How to open a .SFX file online
No extra software to download or install.
Pick your .SFX file
Drag it in or click to choose it. We read its contents list first, so it opens right away without unpacking everything.
Browse what's inside
See every file with its size, how much it's compressed and its date, and search by name across all the folders.
Preview or download
Click a file to preview text or images, or save just that one. Need everything? Download it all as a single ZIP.
About .SFX files
What a .SFX file is, and what's inside it.
An SFX file is a self-extracting archive, a ZIP, RAR, or 7z bundle with a built-in extractor so it unpacks without any archiver installed. On Windows, double-click to run it, or right-click and open in 7-Zip or WinRAR to inspect the contents first. Because an SFX is an executable, treat one from an unknown sender the same as any unknown .exe.
Programs that open .SFX files
| Full name | Self-Extracting Archive |
|---|---|
| Developer | Various (PKWARE, WinRAR/win.rar GmbH, 7-Zip/Igor Pavlov, WinZip) |
| First released | Early 1990s (DOS-era self-extracting ZIP/ARJ archives) |
| Category | Archives |
| MIME type | application/x-msdownload |
| Signature | 4D 5A "MZ" - DOS/Windows executable header (most SFX files are .exe) |
Related viewers
Found something inside the archive? Open it here.
Do I have to unpack the whole .SFX file?
No. The viewer reads its table of contents first and only unpacks a file when you click it. That works even with multi-gigabyte archives, because we read just the bytes we need.
Can I open password-protected archives?
Yes, for ZIP (ZipCrypto and AES) and 7Z. You'll be asked for the password,. We can't recover forgotten passwords.
Is my .SFX file uploaded anywhere?
No. The code that unpacks the file is downloaded once and then reused.
Why does a .docx or .apk open as an archive?
Because they are ZIP archives under the hood. Office documents, Android apps, Java programs and EPUB books all use ZIP as their container.
What about split archives (.001, .z01, .part1.rar)?
Multi-part archives need all their parts. Today you can open the first part to see the file list; joining parts is on our roadmap.
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