Extract Now was the application of choice for a long time on my computer system. It integrated itself nicely into the right-click context menu and was able to unpack almost any file or files that had been selected. It would queue up all tasks at hand and run them in the background with options to delete the source file once the operation had been finished.
One of the main features was the ability to search for archives in folders. All discovered file archives would be automatically added to the queue and processed. It had some limitations though. The major limitation was that it could not unpack software installers. It is sometimes important to be able to unpack an installer to check the files that will be installed before starting the process. Sometimes a single file might even be all that is needed.
Universal Extractor works pretty much the same way that Extract Now does. It integrates itself into the right-click context menu and can process multiple software archives at once. It can be used to unpack multiple archives or installer that reside in the same directory at once.
The last sentence contains the biggest feature and a limitation. The main feature is that it can extract all kinds of software installers so that the files of each package become available. The limitation is that it cannot search in folders for archives.
To sum it up: Universal Extractor supports additional formats and the important software installers that Extract Now does not. The only unique feature of Extract Now is the ability to search for archives in folders which might not be needed at all depending on the amount of archives on a computer system.
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4 Responses to “Unpack Installers With Universal Extractor”
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[...] is to download the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor 1.0 and extract the installation package with the Universal Extractor or a similar tool that is capable of that. The other possibility would be to install the Upgrade [...]
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[...] software that can extract archive contents you might be better off with a tool like 7-zip or the Universal Extractor. Like such posts? Get updates via RSS NEWS FEED. Love Ghacks? Find out how you can help! [...]
this fantastic software, i’ve been using it for ages. very useful for unpacking installers when testing apps.
since it’s more or less a graphical front end to several great command line tools, and since the download package isn’t always kept up to date, it is a good idea to keep an eye on the items you use the most to make sure you keep them up to date. the actual executable are in the /bin folder of the install directory, and can be easily replaced with newer versions.
I have been using this software from a long time. Great to get a peak in the installers before actually executing them. I too recommend this and also mentioned about it on my blog as well.