One of the best ways to unpack files on your Mac.
The Unarchiver is great decompression software you need for your Mac. Along with StuffIt Expander, The Unarchiver does everything you need it to do without asking. Oh, and it’s free and open source!
Download and Installation (5 out of 5)
The Unarchiver calls itself: “a much more capable replacement for ‘BOMArchiveHelper.app,’ " and I agree. It is small, and I always forget it’s even on my Mac. I initially downloaded it over a year ago to decompress a RAR file that Stuffit Expander didn’t recognize. The process was as easy as it should be. After downloading the file and moving it to the Applications folder, all you have to do to set it up is open The Unarchiver’s preferences and select all the types of files you want it to open on your Mac. Then set it as your primary program to open files in your web browser’s preferences (or wait until you download a file and select it). Then sit back and watch The Unarchiver work its magic.
Features (5 out of 5)
The Unarchiver opens a large list of selected file formats that StuffIt Expander doesn’t handle. The file formats The Unarchiver can open includes:
* ZIP
* RAR
* 7z
* LHA
* StuffIt (.sit)
* BinHex (.hqx)
* MacBinary (.bin)
* Gzip (.gz)
* Bzip2 (.bz2, .tar.bz2, .tbz2, .tb2)
* Tar
* GNU Tar (.gtar)
* Unix Compress (.z)
* Unix Compress Tar (.taz, .tar-z)
* CAB
* Comic Book (.cbz, .cbr)
* RPM
* DiskDoubler
* Self-Extracting Archive (.sea)
* Windows Self-Extracting (.exe)
* CPIO
* Pax (.pax)
* HA (.ha)
* Amiga Disk File
* Amiga DMS Disk Archive (.dms)
* Amiga LhF (.f)
* Amiga LZX (.lzx)
* Amiga DCS Disk Archive (.dcs)
* Amiga PackDev Disk Archive (.pkd)
* Amiga xMash Disk Archive (.xms)
* Amiga Zoom Disk Archive (.zom)
As long as you have The Unarchiver set up to open these files, it will do so automatically when one is downloaded onto your Mac. There really aren’t any other features available for this software, besides its limited preferences which includes where the file should be put when it is decompressed and if the archive should be put in the trash or not.
Preferences
Usefulness (5 out of 5)
Very! If you are downloading different types of files than those Stuffit Expander can handle, you will appreciate what The Unarchiver can do for you. Just like Stuffit Expander, The Unarchiver makes decompression something you don’t even have to think about. It just happens and you can get to the important part: the file it just decompressed.
Overall (5 out of 5)
The Unarchiver is a great open source file decompressor. There is no reason for you not to have it, if you have a Mac. Someday it will come in handy, I promise.
