Description

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BSA Browser is an application to open and extract files from .BSA and .BA2 archives.

This was forked from Fallout Mod Manager's built-in BSA Browser. It was originally only for .BSA files hence the name BSA Browser. However it's been updated to support .BA2 files as well.

BSA Browser is open source and available from GitHub: BSA_Browser

Features

• Browse and extract file(s) from BSA and BA2 files
• Sort by folder, file name, file size, or extension. Ascending or descending
• Search for files, with optional Regex support
• Drag & drop file extraction
  

• Browse multiple archives simultaneously
• Recent files list
• Quick export (See Tools -> Options menu)
  

Credits on GitHub

Install & Uninstall

Use the provided installer or portable version, which you just extract & run.

Version History

1.17.0

• Added right click menu options to remove all loaded or unloaded archives
• Added support for B5G6R5_UNORM textures
• BSA Browser will now attempt to translate hashes in Morrowind.bsa archives without name table (e.g. Xbox)
• CLI: Added --exclude option, same as -f option but opposite
• CLI: Multiple filters can now be defined and mixed (simple, exclude, regex). Runs from first to last
• CLI: Added sub option to -l to display filename only
• CLI: Added sub option to -l to humanize file size
• CLI: Added sub option to -e to extract files directly into destination, without directories
  

1.16.0

• Added options to enable/disable file association and shell integration in Options. Will prompt for administrative rights if it doesn't already have
• Added option to reset settings if upgrading settings (after an update) fails
• Added proper file check for unloaded archives
• Added unsupported textures message box which lists the unsupported files
• Added ability to cancel extraction started from Windows Explorer context menu
• Disallow running batch scripts automatically when built-in preview is disabled, for safety reasons
• Fixed progress dialog not updating and freezing when extracting from Explorer context menu
  

1.15.1

• Fixed extraction button and context menu not working (only drag & drop worked)
  

1.15.0

• Added progress dialog when opening multiple archives (currently when opening more than 3 at a time, but open to suggestions)
• Added ability to cancel opening archives in new progress dialog
• Added 'All files' label before extract buttons to hopefully indicate behaviour bit clearer
• Added archive path and file size in tool tip when hovering over archive in tree view
• Added new setting to remember open archives, will be shown as transparent to indicate it's not currently loaded
• Added support for BC6H_UF16 format
• Added option to set a max resolution for previews, default value is 1024x1024. Helps with performance, especially when resizing the window
• Allow multiple previews at a time
• Added ability to reorder archives in tree view
• Improved opening & closing archives performance, especially if they have a lot of files
• Improved performance of Preview window during resizing
• Removed 'Preview' button
• Moved 'Options' to 'Tools' menu
• Updated .NET Framework to 4.8
  

1.14.1

• Fixed extracting, accidentally broke a lot of it in 1.14.0
  

1.14.0

• Added better error message for when opening Archives fails
• Added "Reload" context option to archives
• Added "Open Containing Folder" context option to archives
• Optimized Compare tool, it's now a lot faster, more memory efficient and more accurate (one file went from 1000ms to 90ms compare time)
• More compact Compare tool UI, more space for the list
• Added searching to Compare tool
• Added type filters (Unique, Changed, Identical) to Compare tool
• Added directory filtering to Compare tool
• Added previewing to Compare tool
• Added extracting to Compare tool
• Files are now sorted by file path then type in Compare tool
• Added more properties to compare for GNF textures in Compare Entry tool
• Fixed first level of folders not being sorted corretly in archive tree
  

1.13.1

• Added options to "Extract here" and "Extract to directory" for right click context menu in Explorer
• Added check to prevent extracting same archive multiple times at the same time
• Changed behaviour to now be able to do multiple extractions at the same time, but limited to one per archive
• Main window will no longer be locked when extracting
• Fixed issues with trying to use Extract right click context menu in Explorer when BSA Browser is already open
• Fixed issues with opening main window when a extracting operation is in progress
• Fixed not closing properly when using right click context menu in Explorer in some scenarios
• Fixed program crashing when opening archive causes an error. Will now just show error message
• Fixed SSL issue when checking for update
  

1.13.0

• Added "All" node in archive list that will show all files in all archives at once
• Added "Archive" column to identify which archive the file is contained in, useful when using the "All" node above
• Added Compare tool. Right click an entry and select Compare, then select one or more entries to compare against. Does a byte to byte comparison and compares some texture property currently, can add more by request if anyone have ideas
• Added support for XboxDDS. After extract you will need to convert the file with xtexconv yourself
• Added hotkey combination to reset settings during startup. Hold [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Shift] before and during startup. Message will be shown if successful
• Added support for Morrowind archives without name tables (for example for Xbox)
• Added /extract flag to immediately extract archive to new folder with same name as archive
• Added option to installer to add a "Extract with BSA Browser" to Explorer context menu to immediately extract
• Prepend filenames with index in Archives without string table, mostly for sorting purposes
• Include extension in filenames in Archives without string table (when available)
• Include directory hash in filenames in Archives without string table (when available)
• Replace DDS extension with GNF during previewing if enabled
• Fixed showing files from multiple folders when folders have similar names, like 'folder' & 'folder2'
• Fixed slightly incorrect filesizes in BA2 texture Archives
• Fixed cubemap extraction
  

