self-extractor that will extract and run a file

Question

i have two files, an EXE an DLL

the exe is a build of a vb.net application and i need the DLL in there too

what i want is a self extractor that will put these files together, then when run it will extract them and immeidately run the EXE

is there a VERY SIMPLE and EASY TO USE OUT OF THE BOX software that will do this? commercial or not, it doesnt matter

Answer 1

You can use NSIS (free and open-source). It's very flexible, yet it can be used for such simple tasks, too (and it has served me well in such cases). Assuming your files are named yourapp.exe and yourlib.dll, you could use this script:

# this will be the created executable archive
OutFile "archive.exe"
# define the directory to install to, the installer's directory in this case 
InstallDir $EXEDIR

# don't create a window for the unarchiver
# You could get fancy and do all kinds of configuration 
#   in the non-silent install; this example is the simplest it can be.
SilentInstall silent

# the executable part
Section

# define the output path for the following files
SetOutPath $INSTDIR
# define what to install and place it in the output path...
# ...your app...
File yourapp.exe
# ...and the library.
File yourlib.dll

# run your application
ExecShell yourapp.exe

# done
SectionEnd

Install NSIS, create this script as archive.nsi, right click it and select "Compile with NSIS". The file archive.exe will be created.

Then, on the target system, all the user needs to do is launch archive.exe; the script will unpack and run your program.

(If you want to get fancy, you can look into the tutorials that are installed with NSIS, or see this page.)

Answer 2

You could try WinZip.