Expanding Compressed Files in Windows XP

The procedure for expanding compressed files in Windows XP utilizes the expand command.  This command is used at a command prompt in XP.

The format for the command is expand source_file target_file.  Note that there are spaces between each of the three elements of the command line.  The viewlet demonstrates expanding the compressed copy of the volume control (sndvol32.exe) from the Windows XP CD-ROM and installing it in a folder C:\1Scratch.

Compressed Windows XP files have the same name as their uncompressed versions except that the last character of the file extension is replaced by an underline.  Thus, the compressed version of sndvol32.exe is called sndvol32.ex_.  The first step in the process is to locate sndvol32.ex_ on the Windows XP CD-ROM.  To do this, insert the CD-ROM in its drive.  Hold down the Shift key to prevent it from autostarting.  (If it autostarts, simply click the "Exit" button on the screen.)  Open the Search utility by going to Start|Search, select "All files and folders" and enter sndvol32.ex_ in the "All or part of the file name" box.  In the "Look in" box click the down arrow to the right of the box and select the letter of the CD-ROM drive from the pop-up menu.  (On the viewlet this is drive E:\, on most computers it will be D:\).  Click the "Search" button.  The search should indicate that the file of interest is located in folder I386 on the CD-ROM (E:\I386).  Close search.

To extract the file, open the command prompt by going to Start|Run, typing cmd and clicking OK.  At the command prompt, change to the CD-ROM drive by typing its drive letter followed by a colon then pressing <Enter>.  This will bring up the E:\> prompt (in the example).  At that command enter the command, the source file, and the target file.  In the case of the example this command will be:

    expand e:\i386\sndvol32.ex_ c:\1Scratch\sndvol32.exe

The command is not case sensitive, E and C could be substituted for e and c in the example and I386 could be substituted for i386.

After entering the command, press the <Enter> key on the keyboard.  The file will be extracted to the specified location and details of the extraction will be displayed on the screen.  When the extraction is finished, close the command prompt window by clicking the close button (the "x" at the upper right).