Gunique GUID Resolution Tool
This article is part of a backup. It was originally posted on Sunday, May 9. 2004.
When developing or reversing engineering software and websites, or when dealing with ActiveX, COM, OLE or other Windows internals in general, one often faces so called GUIDs. Most of the time it is not clear what exactly a given GUID represents. Gunique is a small freeware tool that is able to translate GUIDs to human readable names and vice versa.
Download
Name: Gunique
Version: 1.0.0 Build 9
Download: gunique.zip (286kB)
Note: By using Gunique you agree to the disclaimer at the bottom of this file.
Screenshot
Contents
Application (2 Files):
- /gunique.exe – Gunique application
- /readme.txt – this file
Installation
Just copy the two files into a folder of your choice. No additional steps required.
Known Bugs and Issues
There are no known bugs.
FAQ
- Q: What is a GUID?
- A: The term GUID is short for Global Unique Identifier, a 128-bit (16 bytes) integer value that can be used to identify any sort of components, such as hardware and software. Whenever you need to uniquely identify something, GUIDs are your best friend.
- Q: How are GUIDs used in Microsoft Windows?
- A: In the Windows OS, GUIDs are used in a number of different ways. Their main purpose is to identify certain parts of software, specifically COM classes (CLSID) and interfaces (IID), but also type libraries (libUUID), drivers, device classes, network connections and users.
- Q: How are GUIDs generated?
- A: There are many different ways to create GUIDs, but usually there’s an algorithm to combine various unique settings, such as the MAC address of your network adapter, the IP address of your computer, the current time or a random number. This algorithm guarantees that it’s very unlikely to generate two GUIDs with the same value.
- Q: Which GUIDs can be translated into human readable names?
- A: Translation is limited to the information saved in the system registry. Therefore only GUIDs for registered software components can be converted. This includes the software components mentioned in the previous question.
- Q: What is the Running Object Table (ROT)?
- A: The ROT is a Windows internal table that holds a list of currently registered and running COM objects on your machine.
- Q: Are wildcards supported in the search window?
- A: Yes, currently supported wildcards are ‘*’ to match any number of characters, and ‘?’ to match any single character. Wildcards cannot be used when searching for GUIDs though.
- Q: Where can I learn more about COM, GUIDs and the ROT?
- A: Do a search on MSDN
- Q: Where can I get the latest version of Gunique?
- A: http://www.gerke-preussner.de
Disclaimer
Copyright (c) 2004 headcrash industries. All rights reserved.
This software is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied. In no event shall the author or its contributors be held liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use this software.
Redistribution of Gunique in any form, including but not limited to websites, CDROM and printed media, is strictly prohibited and requires the explicit permission of the author.

