MultiExtractor for Windows

If MultiExtractor's file-extracting capabilities (and stiff price) are more than the average user needs, it could be the answer to many pro user's needs. MultiExtractor extracts icon, image, audio, video, texture, and similar files, including zipped, hidden, and encrypted files, from deep inside a wide range of programs, drivers, and other software resources. You merely need to choose a file or directory and let MultiExtractor comb it for each type of file you're after. MultiExtractor displays results in a variety of customizable views so you can be sure you've hit the target. It also decompresses files and maps data. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is, at $56.83, MultiExtractor is priced a bit high for the home market. The not-so-bad news is, that's affordable for professionals and advanced users. MultiExtractor is free to try for 30 days, but many of its features are disabled in the trial version, including Save and Export features; plus, there's watermarking and other limitations. But you can certainly see what MultiExtractor does and how it does it, and that's what we did.

When it opens, MultiExtractor's main window is as small and stylish as a media player, and just as re-skinnable. Basic operation couldn't be easier: Select a file or directory to extract, and then press "Extract." We ran MultiExtractor on a random executable. A pop-up let us choose extraction mode: Explore (choose and extract) or Standard (extract), plus options such as Memory scan loop and Recurse subfolders. We pressed "Start," and MultiExtractor quickly returned two things: A Control Panel with a detailed, tree-view-based scan summary, including file size ratio graphs, and another pop-up detailing six demo limitations plus the option to register (buy) MultiExtractor or continue unregistered. We opted to continue our trial, and MultiExtractor finished its limited operations. Although we couldn't open extracted data, we could see exactly what MultiExtractor found, which gave a clear overview of exactly what it can do.

MultiExtractor has more features, such as sophisticated filtering for faster, targeted extractions. Even with the free demo's limitations, anyone who needs MultiExtractor's capabilities will want to give it a look.

Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of MultiExtractor 3.3.