Self extracting exe windows

Sometimes you encounter a file on the Net which is compressed as a self-extracting zip-file for Windows only. Its file extension is «.exe». But you HAVE to have its contents, and you just can’t open that .exe file! For instance, a PDF manual from Canon’s site — they tell you to open it with Acrobat, but they made it an exe, saving just 0.2 MB.

Well, there is a «dirty» way to open it. Just rename the file extension to «.zip» (and confirm the dialog), and open it with Stuffit Expander. It doesn’t work with Panther’s built-in zip-extractor (BOMArchiveHelper) — so don’t double-click the file, but choose «Open with > Stuffit Expander» from the contextual menu (control-click on the file). I tested this with Stuffit Expander 7.0.3, but my guess is that you can use almost any version.

You can also use the command-line utility unzip in Terminal — in that case, you don’t even have to rename the file. A simple unzip thisfile.exe is enough to get things going. I believe this command comes with Panther, but I’m not sure. Either way, you can obtain it from the Fink package called «zip.»

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Thanks for the hint. After hearing it, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it, but I didn’t. I just gave up after seeing those darn .exe extensions. Thanks again.

My company issues manuals in the form of self-extracting .exe files for Windows machines.

But I find that I can just drop the .exe file on Stuffit Expander and have it extract the files without have to change the extension to .zip.

Info-ZIP unzip and zip ship with the OS, and appear to be at v5.20. /sw/bin/unzip is at version 5.50.

/sw/bin/unzip indicates you installed it with Fink. Fink installs all of its software into /sw.

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Answering the age-old question: which is more painful, going to work or gouging your eye out with a spoon?
www.workorspoon.com

/sw/bin/unzip indicates you installed it with Fink. Fink installs all of its software into /sw.

Not necessarily. The existence of /sw/bin/unzip only suggests it belongs to Fink. In this case, Fink appears to require unzip as part of the base install. I did not explicitly install unzip from Fink.

This is why I specified the two versions: zip and unzip is installed with the OS and are located in the usual places. Fink will place an additional unzip (only) in it’s root.

What would happen if stuffit were made the «default app» for files with the .exe & .EXE suffix?

On my system, they are set to Radnor (which I installed to test, but don’t actually use), which brings up a related point: if you had a dos version of unzip on your system, and if the default app for .exe was Radnor, then wouldn’t dosbox start & self-extract the file?

Remember not all .exe’s are zip files.

Some windows downloads are basically a small unzip utility, and a zip archive. But some other installers don’t unzip and are compressed in other fashions.

Otherwise this is a great thing to keep in the back of your mind.

So Remember if it fails it may not be stuffit’s fault, but it might really be a program excutable.

—
I thought once I was found but it was only a dream

I also never thought of this. I tried the drag and drop method and it just didn’t do anything, and deluxe just said «what the heck am I supposed to do with this. » I tried it on some files that caused deluxe to hiccup previously and they extracted no problem. BIG thanks.

The .exe’s you are referring to are self extracting zip archives. Just a .zip with a code stub of winzip (or another util) attached so it can extract the files from the .zip archive. It’s basically the equivalent of using stuffit to create a self extracting archive in case someone doesn’t have stuffit installed on their mac.

Though I doubt there’s any mac user anywhere who doesn’t have at least one copy of stuffit expander installed on some drive somewhere. 🙂

The other.exes are probably just plain old applications, and all sorts of weirdness can happen with those. They really should use some other extension for self extracting .zip archives to help us cut down on the confusion. 😉

You could also just drag the exe file to Expander.

just verifying this comment, many of these «.exe» files that are compressed, don’t need to be renamed, you can just drag them onto stuffit expander and it will decompress.

(I’ve done this with some ethernet card drivers, downloaded before)

WinZip Self Extractor 4.0.12218

Автор	Corel Corporation (Сайт)
Языки	Русский еще

Основная информация о программе

WinZip Self-Extractor — это полезная утилита для создания самораспаковывающихся Zip-файлов.

Самораспаковывающиеся Zip-файлы являются идеальным средством для электронного распространения файлов, поскольку они позволяют пользователю использовать привычный интерфейс Windows для распаковывания файлов без установки отдельного архиватора. Кроме того, После распаковки самораспаковывающиеся Zip-файлы могут запускать программу установки, предоставленную создателем архива.

WinZip Self-Extractor является программным компаньоном WinZip и имеет отдельную лицензию.

