files: if you decide to keep large source files such as audio and video files outside of the publication (as external files), you may still want to protect them against copy. HTML Executable can encrypt external files so that these files can only be opened by the publication. This is a security feature that will help avoid unwanted copying of your publication resources. It works with large files, especially media files such as HTML5 video (MP4 format) and audio.
• New "Encrypt external files" option in the File Manager to display the "Encrypt external files" utility. The latter allows you to decide which external files you want to protect with encryption.
• Improved behavior when reading external files.
• HTML Executable now displays an error report when an unexpected error occurs and, after user acceptance, HTML Executable can send this error report directly to our support team for review.
• Updated EXE overheads to remove code that could trigger false positives in some antivirus programs.
• New option "Use virtualization for the runtime module" set off by default to minimize the risk of false positives in some antivirus programs.
• New Table of Contents property to allow only one visible panel at a time: CloseIfSearchPanelOpens lets you mimic the default behavior of CHM files.
• New field option to specify the PDF bookmark panel's initial width.
• New option to disable the "View Commands" panel of the built-in PDF viewer.
• Our code signing utility now looks for certificates both in current user and local machine stores.
• New "Reset with default list" button to fill the forbidden programs blacklist with pre-defined items.
• Hyphens and other non-numeric characters are ignored in short registration keys. This lets you make registration keys such as 123-456-78 instead of 12345678.
• Fixed task dialog sizing problem in Windows 10 anniversary update.
• Improved occurrence count of the built-in Search feature.
• Fixed incorrect EXE version information random bug.
• Fixed infinite loop bug that could occur when starting a new project ("creating XML structure" wait dialog box).
• Fixed window.external.GetHEScriptCom JavaScript call bug.
• Improved letter confusion detection in registration keys.
• Improved invalid character detection in fields to avoid system error code 122 "The data area passed to a system call is too small".
• HEScript event named OnWindowCloseQuery is now added to UserMain by default.
• Fixed bug that could lead to incorrect "Runtime error 217" and "HTML Executable corrupted DLL runtime Module" error messages on some computers.
• Fixed: some Self-Extracting publication options were not saved in the project file.
• Fixed: Self-Extracting publications were acting weird with recent versions of FireFox.
• Fixed: PDF bookmarks were not shown at startup even if the option was enabled.
• Added a close button to the toolbar of the built-in PDF viewer, which lets users navigate back.
• Fixed: some external links were not working in PDF files displayed with the built-in PDF viewer.
• Fixed: problem to burn the Enky SL dongle on Windows 10.
• Fixed: HTML Executable Web Update did not properly unpack 7z archives.
• Improved loading of large MP4 video files on Windows 10.
• Updated virtualization engine, HEScript engine, PDF viewer engine, HTML viewer engine.
• Updated Spanish, English and French language files with several new resource strings related to the new Web Update feature.
• Updated documentation and new topics: How to call a javascript function? and How to prompt for a password for closing ebook?

Update 4.9.0.1

• Fixed "invalid registration key" random bug.
• EXE PE header checksum now correctly updated.
• The Cleanup utility now takes account of personalized user preference folder.
• Added a "Copy to clipboard" button to the key generator so that only the registration key is copied.
• Fixed: some encrypted external files could not be properly rendered.
• Minor tweaks.

Compatibility for projects made with previous versions of HTML Executable

It is recommended to reset the Special Content list (Content Filetypes) to take account of recent changes for Windows 10, and to reset your system HTML pages.

You should also review new resource strings if you manage your own language files.

Runtime modules for version 4.9 are compatible with publications made by version 4.8 but not compatible with publications made with previous versions of HTML Executable (4.7 and lower).

Version 4.8

• New content protection feature: it enables publications to protect their own onscreen window content from being captured or copied through screenshot utilities. If someone tries to capture the window, the latter will appear black. The feature is only available on Windows 7 (Desktop Window Manager must be enabled) and later.
• New "If Content Protection cannot be activated, show an error message and exit publication" option to ensure that your ebook will only work if Content Protection is active.
• New software blacklisting feature: you can manage a list of forbidden programs (such as screenshot capture software, screen gabbers and other screencorder software). It is possible to provide process names and keywords to search in all active window titles. When a forbidden program is found, the publication exits.
• New Main Menu button that appears in main window title in order to replace menu bars. This will give a modern look to your publications.
• New Search box that allows users to type their search query directly. Search results are now displayed on the right side (except in RTL mode, on the left side).
• New option to show or hide the search box.
• New skins to give a Windows 10 look to your ebooks/publications:

