Performing Silent Install using Command Prompt: File Unzipping
When installing software or applications silently using Command Prompt, it is often necessary to unzip or extract files before the installation process begins. In this article, we will cover how to perform a silent file unzipping operation using Command Prompt.
Prerequisites
Before we begin, ensure that you have the following:
- A compressed file (ZIP or RAR) to be extracted
- Command Prompt (cmd.exe) open with administrative privileges
Extracting a ZIP File
To extract a ZIP file using Command Prompt, navigate to the directory containing the ZIP file using the cd command. Once in the correct directory, use the powershell.exe command with the Expand-Archive cmdlet to extract the files.
cd C:\path\to\zipfile
powershell.exe -Command "Expand-Archive -Path .\filename.zip -DestinationPath . -Force"
Replace C:\path\to\zipfile with the actual path to the ZIP file, and filename.zip with the name of the ZIP file to be extracted.
Extracting a RAR File
To extract a RAR file using Command Prompt, first, install the RAR extractor tool. Once installed, navigate to the directory containing the RAR file using the cd command. Use the rar.exe command to extract the files.
cd C:\path\to\rarfile
rar e filename.rar
Replace C:\path\to\rarfile with the actual path to the RAR file, and filename.rar with the name of the RAR file to be extracted.
In this article, we covered how to perform a silent file unzipping operation using Command Prompt. We went over the prerequisites, and showed you how to extract both ZIP and RAR files using Command Prompt.