Ключевые особенности и функции

• поддержка расширенного шифрования;
• создавайте самораспаковывающиеся Zip-файлы, содержащие файлы с 128- или 256-разрядным шифрованием по стандарту AES;
• поддержка дополнительных методов сжатия;
• теперь поддерживаются файлы со сжатием PPMd и Enhanced Deflate;
• поддержка иконок высокого разрешения;
• пользователи ОС Windows 2000 или Windows XP могут использовать иконки размером 16×16, 32×32 и 48×48 бит или 8-битные или 32-битные иконки с эффектом прозрачности;
• нправление мастером.

Настройка:

• простое создание и настройка самораспаковывающихся Zip-файлов.

Настройка установки оборудования:

• WinZip Self-Extractor позволяет создавать самораспаковывающиеся Zip-файлы для установки программ, при этом можно с легкостью настраивать значки и текст диалогового окна самораспаковывающегося Zip-файла, а также открывать любой тип файла в сопоставленном ему приложении.

Разбивка на диски:

• самораспаковывающийся Zip-файл, созданный с помощью WinZip Self-Extractor, может быть разделен по размеру на несколько частей. Например, эта функция удобна в случае если вы хотите записать большой оббьем информации на несколько CD дисков. Безусловно не имеет значения тип носителя, главное что программа может подогнать размер файлов для записи, а куда записывать информацию это уже вам решать.

Вызов из командного окна «Пуск»/»Выполнить»:

• WinZip Self-Extractor может запускаться из диалогового окна «Выполнить» меню «Пуск». Для этого нужно просто ввести строку wzipse32.

How to extract a self extracting exe from commandline

Is there a way to extract a self extracting exe from commandline in windows?

I have a self extracting exe which is of type RAR. I want to extract the contents of this RAR only with the help of windows and not using any other tools (like 7zip, Unrar etc) which helps to extract. Also, I want to do it from the command line only.

Are there any utilities in windows which I can use to extract the self extracting exe file from commandline?

4 Answers 4

You might be able to get the self-extacting RAR archive to do what you want with one or more of the following RAR SFX (self-extracting archive) options:

GUI self-extracting modules support following command line switches:

I’m not sure if any of these options will suppress running a setup program that the SFX is configured to run.

Download UnRar for windows (freeware) from this link. It in itself is a self extracting archive, which when installed will give you the actual unrar.exe. You can then use unrar.exe to extract files from the command line.

Use unzip utility from http://www.info-zip.org/. It is an open source and binaries are available for all os flavors.

unzip command: unzip.exe sample.zip -d extract_folder

Download latest windows executable at ftp://ftp.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/win32/. After downloading the binary like ‘unz552xn-x64.exe’, run it in command line, it will give a set of files including unzip.exe. since unzip.exe does not have any dependency other files can be deleted.

For others that are looking for the answer to this.

Download the trial version or purchase WinRAR. Right click the files you want to package and select add to archive.

Check «create sfx archive» on the General tab, this will give you the file.exe

Select the «sfx options» on the Advanced tab, under the Modes tab select «hide all». If you don’t want the extracted files to show or stay after your program/script has run then «Unpack to temporary folder» under this same tab.

Under the Setup tab in the «run after extraction» put the program or script you would like to run.

Once file(s) have been packaged you will have a file called file.exe. (Note:File will be what you named the sfx archive). From command line type file.exe and it will extract to the temp location (if you selected that) and run the program/script that you specified. Once the program/script closes the folder in the temp location will be removed.

Notes:

If running from a WinPe CD or otherwise similar bootable media do not use «Unpack to Temporary Folder».

WinRAR only has to be on the computer making the sfx archive. Once the sfx archive is made you won’t need it to extract the files.

Self extracting archive (EXE) for Windows

I’m looking for an easy way to create a self extracting archive (EXE) on Microsoft Windows platforms. I know that there is a built-in tool IExpress.exe, but that has a wizard style UI and I need a «silent» tool, which can be called by scripts. It should be:

• Scriptable (Windows shell script or Ant build file)
• Free for commercial use
• Optionally unpack in a temporary folder or ask the user where to put the unpacked files
• Nice to have: Auto launch an executable in the archive after unpack
• No knick-knack like creating desktop icons, start menu entries, etc. Just plain unpack functionality into a named folder.

