Opening Non-Zip Files Using 7-Zip

If you use 7-Zip you are probably well aware that it can open just about any compression format out there. As such, just about any file extension you can think of that has to do with compression is just a double click from being opened. However, did you know that you can open many “non-zip” files?

For example, if you try to open an MSI installer file in 7-Zip, you can. Just right-click on the file and go to the 7-Zip menu and select Open Archive. If you do open an MSI file you will see a large list of files which make up the installer. These files are essentially unreadable to the end user, but they give you insight into what makes up the file.

An MSI file is a bad example, but the point is pretty much any file format which uses compression can be opened in 7-Zip. So give it a try sometime if you are just fooling around.

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Jason,
The userfulness of 7-Zip is expanding Driver .exe’s to extract the .inf’s ; for instance an intel chipset 1008.exe will contain the driver file for Win 2000, XP , Vista, Win 7 , with 7-Zip it is possible to righ-click and extract the.exe into the same folder and ALL the inf’s are within the “ALL” folder… a nice ‘n’ easy way for updating individual chipset conectors (via “view by connection” and expaning PCI bus in Device Manager)…
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Thank you for sharing this very nice article. So I need to install 7-zip program for my PC in order to do this?

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Yes you need the 7-zip program to unlock those 7-zip compressed programs. I think they can be lock with the use of Rar too.