[Petrosyan]

Hi,

Is it possible in anyway to load a file into memory and then run it
from there? I am working on a file compressor, that can compress and encrypt and save
multiple files as an exe file that can then run the compressed files
after unpacking them to a temp folder. The problem is that I have to
unpack the files to the hard-disk and then run them from there, making
them vulnerable to user that may try to get the original (unprotected)
files.

So the user shouldn't have access to the file operations in the
background. So I need to keep the original unpacked files hidden from
the user, until after they are opened by the unpacker and then deleted.
So users should have no kind of access to the files (should not see
them, open them, should not be able to modify or copy them) but the
unpacker should be able to run them. (that is why I think that the
memory is the best solution)

So is there any way to protect them, like unpacking them directly to
memory and then run them from there? Something like a virtual disk in
memory?

Thanks.

[digioz]

Take a look at this MSDN Article:

Managing Memory-Mapped Files in Win32

Pete

[Stepanenko]

I think you need to use component for emulating file system and registry. I know one - BoxedApp SDK. If you'll have any questions, ask me.

[m.timoney]

if you just want to work with a file in memory then the usual way of doing that is to read the file into a memory stream and then use the memory stream as your data-source

FileStream Class (System.IO)

MemoryStream Class (System.IO)

so you use file stream to read the compressed data, uncompress it into a Memory steam then manipulate it at will

however if you are running 3rd party software then you need to do like digioz said