While it is possible to use software like 7-zip, Winrar or Winzip to extract all archives of a folder, it is still a manual operation. You have to open the folder in Windows Explorer or in the software to extract all archives that it contains. Some program support extracting archives in subfolders, while others do not.

When you first start AutoWinRarZip you are asked to add at least one folder to the program. Each folder that you add will be monitored actively whenever the program is running in the background.

You can then specify a destination directory where the archives will be unpacked to, if you want to delete the archives after a successful extraction and whether you want to create a folder for each archive in the destination directory.

AutoWinRarZip supports several archive formats, including rar and zip, but also lesser used formats such as tar or gzip. The software will auto detect zip and rar extensions in the specified directories and automatically extract the archive contents to the destination folder.

A progress bar and file listing is displayed whenever archives are extracted by the software.

The automatic nature of the program is the one feature that could make this program interesting for some Windows users. Features like automatic extraction of all archives in a selected root folder are also supported by other programs for Windows, like the excellent Extract Now.

AutoWinRarZip is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating system. The program needs the Microsoft .NET Framework, the developer unfortunately forgot to mention which version of it.

Interested users can download the application from the official program website. (via)

The extension makes it easy to extract multiple attachments at once. Just select all the mails that have the attachments that you want to extract and right-click afterwards. The option to extract them either to the default Thunderbird directory or to another location can be selected from the context menu. You may want to configure the attachment extractor further. You could for instance add potentially dangerous file types to a filter, add a default save path or define which action should take place if a file name already exists.

Installation is a little bit trickier than installing extensions in Firefox. You have to download the xpi file and install it directly in Thunderbird by going to Tools > Extensions > Install. Choose the downloaded file and it will be installed automatically at the next start.