1 Answer 1

Tools List: I assume you have already checked stuff like this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-extracting_archive.

iExpress: This tool has some severe security vulnerabilities. Don’t use it please. It is tragic to deal with if your clients and customers face these problems. A wrong turn to make as they say.

7-Zip: I wrote this answer some time back relating to problems seen when creating 7-Zip archives: Error Creating a 7-zip installer package. Although 7-Zip seems solid overall, I get the feeling that the self-extraction parts is not prioritized (as of yet). Or basically just not finished.

WinZip & WinRAR: I guess WinZip or WinRAR would be the most common and most tested solutions, without being an expert on the subject. I always prefer «real» setup tools since these are generally much better tested than self-extracting archives due to their «heavy rotation» — plenty of use. They are also pretty good at running in minimum dependency scenarios — or on «normal systems» — without too many weird dependencies. And they appear more recognizable by anti-virus scanners and hence limiting the problem of false positives. I also find them easier for end users to deal with.

Can we ask why you need this to be self-extracting? Zip support has been built into Windows for quite some time? Just asking, I am sure there are very good reasons.

How do I make a self extract and running installer

So currently my users download a zipfile, unzip it and then run setup.exe — I would like them to do this with one click. Using http://www.wikihow.com/Use-7Zip-to-Create-Self-Extracting-excutables i can make a self-extracting exe, but it doesn’t actually run the installer.

From this question

it seems I also need an .sfx file so I copied from the other question and created one with the following contents

and called setup.sfx and add this to archive together with the other files

but it made no difference, what else do I need to do.

Supplementary question, I also have WinRar, does it effect the end user experience whether I use 7Zip or Winrar ?

3 Answers 3

I have created step by step instructions on how to do this as I also was very confused about how to get this working.

Here are the steps.

Step 1 — Setup your installation folder

To make this easy create a folder c:\Install. This is where we will copy all the required files.

Step 2 — 7Zip your installers

1. Go to the folder that has your .msi and your setup.exe
2. Select both the .msi and the setup.exe
3. Right-Click and choose 7Zip —> «Add to Archive»
4. Name your archive «Installer.7z» (or a name of your choice)
5. Click Ok
6. You should now have «Installer.7z».
7. Copy this .7z file to your c:\Install directory

Step 3 — Get the 7z-Extra sfx extension module

You need to download 7zSD.sfx

1. Download one of the LZMA packages from here
2. Extract the package and find 7zSD.sfx in the bin folder.
3. Copy the file «7zSD.sfx» to c:\Install

Step 4 — Setup your config.txt

I would recommend using NotePad++ to edit this text file as you will need to encode in UTF-8, the following instructions are using notepad++.

1. Using windows explorer go to c:\Install
2. right-click and choose «New Text File» and name it config.txt
3. right-click and choose «Edit with NotePad++
4. Click the «Encoding Menu» and choose «Encode in UTF-8»

Enter something like this:

Edit this replacing [SOFTWARE v1.0.0.0] with your product name. Notes on the parameters and options for the setup file are here.

CheckPoint

You should now have a folder «c:\Install» with the following 3 files:

Step 5 — Create the archive

These instructions I found on the web but nowhere did it explain any of the 4 steps above.

Open a cmd window, Window + R —> cmd —> press enter

In the command window type the following

Look in c:\Install and you will now see you have a MyInstaller.exe You are finished

Run the installer

Double click on MyInstaller.exe and it will prompt with your message. Click OK and the setup.exe will run.

P.S. Note on Automation

Now that you have this working in your c:\Install directory I would create an «Install.bat» file and put the copy script in it.

Now you can just edit and run the Install.bat every time you need to rebuild a new version of you deployment package.

Okay I have got it working, hope this information is useful.

First of all I now realize that not only do self-extracting zip start extracting with doubleclick, but they require no extraction application to be installed on the users computer because the extractor code is in the archive itself. This means that you will get a different user experience depending on what you application you use to create the sfx

I went with WinRar as follows, this does not require you to create an sfx file, everything can be created via the gui:

• Select files, right click and select Add to Archive
• Use Browse.. to create the archive in the folder above
• Change Archive Format to Zip
• Enable Create SFX archive
• Select Advanced tab
• Select SFX Options
• Select Setup tab
• Enter setup.exe into the Run after Extraction field
• Select Modes tab
• Enable Unpack to temporary folder
• Select text and Icon tab
• Enter a more appropriate title for your task
• Select OK
• Select OK

The resultant exe unzips to a temporary folder and then starts the installer