• New option in the "New Publication" wizard that lets you create a modern Windows 10-like application without menu bar, with Windows 10 skin and application menu button.
• The HTML5 video tag now works properly on Windows 10.
• New HTML5 MP4 video demo and topic in HTML Executable Help file.
• Improved playing of media files in general through HTML5 and/or Flash.
• Improved behavior on Windows 10.
• New option to use short 10-digit registration keys instead of normal ones. Be sure to upgrade your registration key generators with new versions if you use this option in your publications.
• The Table of Contents now accepts PNG images and alpha transparency for image items.
• New Table of Contents image editor which also imports PNG images and bitmap strips.
• SHA2 code signing and dual SHA1-SHA256 signatures are now handled.
• Time stamping uses "RFC 3161 compatible" timestamp server in addition to Authenticode timestamp server when possible. You can configure your own timestamp servers in the Environment Options.
• It is now possible to use certificates available from the Windows Certificate Store (based on Subject Name or Thumbprint).
• Links to bookmarks in PDF files are now supported.
• The PDF Viewer sample has been upgraded to show new features (bookmark jump, external URLs...).
• New option to remember last current page of PDF files. A menu command is also added to ebooks to let users disable the functionality if they don't want it.
• Context menus are now always disabled in popup windows unless you set the global variable named "heenablectxmenuforpopup" to "1".
• The status bar now bears a size grip if the main window is resizeable.
• Online activation now handles TLS/SSL protocols, which means you can use HTTPS for your activation/deactivation URLs if your server uses a valid SSL certificate.
• You can now type the path of the source folder in the "New Project Wizard" or drag and drop the homepage file.
• New "Paste From Clipboard" button in Activation screens: you must reset system HTML pages in order to make it appear.
• New DisableHTTPNegociateProtocol property for IE Browser component. It offers a possible workaround if your publication uses Flash and you have troubles: frozen or not responding application, EXE that hangs and so on.
• Better handling of confusing-letters in registration keys (I/1, l/1, S/5, G/6, Z/2...)
• Change: the built-in server is now enabled by default. It is recommended to reset the Special Content list (Content Filetypes) to take account of recent changes for Windows 10.
• A new 24x24 icon image has been added for Windows 10.
• Added support for WOFF2 fonts and SVG files.
• "Comments" field in version information has been replaced by "LegalTrademarks".
• New ButtonAlign property to align toolbar buttons to the left or to the right. Useful for RTL languages.
• New main window option: "No DPI aware flag: use Windows dpi scaling". This will modify the manifest resource embedded in EXE files automatically: no need to do it yourself.
• New "Open Destination Folder" button on the compilation log page.
• New OnRestoreFromTray HEScript event.
• Improved Java applet support with recent Oracle JVM security changes. The help topic tells you how to get your Java applets working.
• Better stability when processing large publications (project creation, compilation...).
• Zoom is also applied to popup windows, dialog boxes and HTML panels.
• New Windows 10 notifications when a build is finished.
• Fixed problems with large Self-Extracting publications.
• Fixed "Data Error" for large EXE and/or HEDATA files (2 GB and more).
• Fixed context menu in script editor.
• Fixed: EXE does not close if Validation fails.
• Improved High DPI and per monitor-DPI aware support.
• Better compatibility with protection software such as Obsidium: search for Obsidium in the documentation.
• HTML Executable activation/deactivation now uses SSL/TLS by default.
• Updated HEScript scripting, engine skin engine, PDF viewer engine, HTML viewer engine.
• Updated documentation and help file.
• New resource strings: Ypaste, SErrorCopyProtectFailed, SErrorForbiddenProgramDetected.
• Files are now signed with SHA2 signatures.
• Updated Spanish, English and French language files.
• Lots of internal changes and improvements.

What's new in HTML Executable 4

HTML Executable 4 is an important major release with improvements in all areas.
The full change history is available below.

Documentation

• Enhanced documentation.
• New PDF viewer sample.

Full Unicode support and new interface

• HTML Executable and publications are now fully Unicode-enabled. This is an important change that forced a complete rewrite of several parts of HTML Executable. Some restrictions may apply, especially regarding the HTML Viewer engine (see its topic in the documentation).
• New ribbon-like user interface. Several options are more accessible.
• Project settings, XML files are stored in UTF-8 format.
• The "New Project" wizard has an improved layout.
• Project files are now given the extension ".HEPX". The HEPX project format is a Zip archive containing XML, HTML and TXT data.

