Welcome to StuffIt Expander® 2009

StuffIt Expander is the most comprehensive tool for dealing with any compressed, segmented, and encoded files you encounter. StuffIt Expander offers support for over 30 formats. Check the StuffIt Mac 2009 User Guide.pdf for a complete list. StuffIt Expander 2009 adds support for expanding LZMA compressed files, 7-Zip archives, segmented Zip archives, as well as 'split' archives (a segmenting method sometimes applied to Zip and RAR archives).

If you imagine the Internet as a series of tubes, you can think of compressed, encoded and encrypted files as different packaging systems used to deliver files from one place to another. Generally, the purpose of these different packaging systems is to group related files together, and to make them smaller so they can be stored and transmitted more easily.

Compressing, Archiving, Encoding, Segmenting, Encryption...What's it all mean?

Often these different schemes are used in combination: most archive formats are compressed and many support encryption. Some packaging operations are performed one after the other creating compound files that are like nested dolls - packages within packages. StuffIt Expander is a utility designed to open any of these compressed, archived, or encoded "packages" that you receive.

Upgrading from StuffIt Expander to StuffIt Deluxe

To get files out of archives, StuffIt Expander can only expand the entire contents. StuffIt Deluxe allows you to browse the contents of archives and selectively extract items. Deluxe also includes tools for created archives in popular formats such as Zip, Tar and the cutting-edge StuffIt X. With Deluxe you can schedule compressed backups, search for files stored in archives, preview images stored in archives, and automate your workflow with several scripting options. Find out more here:

http://my.smithmicro.com/mac/stuffitdeluxe/index.html



Back to Help Home Page

Copyright © 2008 Smith Micro Software, Inc. All rights reserved.