The self-extracting executable may need to be renamed to contain a file extension associated with the corresponding packer archive file formats known to support this include ARJ and ZIP. While self-extracting archives cannot be extracted under another operating system, they can usually still be opened using a suitable extractor as this tool will disregard the executable part of the file and extract only the archive resource. Unlike self-extracting archives, non-self-extracting archives only contain archived files and must be extracted with a program that is compatible with them. Many embedded self-extractors support a number of command line arguments, such as specifying the target location or selecting only specific files. By using a file archiver, users can view or decompress self-extracting files they received without running executable code (for example, if they are concerned about viruses).Ī self-extracting archive is extracted and stored on a disk when executed under an operating system that supports it. However, file archivers like WinRAR can still treat self-extracting files as any other compressed files. Such a compressed file does not require an external program to decompress the contents of the self-extracting file, and it can run the operation itself.

It incorporates an executable file module, a module used to run uncompressed files from compressed files.

Exe extract software