In earlier LabVIEW versions (prior to LabVIEW 2009), you could list all the VIs inside a built LabVIEW application using the List Folder function. This is a very useful feature, since you might want to dynamically open VI References or find *.lvclass (LabVIEW Class) files for loading plugins, etc.
However, in LabVIEW 2009 this no longer works. But, there’s still hope. It turns out that LabVIEW 2009 EXEs are basically just ZIP archives.
And, you can list the contents of LabVIEW 2009 EXE files, programmatically, using the OpenG Zip Tools library, as shown below:
Note: The image above is a VI Snippet and you can just drag & drop it into a LabVIEW 2009 block diagram (but, make sure to install the OpenG Zip Tools first). Or, download the VI File, here: List LV2009 EXE File Contents.vi
Voilà! Problem solved 
I definitely couldn’t live without these handy VIs.
We were not able to list a LabVIEW 8.x exe’s vi’s using list folder. Are you sure you didn’t mean prior to LabVIEW 8.0 you could view vi’s the first way?
Thomas: Yes, you are probably right. I forgot that they disabled this capability in 8.x.
In LabVIEW 8.x you need to strip some header part from your executable, the rest is an llb like in the 7.x days.
Somewhere on Lava is info about this, I just can’t find it.
Ton
Couldn’t you just use the “Use LabVIEW 8.x file layout” option when you build the executable instead?
Thomson: I think that that LabVIEW 8.x file layout will change the structure but not the format. Meaning, it will still be stored in a ZIP format, but it will just be a flat folder with no subfolders.