New built-in PDF viewer for publications

• HTML Executable now lets you integrate a stand-alone PDF viewer in your publications.
• The built-in PDF engine handles almost all PDF documents fine. PDF files created by popular printer drivers, Microsoft Office or OpenOffice should be displayed and printed fine. However, PDF files created by imaging tools may not be properly displayed.
• Thumbnails, bookmarks, text selection, page printing, page navigation, zoom in and out functions are available.
• The new PDF viewer lets you keep your PDF documents as secure as possible: they are no more unpacked to the hard disk, so they cannot be copied.
• PDF are indexed by the search engine like HTML pages and included in search results (optionally).
• Security profiles can be applied to PDF documents too: you can define user rights like text copying, page printing...
• End users can add PDF documents to their favorites.
• Compact: the PDF engine will add less than 2 Mb to your publication EXE file.
• It is possible to create "PDF only" publications: HTML Executable can work like a PDF to EXE software.
• If you do not want to have a built-in PDF viewer, your publication can still use the default PDF reader installed on the end user's computer, like Adobe Reader.
• Hint: if you want to force the publication to open a PDF document in the default PDF reader instead of its built-in viewer, add the "_heopenit" target to the anchor tag as shown in the following HTML code: <a href="mydoc.pdf" target="_heopenit">Open my document</a>.

Publication and HTML rendering engines

• HTML Viewer publications have an improved rendering engine.
• Full support for Internet Explorer 9 and HTML5 / CSS3. Your applications will now render HTML content with the new Trident (MSHTML) engine provided with IE9 if the latter is installed.
• New multithreading support for IE publications, allowing them to display pages faster.
• New EnableIE9GPUMode property (Application Settings > Visual Controls > IE Browser)
  Allows your application to use GPU Rendering mode (hardware acceleration). By default, it will use Software Rendering mode. Only applicable if Internet Explorer 9 is installed on the end user's computer.
• New NoForceIEStandardMode property (Application Settings > Visual Controls > IE Browser)
  When set to False (default), webpages are displayed in IEn Standards mode, regardless of the !DOCTYPE directive. When set to True, only webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IEn mode. (n = 8 if IE8 is installed, n = 9 if IE9 is installed).
• Added IE7 compatibility mode option: if you want your application to use the IE7 rendering engine, even if IE8 or IE9 is set up. Option available at: Application Settings > Visual Controls > IE Browser > UseIE7CompatibilityMode
• New Content Filetypes feature: you can now define whether third-party resources such as SWF, MP3, FLV, MP4... should be extracted to disk or virtualized (i.e. unpacked to memory only). Virtualization is a great feature, allowing you to keep files in memory so that they cannot be copied.
• New CustomUserAgent property (Application Settings > Visual Controls > IE Browser)
  Lets you change the User Agent of the browser. If you leave it blank, the default user agent will be used (for instance, with IE9 installed, it could be "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 9.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/5.0)").
• Improved page printing options.
• IE publication: new printer option ShowPageSetup to show/hide the Page Setup dialog before printing.
• Enhanced popup support for IE publications, new noresize creation parameter.
• New progress animation while loading large files.
  

Unicode-enabled search engine

• The search engine was highly improved in order to work with Unicode.
• HTML Executable now correctly parses HTML pages encoded in foreign languages. Words are stored in the index in UTF-8 format.
• New word delimiter dictionary based on Unicode character categories. There is a special option to split Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters.
• New wildcard search operators: * and ?
• Improved HTML parser.

Ebook security

• Fixed security profile problems with pages in subfolders.
• New option: store global password once on machine or USB stick (if portable publication).
• New "upgrade" option for expiration date: for instance, you have a global rule to expire the software on 5/1/2012, and once it's expired, you will be releasing a new version requiring everyone to upgrade. By associating the expiration date to a version number, you have a way to reset the global expiration once a new version of the software is released.

