ARCHIVED: For Mac OS and Mac OS X, what is the StuffIt Engine (aka Expander Enhancer), and why do I need it?

The StuffIt Engine is a component of StuffIt products such as StuffIt Expander, DropStuff, and StuffIt Deluxe. When you install a StuffIt application, the StuffIt Engine is automatically placed in the following location, depending on your operating system:

• Mac OS X 10.2.x and later: You can find it in the /Library/CFMSupport folder. The file is called StuffItEngineShell.cfm.
  
  
• Mac OS X 10.1.x: You can find it in the /Library/Application Support folder.
  
  
• Mac OS 9.x and earlier: You can find it in the Extensions folder.

Recent versions of these StuffIt programs all depend upon the StuffIt Engine, so do not move it or throw it in the Trash. Also, to minimize application incompatibilities with the StuffIt Engine, keep all of your StuffIt programs at the same version (e.g., 7.0.3, 8.0.1, 9.0).

The StuffIt Engine is sometimes known as the Expander Enhancer because in older versions it increased the number of file types StuffIt Expander could decode. For those versions, StuffIt Expander did not require the StuffIt Engine, but without the StuffIt Engine it could decode only StuffIt, MacBinary, and BinHex files. If you see a warning about the Expander Enhancer, upgrade to a more recent version of StuffIt Expander.

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