Universal Extractor V1.6    Suggested by DigeratiPrime - Updated by freakazoid on 5 Dec 2009 10MB (uncompressed) - Popularity score (15869) Website - Screenshot - Download - Comments (40) - Post comment - Permalink

Posted comments:

 Matidio: As I have written already on its page in the comments. It has serious problems with recognizing archive types. Therefore you cannot trust it and have to return to the orignal programs to verify the archive. Unfortunally the author did not respond or changed the application. [2006-04-07 03:02]

 Michel: Actually, it creates some registry entries for itself and for some of the programs embedded. [2006-04-07 06:48]

 Matidio: Yes, but the decision which of the 20 sub-programs to call is taken by the program itself. Its method to recognize archives is based on the first bytes read from an archive/file. Here it fails with some archive ... [2006-04-07 07:16]

 Andrew Lee: Could you elaborate on the registry entries created and whether it affects the app's portability? Thanks! I tried it on a ZIP file and an Inno Setup EXE, but could detect any new registry entries. [2006-04-07 07:26]

 Roger G: Have not yet been able to get uniextract to unpack NSIS install files. As far as registry entries, as stated on the homepage, if the target file extention is .EXE, PIED is called. PIED creates some more registry entries. [2006-06-05 23:16]

 John: the registry values are found at hkey_current_usersoftwareuniextract.
it looks as if it's only a "list" of the most recent file extracted and the folder it was extracted to.
it may store more than just the one that I have, but I don't have time to test it out personally.

but this doesn't the portability. [2006-06-10 16:15]

 Sproaticus: The no-install version is pretty useless, it's compressed in a non-open RAR format, leaving me scrambling to find a program to un-rar the thing. So far, what I've found is shareware, and requires an install. No thanks. [2006-06-16 16:29]

 johnagain: sproaticus, 7zip can open Rars without a problem, along with many other compressed formats. it is freeware, but non-portable. *maybe* portable if you use a command line executable.
http://www.7-zip.org/ [2006-06-17 00:10]

 johnoncemore: if you want a portable un-rarrer, just use the search box at the top of this page, and search for "rar". there are quite a few to choose from, all freeware and portable, I would assume. as they're on portablefreeware.com. [2006-06-17 00:15]

 anonymous: I just ran my registry cleaner.
it found entries for this at hkey_users/.default/software/uniextract/history/. it's only a list of files I extracted previously. does not effect portability. [2006-06-18 14:15]

 Lupo73: 7zip is portable too [2006-06-24 01:48]

 Ryan: In my experiences the program has worked beautifully. I've never had it mess anything up once and i LOVE the fact that I can pull the files out of any installer. I've made several previously non-portable apps into portable apps by doing this. This gets a HUGE recommendation from me. [2006-08-18 13:33]

 PJ: Warning though, when it writes logs it writes them to the C root drive. [2006-08-19 07:32]

 nitro322: The false positives from AV programs are a known issue. Please see http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=62418&st=123 and read through a couple pages of posts for details.

mangancha, the file you downloaded is fine. The page on legroom.net is the official "home" of UniExtract, but since it's served from a home DSL connection I'm hosting the binaries on a shared webhost environment (c1pher.com) with far more available bandwidth.

PJ and anonymous, as you pointed out UniExtract does write a file to C:\ for debugging, and it does write history information to the registry. When I originally wrote this app I didn't give any thought to the possibility that people would want to run it from a USB drive. However, given that this has become a fairly common use, I'm planning on making the history and debugging features optional in a future version so that it can truly be considered a "portable" app.

Sproaticus, I don't understand your statement at all. RAR is a very common format, and can be freely extracted with any number of utilities. Simply search for unrar.exe to find an official command line version. How does this possibly translate to shareware?

Everyone else, if you have additional comments or questions, please consider sharing them on http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=62418. I regularly follow this message board and can more quickly respond to any concerns. [2006-09-12 08:47]

 tm2k: One of the most exiting tools I've ever used !
With this little tool I managed several apps to run as a portable app just by extracting files from annoying setup packages.
It helped me a lot to build up a wide range collection (of apps) for portable use on a DVD/USB stick. [2006-09-21 14:04]

 Misha: If you want Portable RAR, just copy WinRAR.exe fajl from your PC, and drag file on it. [2006-11-06 13:03]

 Zack: It writes to HKU\... ...\Software\UniExtract\History\
and has entries for all the files and directories it has unzipped. [2006-11-09 16:38]

 ploder: Can't thank you enough for this program. I hate having to use installers because they are increasingly masking malware. With this program I can see exactly what is inside the PE and can run software on my own terms. Keep up the good work! [2006-11-19 05:46]

 papaya: Great program. Extract about 70% of exe file. Thanks. [2007-01-11 09:34]

 Mapido: In fact there is a portable version of 7zip ^^ [2007-02-22 04:20]

 Lupo73: a very good tool...even if dlls of 7zip are old (new dlls 4.44 fix some problems)... [2007-02-22 10:40]