Trial ebooks - Activation, Deactivation and Validation

• The HTML Executable Activation Kit available to owners of the Commercial edition has been updated for Unicode changes (data is now exchanged in UTF-8 format) and new features.
• New Automated Deactivation feature: in cases of refund requests or computer changes, you can let an end user deactivate the publication. This operation removes registration data from the computer and optionally permanently disables the registration key. HTML Executable can handle automated deactivation too if you work with online activation: with our Protect Ebook .net solution or with the HTML Executable Activation Kit. Automated deactivation increases the number of allowed activations.
• If the automated deactivation fails, an uninstall code is generated and displayed to the end user (and copied to the clipboard too). This uninstall code is the proof that the deactivation was successful. You can verify the integrity of the uninstall code thanks to the new "Check uninstall code" function in the HTML Executable Activation Kit.
• New Validation feature: the publication can periodically check whether the registration key of the end user is still valid or whether it is blocked. For instance, in case of fraudulent purchases, you can remotely block access to your publication. Important: end users must have an Internet connection for the validation. You can define which action should be performed when the validation is unsuccessful. This feature is only available if online activation is chosen, so it will work with our Protect Ebook .net solution or with the HTML Executable Activation Kit.
• You can now add an "Unlock this program" menu command in your publication. End users can unlock your trial publication by selecting "Help => Unlock this program". Previously, end users had to use the nag screen at startup to unlock the program.
• In the same manner, you can have a "Deactivate this program" menu command in your publication. End users can deactivate their registered publication by selecting "Help => Deactivate this program". Previously, end users had to use the command line to deactivate their key.
• Fixed possible system ID modifications when using CPU ID.
• New HEScript events in the UserMain script: OnKeyNotValidated and OnKeyValidation.
• "Registration Key" was revamped as "Activation Key" in case of online activation.

Global improvements

• Improved compression method and publication file storage. Although you can now create publications larger than 2 GB, we recommend you to keep your ebook EXE files as small as possible.
• Self-Extracting publications now can work with Firefox or Google Chrome portable editions.
• New HEScript support for IE zoom (IE publications only): you can configure the optical zoom percent, see the documentation.
• Built-in server improved to handle Java applets and JRE 6. Please keep in mind that not all Java applets may work. See the documentation.
• Dialog boxes can now be exported/imported as templates. You can design dialog boxes once (such as the About dialog box) and create a template. The default template used for all new projects is stored in a file named hedlgtemplate.hesp in the HTML Executable's main folder. Replace this default template with yours.
• Second-level menus can be created. Previously there was only the first hierarchy of menus.
  Now you can have a secondary item under a child item opening up. This will help you to have more menu links.
• The Dependencies feature of HTML pages was improved: you can select several files at once to be dependencies, and choose whether they should be unpacked to memory or to the hard disk.
• File Manager: "Clean" can now remove empty folders.
• Fixed bug with "Display a maximized window" option.
• Updated skin engine and skins.
• Updated internal XML engine.
• Improved error handling while compiling.
• Optimized compiler code.
• "Data Execution Prevention" bug fixed.
• Improved virtualization system for third-party files.
• Improved HTML source code editor with better syntax highlighting, auto-line numbers...

Table of Contents

• New HEScript function to modify the TOC dynamically: LoadTOCfromXMLFile and RefreshTOC.
• You can now show/hide TOC items thanks to the new Visibility property. It can be associated to a Boolean HEScript function.

Scripting improvement - HEScript language

• New script engine handling Unicode.
• New HEScript built-in functions:
  • SelectDirectory: asks the end user for a folder.
  • GetSpecialFolderPath: lets you retrieve Windows system paths.
  • ManageWaitForm: lets you display a wait message dialog box.
• New improved script editor with code auto completion (CTRL+SPACE), parameters help (SHIFT+Click), better syntax highlighting.

Compatibility issues

HTML Executable 4 can import projects made with previous 3.x versions. However, some issues may occur.

Due to the Unicode introduction, system HTML pages and resource strings are inevitably replaced by new ones. To prevent loss of data when you load a project saved with a 3.x version, HTML Executable will extract your previous system HTML pages and resource strings to XML/HTML files and store them in a zip archive. This Zip archive is created in the same folder as your .HEP project file and named [project filename]conversionbackup.zip. This backup operation can be disabled in the Environment Options if you wish.

• "System HTML pages" are now replaced by "Dialog Boxes".
• Dialog boxes are now in XHTML / UTF-8 format.
• "Look" and associated CSS were modified.
• Custom dialog boxes are ignored: please import them again.
• Fields have an ID attribute now for JavaScript manipulations.
• There are several new resource strings.
• Deactivation feature: the "uninstall code" generator script was modified.
• HEScript functions STRENCODEBINHEX and STRDECODEBINHEX were removed.
• Skins now have the ".SKN" extension and no more ".HES".
• Skins were updated and some of them were removed.
• The IE Browser => ViewImages option was removed.
• The "Custom" toolbar button is now removed by default. When importing a project, it becomes "user-editable" so that you can remove it if you do not use it.
• The HETEMP_ directive for DLL files loaded by the script engine is no more available.

Repair and Uninstall

About runtime modules

Additional Notes

Support

HTML Executable © G.D.G. Software 2006-2016 - http://www.gdgsoft.com