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Hi Tmmrn. I work on the team that made these available. We originally had these as >3Gb single files and had many requests to reduce the file sizes from people

Hi Tmmrn. I work on the team that made these available. We originally had these as >3Gb single files and had many requests to reduce the file sizes from people who had failed transfers. It also helps when using sneaker net to setup test environments that are isolated and you need USB sticks to move bits around. We went with RAR because: * It's available on all platforms * No client or 3rd party software needed to extract when using self extracting SFX and EXEs respectively * some degree of built in resiliency and self correction Hope you find them useful. Open to suggestions for improvement too. Follow the team @IEDevChat for updates and feedback.

Ecio78 13y ago
My suggestion: use 7-zip Open Source, available on all the major platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OSX). You can find also the MSI version that can be deployed via Active Directory GPO http://www.7-zip.org/download.html http://www.7-zip.org/download.html Oh, and you can create self-extracting file too (even though I don't know if you can unpack them on other platforms, never tried, but I should bet you can do it)
- omgtehlion 13y ago
  Plus, WinRAR can extract these just fine.
- kyrias 13y ago
  It's silly to recommend a program when complaining about a format. But yes it would be better if they used zip, which also happens to be integrated in Windows Explorer.
  - manojlds 13y ago
    .7z is a format too, and 7-zip supports that and other common formats like zip and rar.
  - Ecio78 13y ago
    afaik the plain .zip doesn't support multi-part archives and that's what they needed due to the file size. by citing 7-zip (site) I was of course suggesting the .7z file format that is opensource and there are softwares and libraries freely available.
    - kyrias 13y ago
      http://www.ehow.com/how_6943340_extract-split-zip-files.html http://www.ehow.com/how_6943340_extract-split-zip-files.html would suggest otherwise, though I can't try it myself at the moment. > … 7z file format that is opensource … .ZIP is in the public domain ;)
VeejayRampay 13y ago
Alternatively, this is a perfect use case for a torrent. It always boggles the mind how the big players seem to be avoiding this download scheme like the plague even though it's unrivalled for these kinds of downloads, especially when there's a rush on the files like you'll no doubt notice in the next 10 days or so.
- jhawk28 13y ago
  Most corporations block torrents. I would get roasted alive if I installed bittorrent at work.
  - ceejayoz 13y ago
    Most large corporations, but for the freelancers and folks working for small business, a .torrent would be a godsend as an option. Especially if done with something like S3's torrent support, which lets Amazon function as the always-there seeder.
JunkDNA 13y ago
Glad you are here. Thank you so much for doing this. Just wanted to let you know that I found out about this via a twitter sponsored tweet. So whoever decided to do that as a marketing idea probably is getting their money's worth.

Ecio78 13y ago

My suggestion: use 7-zip Open Source, available on all the major platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OSX). You can find also the MSI version that can be deployed via Active Directory GPO http://www.7-zip.org/download.html http://www.7-zip.org/download.html Oh, and you can create self-extracting file too (even though I don't know if you can unpack them on other platforms, never tried, but I should bet you can do it)

omgtehlion 13y ago
Plus, WinRAR can extract these just fine.
kyrias 13y ago
It's silly to recommend a program when complaining about a format. But yes it would be better if they used zip, which also happens to be integrated in Windows Explorer.
- manojlds 13y ago
  .7z is a format too, and 7-zip supports that and other common formats like zip and rar.
- Ecio78 13y ago
  afaik the plain .zip doesn't support multi-part archives and that's what they needed due to the file size. by citing 7-zip (site) I was of course suggesting the .7z file format that is opensource and there are softwares and libraries freely available.
  - kyrias 13y ago
    http://www.ehow.com/how_6943340_extract-split-zip-files.html http://www.ehow.com/how_6943340_extract-split-zip-files.html would suggest otherwise, though I can't try it myself at the moment. > … 7z file format that is opensource … .ZIP is in the public domain ;)

VeejayRampay 13y ago

Alternatively, this is a perfect use case for a torrent. It always boggles the mind how the big players seem to be avoiding this download scheme like the plague even though it's unrivalled for these kinds of downloads, especially when there's a rush on the files like you'll no doubt notice in the next 10 days or so.

jhawk28 13y ago
Most corporations block torrents. I would get roasted alive if I installed bittorrent at work.
- ceejayoz 13y ago
  Most large corporations, but for the freelancers and folks working for small business, a .torrent would be a godsend as an option. Especially if done with something like S3's torrent support, which lets Amazon function as the always-there seeder.

JunkDNA 13y ago

Glad you are here. Thank you so much for doing this. Just wanted to let you know that I found out about this via a twitter sponsored tweet. So whoever decided to do that as a marketing idea probably is getting their money's worth.