HELP
Using Threebrook Pack
Installing, compressing, extracting, viewing, the command line and deploying to many PCs.
Installing
- Double-click the downloaded ThreebrookPack-version-win-x64.msi. It installs for your user only, with no admin prompt, into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\三溪缩影.
- Once installed, Threebrook Pack’s items appear in File Explorer’s right-click menu. Windows 11 folds the menu, so they’re under “Show more options”.
- Menus, file type names and the app follow your Windows display language (Chinese or English); in the viewer you can also switch language in the View menu.
The app isn’t code-signed yet. If Windows says it “protected your PC”, click “More info”, then “Run anyway”. If an older version was installed for all users on this PC, double-clicking tells you to uninstall it in Settings › Apps first, or to upgrade from an administrator Command Prompt with ALLUSERS=1; see Deploying to many PCs.
Compressing
- A folder: right-click it › “Threebrook Pack: Compress (to a .iisz package)” › click Compress. You get “folder name.iisz” next to it, subfolders included.
- One image: right-click a BMP, TIFF or RAW › “Threebrook Pack: Compress”. You get “file name.iis” next to it.
- You can select several folders or images and compress them together in one window.
- Originals are kept by default, like ZIP. Tick “Delete the originals after compressing and checking” to delete them once the package is written and every file checks out; files that are in use, read-only or changed after compression are left alone.
- Files that won’t shrink, such as JPG and PNG, are stored as they are and never grow. If the package name is taken you get “name (2).iisz”; nothing is overwritten.
Headerless RAW files
A .raw saved straight from a camera holds only pixel data, with no width or height. Threebrook Pack detects the width, height and pixel format (Mono8, 10, 12 and 16, plus the packed Mono10p, Mono12p and Mono12Packed) and compresses it as an image.
Detection only affects how small the file gets, never correctness: it still restores byte for byte. To set the parameters yourself, put a .json file with the same name next to the .raw, for example A01.json next to A01.raw:
{ "width": 2448, "height": 2048, "pixel_format": "Mono12p" }
If a RAW looks wrong in the viewer, click “Wrong size or format? Enter it…” and fill in the parameters.
Extracting
- Right-click a .iisz or .iis › “Threebrook Pack: Extract here”. A .iisz restores the original folder; if that folder name exists, it goes to “name (2)” so nothing gets mixed up. A .iis restores the original file next to it, and is skipped if that file already exists.
- Right-click a folder › “Threebrook Pack: Extract the .iis / .iisz inside” to restore every .iis and unpack every .iisz in it and its subfolders.
- Every file is checked with SHA-256, and modification times are restored too. On a mismatch you get an error and no file is left behind.
Viewing
- Switch File Explorer to Medium or Large icons: a .iis shows the picture itself; a .iisz shows a mosaic of its first four images with a package badge.
- Double-click a .iisz to browse it like a folder and click an image to view it. “Extract all here” unpacks the whole package; “Save original as…” saves just one.
- Double-click a .iis to view it; “Save original as…” restores that one file.
- The viewer opens ordinary BMP, TIFF, RAW, PNG and JPEG too: wheel zoom, 16-bit window/level, Bayer colour preview and pixel readouts.
- Light or dark follows Windows; you can pick “Appearance: light / dark” in the View menu (for this session only; no settings are saved).
Command line
Once installed, iis-cli works in any Command Prompt, ready for batch files and scheduled tasks:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| iis-cli pack D:\Images\Batch1 | Packs into D:\Images\Batch1.iisz; add --delete to delete the originals after checking |
| iis-cli unpack Batch1.iisz | Extracts next to the package; -o folder to choose where |
| iis-cli list Batch1.iisz | Lists the files in a package |
| iis-cli verify Batch1.iisz --deep | Full check: restores in memory and compares SHA-256, writes nothing |
| iis-cli compress image.bmp | Compresses one file to image.bmp.iis |
| iis-cli restore folder -r -o output | Restores .iis files to the originals |
The command-line messages are in Chinese for now.
Deploying to many PCs
The same MSI installs in two ways:
| Install for | Command | Program folder |
|---|---|---|
| Current user (default) | msiexec /i ThreebrookPack-version-win-x64.msi /qn /l*v install.log | %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\三溪缩影 |
| All users (admin) | msiexec /i ThreebrookPack-version-win-x64.msi /qn ALLUSERS=1 /l*v install.log | C:\Program Files\三溪缩影 |
- Optional INSTALLFOLDER="D:\ThreebrookPack\" sets the program folder; later upgrades keep it.
- Exit codes: 0 success; 3010 success, restart needed; 1603 failed (see the log); 1638 another version is installed. When installing for all users, 1625 or a permission error in the log means it wasn’t run as administrator.
- Upgrading: install the new MSI; the install type and folder carry over. Downgrading isn’t allowed; uninstall first.
- Silent uninstall: msiexec /x ThreebrookPack-version-win-x64.msi /qn
- No VC++ runtime or .NET to install, no background service, no license file.
After uninstalling
- Uninstall in Settings › Apps › 三溪缩影 (Threebrook Pack). It removes only the program, right-click menus, file associations, thumbnails, Start menu items and the program folder on PATH; it never touches images, .iis or .iisz files.
- A .iisz is a standard ZIP (stored, not compressed) that any unzip tool can open. Files that didn’t shrink are the originals; “file.iis” entries can be restored with the open-source decoder iis-decode (BSD-3-Clause). It’s a good idea to back up iis-decode.exe from the program folder along with your packages.
- Reinstall Threebrook Pack to keep using them as before.
Still stuck?
Write to support@threebrook.com with your Windows version, Threebrook Pack version (Help › About Threebrook Pack in the viewer) and what happened. If certain images don’t compress well or won’t open, tell us their format, bit depth and size; please don’t send images that are confidential to your customers.