Is it possible to open a self-extracting compressed Windows file on a Mac?

Question

If I have a compressed file that's stored as a self-extracting archive for Windows, i.e., a .exe file, is it possible to convert it to a zip file that can be unzipped under OS X? Alternatively, is there Mac program that can open one of these archives?

Answer 1

This is an old question, but I thought I'd throw this in anyway. With self extracting archives, you might be able to simply just run the sfx file and it should do it's thing. Make sure to give it executable permissions (chmod +x filename.sfx) and simply run that file in terminal (./filname.sfx) and it might just work.

Answer 2

The Unarchiver supports this, and is an all round great extraction utility.

Answer 3

The command line unzip in the terminal should be able to do it (it will report that it skips bytes at the beginning but should work fine otherwise).

List files:

unzip -v windowsfile.exe

Extract:

unzip windowsfile.exe 

Answer 4

The freeware Keka is able to do that, too.

It first extracts a .zip file from the .exe file, which you have to open again with any zip-extracting tool that can handle password encrypted archives.

But if you just change the file extension from '.exe' to '.zip' you can skip the conversion and are asked for the password right away.

Answer 5

UnRarX handles this perfectly on OS X for me.

Answer 6

Checkout iZip unarchiver, great program for mac, that comes with the ability to extract .exe files.

http://download.cnet.com/iZip-Unarchiver/3000-2250_4-76038252.html

Or find it on the app store:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/izip-unarchiver-rar-7z-zip/id717545828?mt=12

Answer 7

First (and easiest!) thing to try is simply to change the extension from .exe to .zip, then double-click the .zip file to extract it. Worked for me on macOS Monterey.

Answer 8

I was unable to get unzip, The Unarchiver, nor Stuffit Expander to unpack an old self-extracting zip. I finally tried opening it in CrossOver Mac and it worked perfectly.