While tarball files are more common in the Linux world, you might encounter them occasionally in the Windows world too. For instance, many open-source project use .tar.gz, .tgz, or .gz file compression formats. The good thing is, Windows 11 natively supports unzipping and extracting tar.gz files.
This quick and easy guide shows you how to unzip or extract tar files such as.tar.gz, .tgz, .gz, etc., on Windows 11 without using third-party software like 7-zip or WinRAR.
Unzip .tar.gz, .tgz, .gz files on Windows 11
To unzip tar files such as .tar.gz, .tgz, and .gz on Windows 11, you can use the Command Prompt with tar -xvzf command. Here’s how to do it.
First, press the Start key on your keyboard or the Start icon on the taskbar. This will open the Start menu. Next, start typing “Command Prompt”. Once you see the Command Prompt result, right-click on it and choose the “Run as Administrator” option.
The above action opens the Command Prompt window with administrator rights. In the command window, run the below command while replacing the source and destination paths. Here the source path is the .tar.gz file path and the destination path is where you want the tar file to be extracted.
tar -xvzf C:/source/path/to/filename.tar.gz -C C:/desitnation/path/to/folderAs soon as you execute the command, tar will unzip and extract the file. The extracted content will be saved to the destination folder.
For those of your working, here’s what the -xvzf and C flags mean:
- x: Tells the tar application to extract the tar file.
- v: This is a verbose flag that displays the detailed processing information while the command is running. This is an optional flag. You can omit it if needed.
- z: Tells the tar application to use gzip to extract the tar file.
- f: This flag tells the tar application the location and filename of the tar file.
- C: Tells the tar application where to extract the tar file.
That is all. It is that simple to unzip tar gz file on Windows.
I hope this simple and easy Windows how-to guide helped you.
If you are stuck or need help, send an email, and I will try to help as much as possible.
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