1.12.4

• Fixed startup crash after last closing the program while minimized
  

1.12.3

• Fixed DDS previewing. Forgot the Pfim DLL, whoops....
• Improve parsing speed of the "Always show uncompressed file size" option slightly
• Added option to match last changed date with archive
• Added option to replace .dds extensions for PS4 textures with .gnf, so you can associate a different program for these
  

1.12.2

• Improved DPI scaling
• Fixed hangup when cancelling an extraction
  

1.12.1

• Fixed incorrect display file size on uncompressed files when enabling the "Always show uncompressed file size" option
  

1.12.0

• Added icons for file list and folder tree with options to disable them individually
• Added texture information in Title of the DDS preview window
• Added .bat files to supported formats for Text Previewer
• Added confirmation message for emptying recents list
• Added extraction speed to progress dialog
• Improved/fixed previewing of F4/Skyrim/F76 textures using Pfim: https://github.com/nickbabcock/Pfim
• Improved previewing files outside of built-in viewers, files without extension and without any associated programs will now automatically prompt the "Open with" window
• Reset user settings for previewing because of above change, make sure to check them again if needed
• Removed ATI header options for textures, default behaviour now because GIMP/Paint.net etc can open these textures now
• Tweaked font size a bit
• Updated .NET Framework to 4.7.2
• Updated SharpZipLib from 1.1.0 to 1.2.0
• Updated IonKiwi.lz4.net from 1.0.12 to 1.0.15
• Fixed <Files> nodes not working correctly for some archives
• Fixed application starting outside of viewable bounds, appearing only in taskbar. Now the top left point of the window will always be visible
• Fixed saving stack traces to containing folder. If program doesn't have access to it (for example when installing in Program Files) write to '%appdata%\BSA Browser' folder instead
• Fixed some files not appearing because of mismatched casing
• Fixed "Always use real file size" option not working at all, and changed the text
• CLI: Added --noheaders option to extract unsupported textures without DDS header instead of skipping
• CLI: Added --overwrite option to overwrite existing files. Default behavior is to skip existing files now. Thanks to Wynadorn
• CLI: Removed --ati option for same reason stated above
  

1.11.0

• Added DXGI_FORMAT_B8G8R8X8_UNORM as supported format
• Added option to disable check for updates
• Added 'Reset to Default' button to Options
• Added prompt to extract unsupported textures in BA2 archives without generated DDS header for advanced users
• Added Discord link in menu
• Any file can now be previewed by passing it off to OS if there isn't a built-in tool
• Additionally, added tab in Options where you can disable built-in tool for specific file types
• Additionally 2, textures that are supported but can't be previewed with the built-in one will be passed off to the system default (GIMP, Paint.net etc)
• Fixed creating multiple nodes for same folder because of upper/lower case
• Fixed Options tab order
  

1.10.0

• Added specific error for when reading name table fails, which will inform you to try another encoding
• Fixed not being able to drag open archives with upper casing extension
• CLI: Added option to set encoding
• CLI: Added -i option to ignore errors
• CLI: Allow hyphens and slashes for options
• CLI: Allow colon and equals sign for sub-options (-l for example)
• CLI: Make use of exit codes
• CLI: Removed encoding being printed to console
  

1.9.9

• Added <Files> nodes to directories that only shows files directly under it, excluding sub directories
• Added text previewer. Including syntax highlighting for .JSON and .XML
• Added option to set encoding. Useful for non-english environments. Be careful with this
• Added licenses for third party libraries (should have been there from the start)
• Added .NIF to previewing in default program
• Updated to .NET Framework 4.6
• Updated copyright years
• Improved window state saving
• Fixed requiring specific VC++ versions
• Fixed crash in CLI when trying to set console cursor when one isn't available. Thanks to Bioruebe
  

1.9.8

• More detailed report when files fail to extract
• Fixed opening archives containing special characters in file names
  

1.9.7

• Fixed broken extraction for many BSA archives
• Added links to Fallout 4 and Skyrim Nexus Pages and to GitHub in Help menu
• All unhandled exceptions are now saved to 'stack traces' folder. Useful when reporting bugs
• CLI: Defaults to list (/l) option
  

1.9.6

• Added option to set max recent files
• Changed file list font to Segoe UI
• Updated the progress dialog appearance. The ETA isn't super accurate, but best I can do atm. It's going to be improved
• Increased Morrowind archive reading speed by up to 387.587% (7s average -> 1.5s average reading the Morrowind.bsa 100 times)
• Fixed error opening some archives caused by always using system default encoding. This caused errors on some systems, for example systems set to Japanese locale
  

 1.9.5

Note: Previews are getting outdated, many Fallout 76 textures show incorrectly or don't work at all. Gonna look into updating, but it's not my code so not familiar with it yet

• Implemented DX10 headers for Fallout 76. GIMP DDS support isn't great for Fallout 76, so you might wanna look into Photoshop or other tools
• Changed how errors are handled during extraction. Extraction continues and a report is written in the destination
• Updated Progress window
• Fixed BA2 textures being extracted with null bytes at the end
• Fixed being able to click extract while one is already active by blocking main window during
  

1.9.1

• Fixed some textures causing invalid DDS header error
  

1.9

• Very early Fallout 76 support
• Added tool to compare archives. See what has been added, removed or changed
• Removed "This archive is already opened" message. Bring window to front instead
• Fixed rare decompress error with certain files (e.g. True Storms, Skyland)