Universal Extractor

[nitro322]

From the NSIS Forum:

lkj (Igor Pavlov)

[NSIS].nsi script extracting will be disabled in next version of 7-zip.

Read the thread "7zip now allows to extract installers"

Thanks for the heads up on this, ggf31416. I've been following this pretty closely, though I haven't had time to reply in the last few days. There's also a thread about this on 7-Zip's forum:

http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thr...&forum_id=45797

The bottom line is that a vocal minority on Winamp.com's forums are making a huge deal out of a non-issue. Even on their own forum, most of the posts have been along the lines of, "NSIS is an open-source installer. It shouldn't be relied upon for foolproof protection of sensitive data." Those sentiments hit the nail on the head. This issue is no different than when innounp was first released, and did the same thing for Inno Setup installers. Want to know what happened? Nothing. Except Inno Setup installer users had more options available to them. To be completely honest, innounp is one of the reasons I myself use Inno Setup for all of my installers - I LIKE the fact that my users have this capability, if they so choose. As an NSIS installer user (for Gaim, FileZilla, and many others), I HATE the fact that I cannot extract files from the installer without installing it, adding who knows what to my registry, copy the files out of the installed directory, uninstall it, then deal with anything it may have left behind. It's a pain in the rear, and I'm sure many people on this forum would agree with me (especially considering NSIS has been the number one request for Universal Extractor).

So, I'll continue to follow this and see what develops. Hopefully this will all blow over, proper support will be enabled in 7-zip, and we can all live happily ever after.

Hi, I'm using Universal Extractor for some time now. It works quite good, except for WISE installshield installation packages. Most of time the extract window just hangs.

hp38guser, I need more details here. Wise and InstallShield are two different packaging systems. There's no such thing as a "WISE installshield installation package". Can you be more specific about what you're trying to extract? Direct download links help.

EDIT:

I found out you are using version 1.03b of i6comp to decompress InstallShield packages dated Jan-10-2002.

<SNIP>

Now the hanging issue. I did not experience this issue with i6comp v0.20 I use on my system. It is able to decompress nearly all InstallShield packages available.

<SNIP>

A new revision of i6comp. Look also at the changelog:<SNIP>

I don't follow you here. Are you saying that version 0.20 of i6comp is more reliable than 1.03b? Was there another release somewhere that I missed? Can you provide a link to the specific version you're discussing?

I would like to also be able to extract compressed exe-types like:

- UPX

- Aspack (look for AsPackDie 1.4.1)

This has been requested before, but I haven't added it because, frankly, I don't see the it as a good fit for Universal Extractor. UniExtract is a general purpose extractor/unpacker. It's not meant to be a decompiler, unless that may be needed is part of the extraction process.

Can you provide a little more information on why you'd like this added? How would it benefit you, and other users? I'm not asking for a detailed jusification or anything, just trying to get a better understanding of how it'd be used.

Thanks.

Edited May 19, 2006 by nitro322

[Acheron]

Well the WISE package problem seems to be solved with v1.2.1 of Universal Extractor.

About Exe decompressors. It might be political, but I just want control over my system. Some software what tries to hide itself from the system by compressing itself is not what should happen. Also if you want to rip some bitmaps or icons from such a package it may become handy.

I'm not talking about decrypting.

Edited May 14, 2006 by hp38guser

[GrofLuigi]

As an NSIS installer user (for Gaim, FileZilla, and many others), I HATE the fact that I cannot extract files from the installer without installing it, adding who knows what to my registry, copy the files out of the installed directory, uninstall it, then deal with anything it may have left behind. It's a pain in the rear, and I'm sure many people on this forum would agree with me (especially considering NSIS has been the number one request for Universal Extractor).

Don't forget replacement of system dll's - thats the No. 1 source of problems in Windows. Although the situation has improved, I still can't be sure that some inexperienced/overzealous author has got it right.

GL

[DSmidgy]

I saw you are using 7z.exe which is using lots of .dll files. You could instead use a single-file command line program 7za.exe (same author) which about 40% smaller and could be found at Sourceforge.

Added:

Maby 7za.exe is only for 7z files and not for others like iso, z, ...? If so my proposal is no good.

Edited May 20, 2006 by DSmidgy

[ggf31416]

I saw you are using 7z.exe which is using lots of .dll files. You could instead use a single-file command line program 7za.exe (same author) which about 40% smaller and could be found at Sourceforge.

Added:

Maby 7za.exe is only for 7z files and not for others like iso, z, ...? If so my proposal is no good.

7za is only for 7z, zip, tar, gz, bz2 and z.

[Camarade_Tux]

I saw you are using 7z.exe which is using lots of .dll files. You could instead use a single-file command line program 7za.exe (same author) which about 40% smaller and could be found at Sourceforge.

Added:

Maby 7za.exe is only for 7z files and not for others like iso, z, ...? If so my proposal is no good.

7za is only for 7z, zip, tar, gz, bz2 and z.

Afaik 7za handles as many types as 7z+dlls.

However it might not always have been true. I read this file was not updated on sourceforge until recently. :don'treallyknow:

Also, there is a new major version of PeID available.

And another thanks for this app.

[svgusta]

Nitro322, many thanks for this great application, have been using it for almost a half year now...

