Cool little unzip tool, Extract Now

One day, I was on a mission to find a zip tool that I liked. 

My mission was to find:

1. A zip tool that I could dump a bunch of zip files into and watch their progress as they unzip as I do something else (I’m a multitasker.)
2. It couldn’t pop up extra windows (I hate those.)
3. It had to create a folder with the name of the zip so I don’t mix the zips together.  (downfall of ACDSee’s unzipper)
4. A bonus would be to do something with the zips when they are done.

The reason was sometimes I get behind on my digital kits that I downloaded and want to do a whole batch at a time.  

• I have been using the free version Zip reader from pkware.  But I hate the pop-ups.
• I tried the latest version of Winzip, but it didn’t do much of the above.  That was really a pain to uninstall too. 
• and 7-Zip
• TugZip
• and I think another one too. 
• and none really handled the batch processing well.

Until I found ExtractNow.  This is a little program that is cool and met all my above standards.   First, I had to play with the settings of the tool:

On the General tab, I didn’t change much. I don’t have it start on startup and you can turn off the sounds if you want.

On the Destination tab, I changed these settings:

The first two, extract the file into the current folder and create a folder with the name of the zip file.  I also said overwrite existing files (just in case I unzip the same file again.)

On the Post Extraction tab, I selected that after the software is done unzipping my unzip file, move it into this unzipped done folder.  That’s where my zip files are stored until I know that backups have been done on the digital kit that I unzipped.

And on Explorer tab, I checked the following for various reason that aren’t really that important to explain.

Apply all those settings.

In the following video, I am going to drag the files from windows explorer into the ExtractNow and then click Extract.  Once done, the zipped files will be automatically moved to my UnzippedDone folder.

Click here to watch video

Some other notes:

• I could of checked “clear” in the post extraction tool, but I decided for right now, I will clear the files from my list manually.
• I can right click on a zip file or select multiple files and “enqueue” (put in the extractnow list) to be unzipped later. (Like when I leave for lunch then I click on the Extract)
•  

Here’s where you can get this tool:

ExtractNow – Extract multiple archives easily

It’s freeware and read before you download.  Their FAQ states there is no spyware in it and my virus checker & spyware haven’t complained about it.  So I think its okay but you are on your own.

This little tool works very well for me in my digital scrapbooking process and does step 2 & 3 for me with many zip files.  My steps are:

1. Download the digital kit into my Downloads folder
2. Extract the digital kit into a new folder in my Downloads folder
3. Move the zip into my UnzippedDone folder
4. Then organize my digital kits with ACDSee and move them to their final destination in my folders.

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