Compressing and Extracting from Archives
PK Protect is a program for, among other things, working with archives. An archive is a file that you use like a suitcase to hold other files. As a rule, files that you put in an archive are compressed so that they take up less space, and PK Protect ordinarily compresses files unless you tell it not to. You can also use PK Protect to encrypt and digitally sign files that you add to a ZIP or OpenPGP archive.
PK Protect also extracts and uncompresses files in an archive so that you can work with them again. When PK Protect extracts files, it also decrypts them if they are encrypted (if they were encrypted specifically for you, or you supply the passphrase!).
While you will probably work most often with ZIP archives, PK Protect can extract archives using many formats, and can even create archives in some of these other formats. Archive types differ in the number of files they can contain—some can contain only one file, some can contain multiple files—and there are other differences as well. By default, PK Protect creates ZIP archives. A ZIP archive can contain multiple compressed files, and PK Protect can encrypt and digitally sign these files.
You do not need to do anything special to use PK Protect with a non-ZIP archive. If you are extracting, PK Protect will identify the archive type and extract the archive's file(s). If you want to create a new non-ZIP archive, you can select the type you want when you save the archive.
The following table lists the types of archives that PK Protect can create or extract from and the file name extensions customarily associated with these types. For some archive types, PK Protect can only extract, not create new archives.
Archive Type | PK Protect Can Create/Extract | Usual File Name Extension |
---|---|---|
7Zip | Extract only | .7z |
ARJ | Extract only | .arj |
BinHex | Extract only | .hqx |
BZIP2 | Create and extract | .bz2, .tbz |
CAB | Extract only | .cab |
CDR | Extract only | .cdr |
compress (UNIX, LZW) | Extract only | .Z |
GZIP | Create and extract | .gz, .tgz |
IMG | Extract only | .img |
ISO | Extract only | .iso |
JAR | Create and extract | .jar, .ear, .war |
LZH | Extract only | .lzh, .lha |
OpenPGP | Create and extract | .pgp, .gpg |
RAR | Extract only | .rar |
TAR | Create and extract | .tar |
UUEncoded | Create and extract | .uue |
XXEncoded | Create and extract | .xxe |
ZIP | Create and extract | .zip, .zipx |
Self-Extracting PKSFX Archives
PK Protect also creates self-extracting, PKSFX® archives. PKSFX archives have a .exe file name extension (instead of .zip, for instance). They can be extracted just by double-clicking them, even by someone who does not have PK Protect or another ZIP utility.