First look at Universal Extractor 2

Universal Extractor 2 is an unofficial rewrite of the original application that offers additional features and other improvements.

Universal Extractor is a handy program for Windows that enables you to extract the contents of supported installer files and archives.

The original program has not been updated since 2010, and while it works fine in many situations, a lack of updates usually means that it falls short in some regards. It may not be able to cope with new file formats, and if you encounter bugs or issues, those won't be resolved either.

The application lacks features such as automatic updates, support for password protected archives and other common features on top of that.

Universal Extractor 2

Universal Extractor 2 is an unofficial modification of the original software that supports new highly requested features, feature improvements, and ongoing support.

The program is released as open source, and a portable program for Windows which means that you can run it from any location to make use of it.

Universal Extractor 2 looks nearly identical to the version it is based on on start. Two new features are visible in the program interface directly when you launch it and compare it to the original version of the application.

First, you may run the program in batch mode. This enables you to use it to extract multiple archives or installer files in one go. The second option allows you to switch from extraction to scanning only which reveals information about the file but won't touch it.

Its author added support for "dozens of extractors" that expand the range of supported file types, and added an option to extract multimedia files directly as well to gain access to audio or video tracks directly.

The program features an integrated updater that checks for updates regularly, a new silent mode that suppresses any prompts the program may throw at you, and support for password lists for common archive types to extract password protected archives as well.

The preferences display several of the new options the program supports.

There you find options to set the program window to "always on top", add or remove support for certain file types, disable warnings, or change the timeout interval.

Closing Words

Universal Extractor 2 is available as a beta release currently. While it worked fine during tests, it may still have issues and it is therefore suggested not to run it in a productive environment, at least not without further precautions (backups, sandboxing, virtualization).