How to open a .tar.gz file in Windows?

Question

I need to open a file that sadly is only available in the .tar.gz file format and I am using Windows 7. I can unzip the file using 7-zip but after that I still have a .tar file that I can't open in Windows.

Is there a way to open .tar.gz files on Windows?

@Sparr: `.tar.gz` is not supported by the most widely spread client operating system without third party software. And on added to that, when I use it in Linux is has a very bad usability with command flags that is very hard to remeber. See [Untar, ungz, gz, tar - how do you remember all the useful options?](http://superuser.com/questions/156207/untar-ungz-gz-tar-how-do-you-remember-all-the-useful-options) — Jonas, Nov 27 '10 at 20:19
yes, but it is supported by software on more platforms than any other archive format. I cannot name an OS or distribution thereof for which you cannot download untar and gunzip binaries. I can name plenty of platforms for which there are no binaries or even sources for unzip. — Sparr, Nov 28 '10 at 00:17
@Sparr: As I wrote in my question, `.tar.gz` is **not** supported in Windows without third party software. But `.zip` is supported and I guess that `.zip` is supported by Linux too. If the file had been available in the `.zip` format, I hadn't asked this question. — Jonas, Nov 28 '10 at 13:08
Perhaps I should rephrase. I believe you put "sadly" in the wrong place. It belongs before "using". — Sparr, Nov 29 '10 at 04:33
Sadly, it's never been a problem... 7-zip always seemed to work. — Fiasco Labs, Dec 22 '12 at 20:58
Bad usability? There's a phrase for that: RTFM. `man tar`. All you need to remember is that at the end of the flags, you need `f` for file. Here's the basics: `tar cf arch.tar folder/` is **c** reating a **f** ile called `arch.tar` from the folder `folder/`. `tar xf arch.tar` will e **x** tract from the **f** ile `arch.tar`. This also works on `tar.gz` files. No need for the `z` flag there. — Braden Best, Feb 09 '14 at 22:58

Paul · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-08T00:04:09.323

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You can use 7-zip to untar the .tar file as well.

Right-click the file
Select 7-zip -> Extract Here / Extract To

edited Jun 08 '17 at 00:04

answered Nov 27 '10 at 14:51

Paul

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It doesn't work for me, but I will try to upgrade 7-zip to the latest version. – Jonas Nov 27 '10 at 15:01
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After upgrading 7-Zip from 9.16 to 9.20 it works fine. Thanks. – Jonas Nov 27 '10 at 15:12
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@Paul, How to do it in **1** step? – Pacerier May 16 '15 at 03:35
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@Pacerier - you can't do it in one step using 7-zip, since you're unpacking two filetypes: gzip and tarball. If you can use Linux, command line allows one step: `tar xvfz somefilename.tar.gz`. Otherwise check out [these answers](http://superuser.com/questions/80019/how-can-i-unzip-a-tar-gz-in-one-step-using-7-zip) – Paul May 16 '15 at 03:40
@Paul Could you perhaps take a screenshot of which option actually untars because when I right-click the file I don't see "untar folder" anywhere. Is it Extract? – Kellen Stuart Oct 05 '16 at 14:16
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@KolobCanyon - right-click the file and select 7-zip->Extract Here/Extract To... – Paul Oct 05 '16 at 19:08

score 57 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 26 '16 at 20:49

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If you can, you can always use bash for windows and just do the regular

 tar -xvzf <filename.tar.gz>

answered Oct 26 '16 at 20:49

Yaron Meiner

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Ask yourself, do you have Git Bash already installed... 3:) – Lorem Ipsum Mar 21 '19 at 20:57
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@LoremIpsum yes, linux subsystem is a part of windows 10 now and tar command is available from windows cmd.exe. – Reishin May 01 '19 at 14:48
Awesome, thank you. – Beko Nov 15 '20 at 22:36
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I was able to do this simply using windows command prompt – Zach Mar 29 '21 at 23:35
@LoremIpsum no need anymore: [Tar and Curl Come to Windows!](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/tar-and-curl-come-to-windows/) – phuclv Jul 11 '21 at 12:53

score 31 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 11 '21 at 08:46

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With a latest Windows 10 (1803+, or 10.0.17063+ for insiders) you can unpack a tar archive just like you do it in linux:

cmd.exe -> tar xf archive.tar.gz

edited Jul 11 '21 at 08:46

li ki

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answered May 01 '19 at 14:54

Reishin

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As simple as snaping finger. Open terminal and run command in target directory – Niyongabo Eric Nov 11 '22 at 11:11
this needs the option "z" to complete the work – KansaiRobot Apr 25 '23 at 12:54

score 21 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 27 '10 at 14:52

21

7-zip should work for you. I believe you have to untar the .tar part of the file as a second step after unzipping the .gz part.

