What is SFX? SFX, short name for Self-Extracting File, is used as the file extension for self-extaacting files created by WinZIP, WinRAR or 7-Zip compression tools. .SFX files are Windows executable files that can be executed on Windows after chaning the file extension to .EXE. When executed, files and folders compressed in the .SFX file will be extracted. See the sample .SFX file included below.

File Extension: .SFX

MIME Type: application/octet-stream

File Content: Self-Extracting File

.SFX files are Self-Extracting files, which contains compressed files and folders. .SFX files are Windows executable files that can be executed on Windows after chaning the file extension to .EXE. When executed, files and folders compressed in the .SFX file will be extracted.

.SFX files are created by WinZIP, WinRAR or 7-Zip tool. For example, you can create a self-extracting file with WinRAR by selecting the "Create SFX archive" option.

Here are the first 128 bytes of a sample .SFX self-exrtracting file dumped in HEX values:

4d 5a 50 00 02 00 00 00 04 00 0f 00 ff ff 00 00 MZP.............
b8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 00 1a 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 ................
ba 10 00 0e 1f b4 09 cd 21 b8 01 4c cd 21 90 90 ...........L....
54 68 69 73 20 70 72 6f 67 72 61 6d 20 6d 75 73 This.program.mus
74 20 62 65 20 72 75 6e 20 75 6e 64 65 72 20 57 t.be.run.under.W
69 6e 33 32 0d 0a 24 37 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 in32...7........

.SFX Self-Extracting File file sample: Click sample.sfx to download.

.SFX self-extracting files can be created by these software:

• WinRAR - Creates .SFX self-extracting archive files.