Creating Self-extracting SPac Packages

Self-extracting packages give you the ability to redistribute the contents of your packages without the recipient having to own SPac. Uniquely, SPac allows the recipient to modify the contents of the package and add additional files as well as allowing simple extraction of selected files. Most other similar tools simply force the recipient to extract all the files in the package.

This ability, as well as secure encryption, makes it easy to keep sensitive files secure while allowing trusted associates the ability to modify and return the files without having to own the full version of SPac.

To create a self-extracting package, open an existing package and select File/Make .Exe File from the main menu. If a file with the same name exists you will be prompted before it is overwritten, and SPac will then create the self-extracting package. The new package will have the same name as the one it was created from, but will have a .exe extension.

Note that the self-extracting package will be about 400K bigger than the package it was based on. This is the overhead added to allow modification of the distributed package. It sounds a lot, but we think the overhead is worth it for the added functionality.