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Use a Built-In Windows Utility to Create Self-Extracting Archives
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 12:00 AM on April 29, 2008
Most any savvy computer user is probably pretty handy with a free compression and archiving tool (like, say, 7-Zip), but not everyone they send files to will be. The Confessions of a Freeware Junkie blog points out that IExpress.exe, a built-in utility you simply type into the "Run" menu in Windows XP or "Start Search" in Vista, can create self-extracting archives to be emailed to anyone using Windows. Just choose "Extract files only" while clicking through the wizard interface, choose the files to be zipped up, and the end user only has to double-click to get them. IExpress also works as an easy way to convert batch files into executables. Need more info on IExpress? Check out Microsoft's help page on the tool.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
jharbert
Posted 12:55 AM 29/4/08
I'm with pkoutoul - How have I not heard of this before? I can't tell you how many times this would have come in handy in the past.
Thanks, Kevin.
jharbert
pkoutoul
Posted 12:43 AM 29/4/08
Can't believe I never heard of this before. Very cool.
pkoutoul
Pacifika
Posted 12:41 AM 29/4/08
Just upload it to windows live skydrive or any of its competitors and provide a download link. :)
Pacifika
crackle
Posted 12:34 AM 29/4/08
That is if the recipient's email server doesn't block .exe attachments. You could repackage the .exe, but then that would defeat the purpose.
crackle
BlogsOfSteel
Posted 1:44 AM 29/4/08
Handy tip, thanx!
BlogsOfSteel
pschroeter
Posted 4:40 AM 29/4/08
Why doesn't Microsoft make features like this more obvious? What else is hiding in Windows?
pschroeter
aj_robins
Posted 5:40 AM 29/4/08
As nice as this is, it raises some pretty big security issues. It might be OK if the recipient is expecting to receive this in an email. It's completely different if this shows up unexpected: how do they know if this is really from you? You could have made a mistake, and infected your system with something that sends out viruses/worms/trojans to everyone in your address book.
aj_robins
pschroeter
Posted 6:59 AM 29/4/08
Is there a way to get this to compress folders? It only seems to work with files.
pschroeter
Sanja
Posted 7:40 AM 29/4/08
> can create self-extracting archives
> to be emailed to anyone
...and be blocked by almost every email service in the world. BTW, the chance that *your* SMTP server will block it is higher than the probability that recipients' server will do that.
Sanja
PapaGamer
Posted 2:05 AM 29/4/08
I'm kind of curious why you wouldn't just use 7-Zip to create a ZIP file, which can be natively opened by Windows? Not only are EXE files blocked by many corporate systems; but, even personal e-mail programs like Outlook Express will block them, prompting your not-computer-savvy friend to e-mail you back saying they couldn't see your attachment.
PapaGamer
Lazarus
Posted 9:24 AM 29/4/08
I guess it isn't apparent to everyone that you can just rename the file extension to something like file.exe.deleteme as opposed to file.exe and it will go through most SMTPs as they are searching for .exe files exclusively. I do this often when emailing self extracting files, or even small executables.
Lazarus
maximillianx
Posted 10:53 PM 29/4/08
Emailing or not emailing .exe's wasn't really the point of the post, however (at least not mine) - rather, it is the fact that you can package files with a built-in Windows tool. It was probably not good wording to say as much in the LH post.
maximillianx