Make SFX

Some people don't know how to extract files from an archive and if you tell them they need a specialized utility, like WinRAR or 7Zip, you will lose them completely. If you want to make sure your contents will be extracted properly, then you should try Make SFX. The application gives you the possibility of creating self-extracting archives without any effort. All you have to do is tell it what files to pack up and how they should be extracted.

Make SFX is distributed as a freeware application, for all modern Windows platforms. It consists of a single executable, which you have to download and run, so there is no need to go through an installation process. The application uses an insignificant amount of resources, so you can run it even on older machines, with modest hardware.

To create a self-extracting archive, it is sufficient to select a folder on the hard drive, specify an output path and click a button, but you can also make various settings along the way. You can opt for a standard extraction method and decide if the extracted folder should be opened automatically in Windows Explorer or not. Alternatively, you can set the application to extract the archive's contents and run an executable of your choice afterwards, with or without command line parameters.

A default extraction folder can be selected for the archive. You can target the desktop, the Documents folder or the system's TEMP folder, if you intend to distribute something that needs to be installed. Alternatively, you can specify a custom path, using environment variables or you can set the archive to display a browsing dialog before extracting anything.

There are various options which could help you distribute contents that have to be installed. Besides setting the TEMP folder as the extraction path, you can also set the archive to delete the extracted contents, once it is done running your selected executable. Additionally, you can make the archive self-destructing, which means that it will delete itself automatically, once it is done extracting.