hi! I've been wondering if something like reversed compiling can be done to actually get the source code of a program. I tried win32 disassembler but got just lots of non understandable lines....

When you disassemble an executable, the generated code is usually assembly language. There are some disassemblers which generate C, but a) it is not going to be the original code b) is not going to be object-oriented or well-organized c) will not be documented and d) will not be much more readable then assembly.

Source code is not included in an executable. Executables consist of either object code or machine code. Remember: when a compiler runs, it may take a reusable module, and compile it in such a way that for performance optimization the generated modules are repeated throughout the executable, to help the processor reduce cache misses. Also, loops are often flattened out ("unrolled") -- again, for the same reason - so the CPU(s') cache(s) can keep looking forward in a linear fashion rather than incur a cache miss and resultant pauses while the MMU goes out to main memory to fetch the required data.

In linux try objdump - but you get assembly, not C or Basic.

ohh...well thank you both for answering. I thought it would be a good way of finding functions and answers to the famous 'how did they do this!??' for instance I have a free software to automatically shutdown the computer (power off; runs in windows xp) so I expected to read the actual lines where it sends this command but as you well said it, I only get assembly code...
Thanks again

There is an API to shut down Windows - go to msdn.microsoft.com and you can look it up. Also there may be a package on codeproject which will do what you want. There are plenty of timer and alarm projects on there (some may even be VB!) so all you need do do is use one of the timers, store the time at which you want to shut down, and call the API at that time. It should be fairly straightforward.