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In the image below, the installer can be easily extracted with the UniExtract program

enter image description here

How can I prevent this? What tool should I use so that it can not be extracted at the time of extraction like the image below? Help if possible. thank you

enter image description here

WG481
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john
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    If the installer can extract its package, other tools will be able to extract the package. We don't recommend software here, as the Help section clearly states. Personally, I've observed certain installers, when extracted, present fewer readable files than others. But what problem are you trying to solve, and what research have you done, on your own, to try to find the features of various packagers/installers that meet your needs? – music2myear May 13 '21 at 00:42

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Here is a post on the NSIS GitHub form from 2012 that discusses the different ways of doing this: https://nsis-dev.github.io/NSIS-Forums/html/t-335433.html

If you are interested in a method that simply prevents surface-level extraction, but has the potential to be cracked to expose the original file with some effort, take a look at T.Slappy's comment (3rd in the chain)

Do not put files into setup.exe but at first put them into archive with password, then extract that archive $PLUGINDIR or $TEMP and unpack files into final destination. It may be slow to unpack huge archives but no special software/script is needed.

If you are looking for a more effective solution to this problem, a lot of people later in the posts have suggested a variety of different options, but they will require a fair amount of work on your end in order to set up (i.e. You will need to rebuild NSIS yourself from a modified version of the source code as far as I can see).

Spyre
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  • Or use a solution like this but have each setup package contain a different password and require an API call to a server you control to get the password for that package. Put some sort of logic in this to keep track of number of activations too or only allow one per package per device, etc. Make the software require some sort of external server call and use a returned value to activate or a phone call for manual activation steps that are required before it will work after setup completes too like a second activation Internet required. Require reactivation every x days too. – Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style May 13 '21 at 02:10
  • Thank you for your answer. But I downloaded GiliSoftVideoEditorPortable.exe from https://joosengportableapp.blogspot.com, but when I tried to extract it, it could not be extracted like the image above. I want to know what method they used? – john May 13 '21 at 16:05