{"id":27303,"date":"2023-01-03T17:13:34","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T17:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/03\/how-to-unzip-or-extract-tar-gz-files-on-windows\/"},"modified":"2023-01-03T17:13:34","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T17:13:34","slug":"how-to-unzip-or-extract-tar-gz-files-on-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/03\/how-to-unzip-or-extract-tar-gz-files-on-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Unzip or Extract tar.gz Files on Windows"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"tar.gz<\/p>\n

To open or extract a tar.gz file on Windows, you can install the free 7-Zip File Manager utility, or you can use the tar -xvf command from the Bash prompt included in the Windows Subsystem for Linux.<\/p>\n

Windows, by default, has no idea what a TAR.GZ file could possibly be. It\u2019s not like the format has been around for many decades or anything\u2026 Windows just can\u2019t fathom how to open it. Thankfully the answer is easy, and we\u2019ll share it with you today.<\/p>\n

You would think that Windows would even prompt you to install an app from the Store to help you open this file type, but you\u2019d be wrong. It doesn\u2019t know what a tar.gz file<\/a> is, and that\u2019s the story it\u2019s sticking to.<\/p>\n

What is a Tar.gz File Anyway?<\/h2>\n

A tar.gz file is actually a combination of two different types of files formats: a tar file<\/a>, and a gzip<\/a> file. Tar files, or tarballs, are a collection of files wrapped up together for easy storage as a single file, but without any compression. Once they have been combined, they are then gzipped into a .gz file to reduce the space used on disk\u2014usually by a lot.<\/p>\n

Tar.gz has become the standard format used for distributing Linux and open source software since it\u2019s easy to extract on basically any platform that isn\u2019t Windows.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> What is a tar.gz File, and How Do I Open It?<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

How to \u201cUnzip\u201d or Extract a Tar.gz File on Windows<\/h2>\n

The easiest way to open a tar.gz file on Windows is to install an excellent free utility called 7-Zip<\/a>, which can handle tar.gz and just about any other file format. We\u2019ve been recommending this app for years, and it\u2019s one of the first things that we install whenever reinstalling Windows.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve downloaded and installed 7-Zip, double-click on the tar.gz file that you\u2019re trying to open, and then select \u201cChoose an app on your PC\u201d from the popup dialog that shows up.<\/p>\n

\"tar.gz<\/p>\n

Browse down to the location where you installed 7-Zip, which is usually going to be some variant of C:\\Program Files\\7-Zip<\/code> , and then find the 7zFM.exe<\/code> file\u2014it\u2019s important that you select this one and not the other files in the folder, because the other ones won\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

\"7-zip<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve selected the right file, you\u2019ll see \u201c7-Zip File Manager\u201d show up in the select app dialog. If you want 7-Zip to always handle tar.gz files in the future, you\u2019re going to want to select the \u201cAlways\u201d button at the bottom of the dialog.<\/p>\n

\"open<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve done this successfully, you\u2019ll notice that the icon for tar.gz files will change to a 7-Zip icon.<\/p>\n

\"7-zip<\/p>\n

And now you can use the 7-Zip File Manager to open, view, or extract files from tar.gz and other archives. If you want a specific file, you can drill down into the folder, or you can simply click the \u201cExtract\u201d button and choose a location to put all the files.<\/p>\n

\"using<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that you can also use WinRAR<\/a> to open tar.gz files, but we\u2019re partial to 7-Zip here since it\u2019s totally free and can even extract .RAR files<\/a>, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re recommending.<\/p>\n

How to Extract or Unzip tar.gz Files Using Bash on Windows 10 or 11<\/h2>\n

If you don\u2019t feel like installing third-party software on your PC, and you\u2019re down for some geek activity, you can actually extract files from a tar.gz archive from the Bash shell included in the Windows Subsystem for Linux<\/a>. You\u2019ll first need to follow the directions to install WSL on Windows 10<\/a> or Windows 11<\/a>, open the Ubuntu app or whatever version of Linux you installed, and then you can simply use the following command:<\/p>\n

tar -xzf tarfile<\/em><\/pre>\n
You\u2019ll want to replace \u201ctarfile\u201d with the path to the tar.gz file that you\u2019re trying to extract. For a more detailed explanation on how the tar command works, be sure to read our guide to compressing and extracting files in the Linux Terminal<\/a>. The tar command is extremely powerful, and you can do things like list or search for files in a tar archive<\/a>, or extract a single file.<\/a><\/p>\n
\"using
Extracting the WordPress install archive in Ubuntu on Windows 10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
It\u2019s also worth noting that you can use the Bash shell to extract tar.bz2 files as well<\/a> because the Linux terminal is insanely powerful\u2014it doesn\u2019t get better than the GUI of Windows and the Terminal of Linux combined<\/a> into a single operating system. Unless you get a Mac<\/a>, of course.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n