Talk:Self-extracting archive

untitled
I love SFX's more than standard archives!!

Context menu
When you have installed Winzip/Winrar, and you open the context menu (right-click) a self-extracting archive, you get a new entry in the context menu that says "extract here..." My question now is: how does the operating system/winzip/winrar now whether a .exe is a compressed archive without actually opening it? --Abdull 21:51, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Doc: WinZip/WinRAR plug into the extensible windows architecture, and Windows spawns these programs when right-clicking an EXE file (such programs are called Shell Extensions) WinRAR then opens the EXE, reads a few bytes and checks for a WinRAR 'signature'. If the signature is found, it informs Windows that the context menu may be shown. 207.46.55.31 (talk) 11:00, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

!
Some one took out:

Why use SFX??

If you have a codec (Zip, 7Zip,etc) and compress files into a format and you want to give the files to someone who doesnt have the Zip codec, you can use an SFX which any PC/Mac can run.

But atleast they reworded it so that is more understandble, I think all the concepts are still covered. Just in case I kept the original text up there.. RealG187 15:57, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

How do they work?
Is it perhaps interesting to have a section which describes how these executables are made? I do not suppose these programs (WinRAR, 7zip, etc) have compiler with them to compile code into an executable but they do manage to create an executable file like compilers. So it might be interesting for techies who want a bit more info to add an explanation about how this is done. I mainly suggest this because I'm interested in it myself (not to do anything with it, just general interest). Best regards, Thomas. --195.3.176.151 12:17, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Doc: Each exe has space for resources (such as icons) which are not code. An SFX contains code to extract the resources (the code for winrar, say) - this is called a stub and is pre-created using any standard compiler. The resource (the ZIP/CAB/RAR file) is added later to the end of the EXE. Adding a resource does not require a compiler. So sfx = stub.exe (precreated) + resource.zip, appended in a single file and named sfx.exe.

Could someone formally add this? I am not confident of doing the same, since this is my first time at wikipedia 207.46.55.31 (talk) 11:05, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Lossy or lossless?
"compressing lossless file types, such as a group of .jpeg images" - depending on what the original author meant, either change lossless to lossy or change .jpeg to something else (like .png). JPEG is lossy, not lossless! For the purpose of this article, any well compressed files (both lossy and lossless) can be a good example. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.79.193.35 (talk) 10:56, 9 June 2011 (UTC)