A self-extracting archive (SFX) is a computer application which contains a file archive, as well as programming to extract this information. Such file archives do not require a second executable file or program to extract from the archive, as archive files usually require. The files in an archive can thus be extracted by anyone, whether they possess the appropriate decompression program or not, as long as the program can run on their computer platform.
The original purpose for the self-extracting archive was to allow the distribution of tools for extracting (and adding) member files to an ...