I'm currently using WinZip to create self-extracting EXEs. In the past I have had to modify file names in the self-extracting EXE using a hex-editor, and this was easy because WinZip stores the file names as plain text, not compressed or encoded at all. I'm wondering if anyone is familiar enough with the formats of other programs like WinZip to know if any store the command-line parameters of the program to run after self-extraction is complete in an uncompressed format that is easy to modify with hex-editor? From check WinZip, it appears the parameters are stored in a weird format, because I see them several times in the resulting EXE and they don't appear to be easy to modify.
I'm not really modifying these in hex editor, I really just use that as an example that is easier to understand. I actually modify this in ASP.NET code on my web server, as I stream the file for download, and inject some data that is specific to each download/session, that my app uses later after install. I know I could build the EXE on my web server for each download, but I'd rather avoid the overhead on my server if I can... as it is, I already have to read in the file, modify it, write it back out, sign it, then let them download. So compressing wouldn't be too much extra I suppose, but I'd rather avoid if as easy as just using a different app to build my self-extracting EXE.