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Open up almost any file with Universal Extractor

downloadsquad.com — One of the first applications we install on every Windows PC and portable flash drive is 7-Zip. This handy little application has never met a ZIP, RAR, or otherwise archived file that it can't extract. But one thing 7-Zip can't handle is archived files that it doesn't think are archives. That's where Universal Extractor comes in handy.

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 28, 2007

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  • lord2800, on 11/28/2007, -25/+52WinRAR > 7-zip.
  • rivalius13, on 11/28/2007, -3/+24I've never had any trouble with WinRAR.
  • bahamutxd, on 11/28/2007, -2/+207zip has better compression in its native format.
  • beef623, on 11/28/2007, -2/+19What's better about winRAR?
  • jrowny, on 11/28/2007, -1/+11I disagree. 7 zip is the quickest and easiest for me... as well as the smallest footprint. I love me some 7 zip. But I also think it has a lot to do with preference.
  • johnny222, on 11/28/2007, -1/+11I use IZArc
  • V1ncent, on 11/28/2007, -0/+77zip is the Irfanview of archive utils. It works but looks like doo-doo
  • radial, on 11/29/2007, -2/+8winrar > $0
    7zip = free
  • Joners, on 11/28/2007, -3/+9I have, never had a problem with any passwords on rar or zip files.
  • jquipp, on 11/28/2007, -1/+7What a great concept. Man ... I could've used this yesterday.
  • ileftfark, on 11/28/2007, -1/+77-Zip and cross-platform programming ftw. Although in Windows, I really loved WinRAR.
  • Ralphy, on 11/28/2007, -0/+5Yes, IZArc is a hell of a lot better then this crappy program.
  • sproket, on 11/29/2007, -0/+4ZipGenius http://www.zipgenius.it/eng/index.php
  • EuphopiaB, on 11/28/2007, -2/+5Perhaps, but I use the .7z format and I get the best ratios with it.
  • Zero456, on 11/28/2007, -0/+3FTA: Universal Extractor lets you peek inside the contents of EXE and MSI files.
  • Otto, on 11/28/2007, -2/+57-Zip is fine, but it's god-awful slow. WinRAR screams right through those files, way faster than anything else.
  • mtekk, on 11/29/2007, -0/+3nothing
  • Joners, on 11/28/2007, -0/+3only reason i dont use winrar is that bloody nag screen, so use 7-zip. Mind you personally ive never come across anything that 7-zip cant extract. Guess my needs are pretty simple, like most i imagine.
  • mfearby, on 11/29/2007, -0/+2Um, why does it have to run msiexec? Wouldn't doing that fire up the installer for the thing you're trying to extract? I just tried it on an MSI and it did seem to show the MSI basic interface (read: progress dialogue) for a bit to actually extract the files, so I guess it does run msiexec when needed.
  • pbgswd, on 11/28/2007, -1/+3is there an extraction app for linux desktop to bypass password protected archives, like movies downloaded that are password protected?
  • Loyaleagle, on 11/28/2007, -1/+3I've been using UE for a long time now and it's amazingly nice. It really will unzip most anything and is contextually controlled on the right click menu. Almost feels like part of the OS.
  • Coven, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2STFU & GTFO!

    LOL! JK
  • adragons, on 11/28/2007, -0/+27zip is slower than winRAR but overall I find that waiting those extra few seconds are paid back by the ease of use, standalone-ness, and small footprint.
  • inactive, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2But does it do password protected RARs when you don't have the password?
  • kronix2, on 11/29/2007, -0/+2It uses obscene amounts of RAM when (de)compressing if set to the highest (Ultra?) compression strength. The second highest compression profile consumes a reasonable amount of RAM, in my experience.
  • arcooke, on 11/29/2007, -0/+2WinRAR did a promotion once where for one day, you could get a free license completely free. You can still find that floating around on the internets.. and it's perfectly legal.

    Free license key: http://dyn.uneasysilence.com/rarkey.rar
    WinRAR v3.51 http://www.win-rar.com/index.php?id=160&dl=wrar351 ...
  • arcooke, on 11/29/2007, -0/+1Yeah but its quite a bit slower and if I remember right, it uses obscene amounts of ram when compressing to .7z. Not worth it to shave a few kb or mb off of a file if you ask me.
  • arcooke, on 11/29/2007, -0/+1Sorry, Digg's edit system screwed me. Here's the proper link to WinRAR v3.51 http://files4.rarlab.com/rar/wrar351.exe
  • daliminator, on 11/29/2007, -0/+1Wow...I've been looking for something like this for so long. Sweetness.
  • halofr34k, on 11/29/2007, -1/+2winrar = infinite free trial
  • TomP, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1I've just converted to ALZip from WinRAR :)
  • whiledo, on 03/25/2009, -0/+1Gonna throw in my bit for ExtractNow
    http://www.extractnow.com/

    Extracts: ZIP, RAR, ISO, BIN, IMG, IMA, IMZ, 7Z, ACE, JAR, GZ, LZH, LHA, TAR, SIT

    The UI is clean and with a couple of settings can be made to totally stay out of your way. It's the perfect thing to put on a non-techy friend's computer, too (that's how I found it).
  • Suricou, on 11/30/2007, -0/+1RAR passwords are very hard to break - encrypted, very long key. The only feasable attack is usually to brute-force the password... There are programs available that do just that.
  • gincarnated, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1What does? Sound quite useful.
  • bowe, on 11/29/2007, -0/+1Hmm, I only have 7zip but I am able to extract exe files on Vista. In fact, I can attempt to extract any file. The 7 zip contextual menu is always available and it attempts to extract the archive regardless of extension.
  • lurkerz, on 11/29/2007, -0/+1Lookup ARCHPR
  • deanshultz, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1thanks for the post. oddly, i was more interested in the author's script tool, AutoIT. thanks again.
  • bratterscain, on 11/28/2007, -2/+2Won't install on Vista 64. Anyone know why?
  • timster, on 11/28/2007, -1/+1After I enter the password, I get an error like "the archive is already up to date" then 7-Zip locks up.
  • anthortic, on 11/29/2007, -0/+0no
  • rivalius13, on 11/29/2007, -1/+1If you don't know why then you shouldn't have got the 64bit version.
  • jmpeagle, on 11/28/2007, -3/+2sweet, being able to open .rar will allow me to watch more porn
  • PARAPA, on 11/28/2007, -6/+4What does install on Vista??
  • inactive, on 11/28/2007, -4/+27zip sucks, unp ftw
  • RamezaniK, on 11/28/2007, -5/+2"StuffIt Deluxe" serves as a perfect "universal" extracting software on Mac OS.... I've had this for years now.
  • HoldenCfld, on 11/28/2007, -5/+2FTA? I'm assuming that means "from the article?"
    When did typing out words become such a task? Coincidentally, I find it somewhat funny that it was used it to show the laziness of the person who asked a question that's answered in the article.
  • HoldenCfld, on 11/28/2007, -5/+1Does this offer anything ALZip or WinRAR doesn't?
  • samcrut, on 11/28/2007, -8/+3Over on this side of the tracks we just use Stuffit Expander. It's hard to find stuff it won't work with.
  • ottodestruct, on 11/28/2007, -6/+0Kind of useless since all it does is run msiexec
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