How to Run an EXE from Memory

BoxedApp SDK lets you run an executable directly from memory: the EXE is placed in the virtual file system and launched with standard Windows APIs (e.g., ShellExecute)—without creating a physical file on disk.

The executable is visible only to the current process and child processes that inherit the same virtual environment. From the OS perspective no real file exists; all I/O is served by the BoxedApp virtualization layer. This is useful when you need a truly self-contained app, want to prevent extraction/tampering, or wish to run embedded tools without leaving traces or temporary files.

Create a virtual EXE, write embedded bytes into it, and launch it via ShellExecute.

Try BoxedApp SDK

C++ Sample

BoxedAppSDK_Init();
 
HMODULE hModule = GetModuleHandle(NULL);
HRSRC hResInfo = FindResource(hModule, _T("BIN1"), _T("BIN"));
HGLOBAL hResData = LoadResource(hModule, hResInfo);
LPVOID lpData = LockResource(hResData);
DWORD dwSize = SizeofResource(hModule, hResInfo);
 
HANDLE hFile = 
   BoxedAppSDK_CreateVirtualFile(
      _T("app1.exe"), 
      GENERIC_WRITE, 
      FILE_SHARE_READ, 
      NULL, 
      CREATE_NEW, 
      0, 
      NULL);
 
DWORD temp;
WriteFile(hFile, lpData, dwSize, &temp, NULL);
 
CloseHandle(hFile);
 
ShellExecute(NULL, NULL, _T("app1.exe"), NULL, NULL, SW_SHOW);