 AlephX: I found it inteesting: it can extract .eml files from OE .dbx files... [2007-02-25 22:37]

 brad: I would love to see a right-click context menu item for this.. "UniExtract to NameOfFile..". It's a pain to always have to go to uniextract and run it etc. [2007-04-03 07:21]

 Firewrath: create a shortcut to the uniExtract.exe,
then:
start->run: "sendto"
place the shortcut there,

Now, everytime you want to open something with uniextract,
you right click on the file->sendto->uniExtract,
and poof, it runs, :P [2007-04-05 16:42]

 master68: I love it! Works god enough for me,works on many installers so i can use apps without install them.Even managed to unpack some dll files just for fun you never now what goodies you can find in an dll.T H A N K Y O U for this one. [2007-04-29 02:12]

 Rahul Prasad: Its the best program for extracting >it can even extract exe files dude [2007-06-21 06:36]

 PETE: NOT EVERY INSTALLER CAN BE EXTRACTED WITH UNIVERSAL EXTRACTOR.
USE SANDBOXIE TO EXTRACT EVERYTHINK IN A SECURE ZONE (sandbox) THE PERFECT TOOL TO FIND OUT IF A APP. IS REALLY PORTABLE [2007-06-22 09:02]

 PETE: NOTE FOR SANDBOXIE USERS.SANDBOXIE CONFLICT WITH SOME SERVICES.TYP IN CMD SERVICES.MSC EN TWEAK YOUR SERVICES (instructions on www.blackviper.com) OR USE PORTABLE SANDBOXIE TO AVOID CONFLICTS http://sandboxie.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=198&start=135 [2007-06-22 09:18]

 Hank7: If you take Firewrath's advice you are also invited to use my RDTools which make that shortcut follow you from machine to machine.

Generously hosted at http://portable.cubegames.net/rdtools [2007-06-30 15:17]

 PETE: TO HANK7. RDTOOLS WORKS PERFECT FOR ME. THANS FOR THE TIP
( great program.) [2007-07-11 00:30]

 franck: dont forget to upgrade stuff inside uniextract like tried def, 7zip, innoup for best result:
tried def : URL: http://mark0.net/download/triddefs.zip
7zip : http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sevenzip/7z457.exe
innoup : http://innounp.sourceforge.net/test020.rar

best regards [2007-12-08 14:18]

 noone: Awesome program, but - why does it take some files it can't extract and move them to the UE directory and, is there any way to make it stay open so you can do more than one file? Sendto is not an option. Thanks. [2008-01-22 23:00]

 mark: ok i found somewhere on the internet version 1.5 and i am using it it is very stable and works with everything!!! the program looks the same and it will extract and compress .exe files and many other types. I use this more than jzip, 7zip, win zip, and even windows rar!!! My version is very portable all it is is a .exe file and a .dll file if you leave them together it works!!! well if anyone can find a link please write a comment so that other people can also download i will not give you guys the link ,for 1 i cant even remember the website, and 2 it is to good of a program to upload it and get it jammed in the process...... well that is that!! [2008-05-10 18:17]

 Someone: I love this app!

Tip:
- to write debug file to user temp (%tmp%) leave debugdir empty (e.g. 'debugdir=') in .ini-file (at least this works in v1.6)

What I would really want:
- set debugdir to program directory; tried debugdir=. but this writes the debug file to whichever directory the program was called from, which in my case is always the directory holding the archive I'm extracting. [2008-10-29 01:46]

 docd: The patern recognition is only as good as how up to date the triddefs are, if you find probs with it extracting archives try downloading a more up 2 date version from Marko's webpage (http://mark0.net/download/triddefs.zip)
This improved things a lot when I updated it... [2009-02-20 04:50]

 klong3: useful tool, has problems with latest installShield tho [2009-06-17 07:35]

 AtorrantE: I love this program.... It's very useful and easy....

¿¿¿Why I didn't use it before???? [2009-06-28 02:18]

 Mike: This is one of the most useful tools I've ever found. I love it! [2009-08-20 17:39]

 Lupo73: The latest updated revision of this software (with various archivers updates) is available here:
http://www.lupopensuite.com/db/universalextractor.htm [2009-10-09 19:14]

 Spiffo: These days I don't bother. I just install crap in a virtual machine (vmware, virtual pc, whatever) and later play with the files to see if it is portable or not, before messing my main box. [2009-11-06 15:16]

Post your comment:

All HTML tags will be removed from your comment. URLs (http, https, ftp) will be automatically detected and hyperlinked. I reserve the right to delete irrelevant, frivolous or offensive comments. For more general topics (eg. whether apps that write to the registry, leave traces on the host machine, rely on certain versions of IE etc. can be considered portable), please post to the Portable Freeware Discussion forum. If your virus scanner has detected a virus in the application, please email the author directly or post to the forum. Note that false positives (i.e. flagging a virus when there is actually none) are extremely common for virus scanners. When in doubt, try an online scanner like Online Malware Scanner or VirusTotal, which scans files using multiple anti-virus engines. It is very likely to be a false positive if only a few engines raise the red flag.