[nitro322]

About Exe decompressors. It might be political, but I just want control over my system. Some software what tries to hide itself from the system by compressing itself is not what should happen. Also if you want to rip some bitmaps or icons from such a package it may become handy.

I see you're point. I'll look into this again when I start working on a new version.

Afaik 7za handles as many types as 7z+dlls.

However it might not always have been true. I read this file was not updated on sourceforge until recently.

Camarade_Tux, I believe that ggf31416 is correct in that 7za.exe support significantly fewer formats than 7z.exe. In fact, when I first added 7-zip to Universal Extractor, I started with 7za. However, I couldn't get it to work with many of the supposedly supported formats, which eventually led me to using 7z.exe with all of the DLLs.

I believe that the update you mentioned was simply to bring it in sync with the latest version of 7-Zip. However, just to be sure I'll go ahead and check it out again on during my next dev cycle. Believe me, I'm all for making this as small as possible. :-)

Also, there is a new major version of PeID available.

Excellent! I'll definitely use this new version, which should hopefully improve my .exe filetype detection. Being able to accurately determine the archive/installer type is the single most important piece of the puzzle, so this should help improve things quite a bit.

Nitro322, many thanks for this great application, have been using it for almost a half year now...

You're more than welcome. Glad to hear it's getting a lot of use. :-)

I'll let everyone know when I start working on a new version, but at this point it's still likely a few weeks away. Real work keeps getting in the way.

[Giorgio_ap]

Hi Nitro,

It will be good if you can also extract the embeded directory with your soft.

Somes infos from the compile.bin file are interesting to repack the application; I use a disasm soft.

I found an unpacker explorer tool (IsUnp10setup.exe) which show all the structure and files inside the application; nice if you can implemente this kind of tools inside your!!

Last request, you or somebody else can explain me the structure of a NSI file with comparison with Inno structure; I don't understand nothing with "$R0", "$PluginDir"... (see below).

Many thanks again for this nice application.

[nitro322]

It will be good if you can also extract the embeded directory with your soft.

Somes infos from the compile.bin file are interesting to repack the application; I use a disasm soft.

I found an unpacker explorer tool (IsUnp10setup.exe) which show all the structure and files inside the application; nice if you can implemente this kind of tools inside your!!

I don't quite follow you here. IS Unpacker Explorer, as far as I'm aware, is a frontend to innounp.exe. All it does is provide the ability to unpack Inno Setup installers with innounp using a GUI interface. The end result should be the exact same as Universal Extractor, since I'm also using innounp to unpack Inno Setup installers. What exactly are you requesting?

Last request, you or somebody else can explain me the structure of a NSI file with comparison with Inno structure; I don't understand nothing with "$R0", "$PluginDir"... (see below).

I'm not really sure what they mean myself, as I also use Inno Setup for all my packaging needs. Even more confusing is that each NSIS installer I've unpacked seems to be slightly different. For example, compare the directories shown in your image (which looks like the DivX Player installer) to the directories extracted from the Gaim installer:

$_OUTDIR

$1

$PLUGINSDIR

$R0

$SYSDIR

DivX doesn't use $_OUTDIR, it uses $0 instead of $1, and it has a bunch of DivX-specific folders that Gaim lacks. I don't get it either. :-)

[ladiko]

if archive types are associated with uniext they all belong to the same file type group "Universal Extractor Archive" in windows xp explorer if you group the entrys as on the pic:

i dont like it that mozilla-xpi-extensions, isos, jar-files and also rars, and zips are in one group cause they have all other functions. can you split it to "Universal Extractor XPI Archive", "Universal Extractor 7Z Archive" and so on?

Edited June 1, 2006 by ladiko

[Giorgio_ap]

I don't quite follow you here. IS Unpacker Explorer,

Yes It is!

Just, I want to say is Universal Extractor don't extract the "Embeded" dir.

In this directory you will find the pics but also sometimes if the author had done some script, a compiled file.

Thanks.

[nitro322]

Just, I want to say is Universal Extractor don't extract the "Embeded" dir.

Ok, I gotcha now. I'll have to investigate this for the next version. I'm not opposed to it, just have never realized it could be done.

Thanks for the suggestion.

i dont like it that mozilla-xpi-extensions, isos, jar-files and also rars, and zips are in one group cause they have all other functions. can you split it to "Universal Extractor XPI Archive", "Universal Extractor 7Z Archive" and so on?

Hmm... I've actually never seen this "view" in Windows Explorer before. Interesting. :-)

I don't know how difficult this would be, but I'll look into it for the next version.

[Camarade_Tux]

Afaik 7za handles as many types as 7z+dlls.

However it might not always have been true. I read this file was not updated on sourceforge until recently.

Camarade_Tux, I believe that ggf31416 is correct in that 7za.exe support significantly fewer formats than 7z.exe. In fact, when I first added 7-zip to Universal Extractor, I started with 7za. However, I couldn't get it to work with many of the supposedly supported formats, which eventually led me to using 7z.exe with all of the DLLs.

Indeed, in fact 7za only supports 4 formats (written in 7zip's help).

Edited June 5, 2006 by Camarade_Tux

[totoymola]

This is cool! Thanks!