Search exe file for English words

Question

I am trying to find out if there are open source components in an app I found online. I have skimmed the file in a Hex editor but can't spend the hours that would be required going line by line looking for any unencrypted words that may exist helping this quest. Is there an app (Preferrably portable) out there to search a file using a dictionary list as a source?

Answer 1

If you are on *nix, the strings command does what you want.

This seems to do the same on windows: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897439