How to Extract Unzip tar.gz Files: Step-by-Step Windows and Linux Guide

If you don’t want to install any file compression software, you can quickly extract .gz, tar.gz or .tar files using the Tar command in command prompt on Windows 11 or 10. As we see later, different compression utilities may require different methods for extracting and unzipping files. Though we mostly focus on .tar.gz files, check out the end of the article for some quick tips on extracting .tar files in other formats. 7-Zip is a free and open-source tool with high compression ratios & supports a wide range of archive formats. It offers AES-256 encryption to protect sensitive data within archives. Users can utilize the 7-zip command-line interface for automated & scripted extraction tasks.

1. The .tar and .gz are usually used together to archive multiple files into a single file that is also compressed significantly, thus, with the combined extension of .tar.gz.
2. And now you can use the 7-Zip File Manager to open, view, or extract files from tar.gz and other archives.
3. Where .zip files consist of many individually compressed files, .tar files are compressed as a single package, leaving its files uncompressed.
4. Since .tar.gz compresses multiple files all at once, it can take advantage of similarities between individual files to save on space.
5. In this article, we’ll show you a simple and straightforward method to open these compressed files.
6. The next section shows how .tar comes with a few extra features that make it the better compression format for certain files and applications.

Extract .tar.gz, .tgz, .gz tarballs on Windows 11 using Linux tar

It is assumed that you are extracting a tarball created on another system. We are skipping some arguments usually necessary to preserve permissions, which on Windows 10 are not required to access the files. The easiest way to open a tar.gz file on Windows is to install an excellent free utility called 7-Zip, which can handle tar.gz and just about any other file format. We’ve been recommending this app for years, and it’s one of the first things that we install whenever reinstalling Windows.

Instead, you should be using the native tar support available on Windows 11 or a Linux distro how to buy stacks in WSL. Since .tar.gz compresses multiple files all at once, it can take advantage of similarities between individual files to save on space. Generally speaking, a collection of files archived and compressed as a .tar.gz are more space-efficient (i.e., smaller) than the same collection compressed as a .zip. Of course, that’s not to say .tar files are some kind of “lesser” format than .zip.

What are .tar and .tar.gz files?

For this guide, we’ll use 7-Zip, a free and open-source file archiver with a high compression ratio. 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 “Extract” button and choose a location to put all the files. Although tar files are usually more common on Linux distros (for example, Ubuntu) and macOS for backups and archival, you may also come across these files on Windows 11. You could use third-party tools like 7-Zip and PeaZip, but these are not recommended as they don’t always work to extra .tar.gz files.

Again, the above command extracts to the current working directory by default. You can use the -C option to extract to a different directory (in this case, /home/user/files). But with .zip being the easier of the two to use, why use .tar in the first place?

Right-click “Command Prompt” from the search result and select “Run as administrator“. You may also be interested in learning about the best WinZip alternatives to compress files. Gzip compression reduces the overall file size, which makes it more efficient for distribution, backup, and storage purposes. Once you’ve done this successfully, you’ll notice that the icon for tar.gz files will change to a 7-Zip icon. Once you’ve selected the right file, you’ll see “7-Zip File Manager” show up in the select app dialog. If you want 7-Zip to always handle tar.gz files in the future, you’re going to want to select the “Always” button at the bottom of the dialog.

This compression is lossless – that means no data is lost during the compression process, and the original files can be atomic swaps defined fully restored upon extraction. But it does not compress the data, which results in a larger file size compared to compressed formats. The author combines expert insights with user-centric guidance, rigorously researching and testing to ensure you receive trustworthy, easy-to-follow tech guides.

Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of a beginner’s guide to earning free bitcoins in 2020 combined experience in technology. Once you complete the steps, you will have all the files and folders extracted to the destination path you specified after a few moments. This guide will teach you the steps to use native tar commands on Windows 10 from Command Prompt and Ubuntu to extract the content of a .tar.gz file.

Unzip .tar.gz in Linux

This command extracts (-x) the file (-f) specified (in this case, filename.tar.gz) to the current directory. Note that this command also works with other common compression formats such as .tar.bz2. From videos to entire software packages, many files are compressed and stored using the .tar.gz format. While extracting a .tar.gz file isn’t quite as easy as unzipping a .zip, it’s still pretty straightforward. However, third-party tools like 7-Zip, WinRAR, or WinZip can help you extract these files.

A file using .tar.gz format is a file that has been created using the Unix-based archival application tar and then compressed using the gzip compression. These files are often referred to as “tarballs.” While you can find them with a double extension (.tar.gz), the extension can also be shortened to .tgz or .gz. This error usually occurs when a .tar has been saved as a .gz despite having never been compressed using the gzip utility. It may sound like a silly mistake, but it’s surprisingly common in situations where users directly rename files and their extensions (such as .tar and .gz) in the process. Though gzip is the most common compression utility, it’s not the only one. As you might imagine, using a different compression utility on a .tar file will result in a different double extension.