We Got Served

OnTheFlyUnzipper is a WHS add-in that allows you to automatically unzip files that are downloaded, uploaded remotely or copied/moved to a WHS folder that you designate for this  purpose.  It can expand zip and rar file types.

Installing the add-in is as simple as any other add-in.  Copy the msi installer to your D:Software/Add-ins folder, open the WHS Settings dialog in the console and install the software from the Add-ins tab, as shown below.

As this is an automated add-in that requires no input from the user after it is configured, all user interaction with this add-in is from the WHS Settings window.  Clicking on the WHS Setting option brings you to this window.

I will return to this tabbed window in a moment.  Clicking on the Other settings tab brings this window up.  These setting are self-explanatory, or have sufficient explanation for the user to determine specific needs.

Moving over to the About tab provides the normal “about” information, contact link and a hint that this add-in does more than just handle zip files.  If you make use of rar files, this add-in can expand these types of files, also.

Moving back to the Monitored folders tab, all you need to do is is click on the Add Folder button and choose/create a folder where you want to place your zip and rar files.

That’s all there is to it.  There are several options in this window that I will let you decide how to invoke.  I left them at the default settings for this review.

I proceeded to download some zip and rar files, and saved them with the unzip_ prefix in the monitored folder.  Once saved, the add-in immediately unpacked them to a subfolder.  Quite cool!

OnTheFlyUnzipper is a simple, but elegant, add-in that does exactly as described.  When I perused the OnTheFlyUnzipper subforum on WGS, I noticed that some users have reported difficulties with multipart rar files and very large zip files.  The author indicated that he would look into that problem.  Whether the multipart rar feature will be included in a future release, I cannot answer.  Regarding large zip files, you may or may not have a problem.

I decided to take a large zip file and see how OnTheFlyUnzipper handled it.  I took one of my ripped movie folders and zipped it up.  The zip file was just under 7 gigs big.  I moved it to the folder I had set up for this add-in.  It quickly went to work and unzipped all the files.  It took less time to unzip the files than it took to zip them up, and CPU usage increased only slightly to accomplish this task.

If you have a need for this kind of utility, try it out.  It may not handle everything you can throw at it, but it does a good job with most archived files.

Author: Alex Köplinger

Version Reviewed: 1.08

Release: N/A

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