InstallShield Self-Extracting EXE

InstallShield Self-Extracting EXE is an executable installer file created by the InstallShield installation software for Windows.

This article is intended to cover only the outer-layer distribution file, and not the various executable and other component files that it may contain.

Not all editions of InstallShield supported creating self-extracting EXE files, and it's not uncommon to find InstallShield component files packaged in other ways (e.g. ZIP), or unpackaged.

''[Ed. note: This article needs much more research and expansion.]''

Identification
For at least one version (3?) of InstallShield, ASCII "" appears beginning at offset 943.

Software

 * STIX - Extracts from InstallShield v3 files. (DOS, OS/2)
 * [ stix.zip] (from SAC)
 * → stix.arj
 * https://github.com/DeclanHoare/stix/
 * ISx - InstallShield installer extractor. Claims to support InstallShield versions released from about 2003 to 2016.
 * IsXunpack.exe - For InstallShield v7. Can be found in Universal Extractor. Source is this forum post.
 * InstallShield Setup Extract (Probably very limited support.)

Sample files


Wanted: Lots more samples from different versions of InstallShield.