You also may need to check your 7-zip settings...

Click Tools → Options
Go to the “System” tab.
Make sure “tar” and “gz” are checked off.

answered Nov 27 '10 at 14:52

Ryan Berger

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Thanks, it worked after upgrading my 7-Zip from 9.16 to 9.20. – Jonas Nov 27 '10 at 15:13
+1 your solution was teh only one that worked for me. – Gherbi Hicham Jan 13 '17 at 10:23
in `17.01` you can view files inside the `tar.gz` archive with 2 steps in the gui - just associate the files with your user. You can also associate `rpm` & `deb` files now. – Stuart Cardall Jan 31 '18 at 12:04

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 19 '16 at 21:02

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The 7-zip package comes with a command-line tool called 7z.exe that can pipe to and from stdin (-si) & stdout (-so). So the following line will do the extractraction in one step with no intermediary file (-ttar tells 7-zip that we're piping in a tar stream).

PATH_TO_7ZIP\7z.exe x netlib-0.13.1.tar.gz -so | PATH_TO_7ZIP\7z.exe x -si -ttar

answered Feb 19 '16 at 21:02

Refael Ackermann

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Nice one! Simple and no temp files! – Sun Junwen Sep 13 '16 at 05:10

Shreyas · Answer 6 · 2012-12-22T18:48:33.170

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I use simple WinRAR extractor to extract .tar.gz file; simply do these steps,

Start extracting the .tar.gz file with WinRAR, it will generate an Intermediate file.
Rename that intermediate file as ".tar" and extract it again with WinRAR.

Now second time it will extract your all files/folders.

edited Dec 22 '12 at 18:48

answered Dec 22 '12 at 13:24

Shreyas

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This should be the accepted answer IMHO. Windows users who are likely accustomed to WinZip are likely to find WinRAR very intuitive to use. – billrichards Jun 25 '14 at 18:20

score 2 · Answer 7 · edited Feb 14 '12 at 13:27

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The problem is that when 7-zip uncompresses the tar file into a subdirectory, you have to go into the subdirectory in order to uncompress the tar file.

If you've tried to uncompress the subdirectory, it won't work of course.

There are two solutions here:

Use 'extract here', not 'Extract files...'.
Go into the subdirectory and extract from there.

edited Feb 14 '12 at 13:27

sblair

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answered Feb 14 '12 at 12:36

Druvision

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score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 24 '13 at 07:44

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Install total commander, it will deal with tar.gz files. You can just go inside such kind of file and copy it to the place you need. Extraction is done by TC in the background.

answered Sep 24 '13 at 07:44

Piotus

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could you link the download link and elaborate the usage? – BlueBerry - Vignesh4303 Sep 24 '13 at 09:49

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 16 '15 at 19:00

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I find Senthil Rajasekharan's TarTool.exe to be the simplest (includes the single dll from SharpZipLib).

Version 1.0 supports gzip
Version 2.0 Beta adds bzip2

answered Jan 16 '15 at 19:00

Sean Summers

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Aug 21 '15 at 18:46

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Paul has it correct, but in this case it's a 2-step process. First to remove the .gz(decompress the files) and second to remove the .tar(unpack the files).

answered Aug 21 '15 at 18:46

Mark Sherrill

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Could you tell us how to do those steps? – Ben N Aug 21 '15 at 19:11
first you'll need 7-zip... http://www.7-zip.org/ I like to create a folder to place the .tar.gz file into prior to unzipping. Right-click on the file and hover over 7-zip, select "Extract Here" to remove the .gz. - now do the same for the newly created .tar file. – Mark Sherrill Aug 24 '15 at 13:02

How to open a .tar.gz file in Windows?

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