How do I open .bin and .hqx files on Tiger

S

ssray23

Registered
Hi,

I have been a Windows user always and waiting for my first Mac (iMac G5) to arrive shortly.

I have downloaded a lot of softwares for Mac whose Windows counterparts I used a lot previously on my XP box. I observed that many of these downloaded files are in .bin or .hqx format. I have no idea how to install these programs.
Are these .exe equivalents in Windows? Will double-clicking them automatically install the program for me?
(thru an installer or something similar ??)

Expecting a response before the UPS guy comes ... :)

Thanks in advance
S S Ray
 
I wish I could say for sure. I rarely pay much attention to the formats of the apps I download (usually .dmg files though), but I have never downloaded anything that I could not figure out what to do with after double clicking. And, everything always has opened--even .sit files since Stuffit Expander carried over from my Panther installation given the way I installed Tiger. Someone else will know for sure.
 
You should be able to double-click them to expand them. They are compressed files (similar to .zip or .rar which are more common in Windows). I'm not sure if Stuffit Expander is required to open .bin and .hqx files in Tiger, .sitx files, you will need Stuffit Expander to open.

Once you expand the file, you'll probably get either a single icon that is the program you downloaded, or an installer that you have to double-click like in Windows. The single file applications can be put anywhere you'd like, though usually they go in your /Applications folder or /Users/<Your Home>/Applications.

Applications (which have the .app extension) are equivalent to .exe files in Windows (except that they are really folders that look like a single file). The .app extension will not show up unless you turn on the option to always view file extensions.
 
At least for .hqx files, nothing is needed! I needed to download the latest Diskwarrior update from their website. It was an .hqx file. It downloaded straight away to my desktop, where I promptly double clicked to open it and install!
 
I have a clean installation of Tiger on a 17" powerbook. The built-in BOMArchiveHelper does not open these files even if you rename them to .zip, you DO need to download the free stuffit expander as far as I can see.

Obviously you don't need the trial/full version of stuffit because the built-in tool will archive your files for free as per usual.

I was also curious to see that the BOMArchiveHelper comes up in "open with.." on a zip file, but I couldn't locate it as an application, which is why I had to rename my hqx in the first place.
 
Hm. Shouldn't rename hqx-files to .zip, since they're, well, not zip-files. If Expander's installed, that'll take care of it, anyway...
 
if you are on tiger (macos 10.4. up) you should be able to use the new feature from stuffit that will not require to open anything.

just click into the filename ending with .sit (should also work with .hqx and the like) to rename it.

delete the last four digits (including the period) and tiger should automatically unstuff it.

i admit it still seems easier to just double click, but apparently this feature was invented for the other way around:

just add .sit to any file's or folder's name and stuffit will make it an archive...
 
BOMArchiveHelper is part of the system, so it's located in "/System/Library/CoreServices/". You should never need to access it directly, though.

StuffIt Expander is what you need for hqx, sit, sitx, and I think bin files. Zip, tar, gz, and some others are better handled by the system. I'm not sure about rars, actually, but I use StuffIt for those myself (always have).

alexander72 said:
if you are on tiger (macos 10.4. up) you should be able to use the new feature from stuffit that will not require to open anything.

just click into the filename ending with .sit (should also work with .hqx and the like) to rename it.

delete the last four digits (including the period) and tiger should automatically unstuff it.

i admit it still seems easier to just double click, but apparently this feature was invented for the other way around:

just add .sit to any file's or folder's name and stuffit will make it an archive...
Click to expand...
This is an optional feature, which is part of StuffIt AVR (AVR stands for Archive Via Rename), which is installed as a preference pane (meaning, find it under System Preferences in the Apple menu). I think it's off by default.

It's also a very, very strange way of doing things, if you ask me. :p
 
Mikuro said:
It's also a very, very strange way of doing things, if you ask me. :p
Click to expand...

fair enough - especially as it is somewhat unpredictable:

sometimes stuffit seems to replace the renamed file with the (un)stuffed version, sometimes it doesnt... :confused:

xxx
 
alexander72 said:
fair enough - especially as it is somewhat unpredictable:

sometimes stuffit seems to replace the renamed file with the (un)stuffed version, sometimes it doesnt... :confused:

xxx
Click to expand...
If Stuffit Expander doesn't unstuff the file, it was probably misnamed in the first place. I run into a few files like that.
 
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