Renaming the file with a .gz file or with another extension will not extract the files. You will need conversion software to perform compression or extraction process. The above action opens the Command Prompt window with administrator rights.
How to Unzip (Open) Gz File
But they are sometimes used for regular data archiving purposes; hence, Windows 11/10 users may also come across such types of files and may need to extract their content. WinRAR is yet another popular file archiver tool widely used by users around the world to compress and uncompress files. You can use it to easily open, view and extract any .gz, tar.gz or .tar file. A file with the TGZ or GZ file extension is created using the Unix-based archival application tar and further compressed using GZIP Compression. These files are made up of a collection of files placed in a TAR archive mainly for making storage and tracking easy.
Extract RAR, 7z, GZ files using 7zip
7zip offers 7z.exe as a command-line option for extraction. I know of no built-in method for similar results, If you say tar isn’t working for you. Other not-so-common formats that you may come across on your computer are tarballs, or .TAR, and .XZ. Luckily, there are simple ways to extract files from these formats as well.
Archive types like RAR require an app to decompress on macOS, but you don’t need to do that for GZ. And, like RAR and ZIP, you can open and extract files from a GZ archive using both built-in as well as third-party tools on your computers. You can easily open a GZ file on any of the popular operating systems, and there are even multiple ways to do this. Once the files are uncompressed, click Download or Save button to save these files on your device. You can download a third-party tool such as WinZip to open GZ file. Pureinfotech is independent online publication that makes Windows and apps easy to understand with clear, concise guides, advice, and news.
6] Go to the downloaded files folder and double-click the downloaded ZIP file to open its Extract tab. Now, hit the ‘Extract all’ button to open the window directly below. 5] Now select and right-click the TGZ file, hit, 7-zip, and press the Extract files to open the Extract window as shown below. Now, open the destination folder to find the extracted files.
How to extract TGZ, GZ or TAR.GZ files
This guide will teach you the steps to open and extract RAR, 7z, and GZ files on Windows 11. Here are two easy ways to open and extract archive formats like RAR, 7z, and GZ on Windows 11. Firstly, open an elevated command prompt by search for “cmd” on the Windows 11 or 10 search bar. Right-click “Command Prompt” from the search result and select “Run as administrator“. One of the simplest methods to open the GZ file in Windows 10 is using Command Prompt. Follow the below steps to open the GZ file in Windows 10, Android, and online.
Open .gz, tar.gz or .tar file using file archiver tool
To access the files inside, you’ll need to extract them similar to how you’d unzip a ZIP file. Fortunately, it’s easy to extract GZ files on any platform! This wikiHow article will teach you how to extract files from compressed GZ archives on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, and iPad. A GZ file is an archive compressed using the gzip compression technology. Like other compressed files, this archive type helps you combine your files and reduce the size of your files by compressing them.
Windows 11 includes native support to extract “.gz” and “.tar.gz” files but support “.rar,” “.7z,” and other formats won’t arrive until later in 2023. However, you can use third-party tools like 7zip to open and extract these files. 7-Zip can work with most compression methods and extensions including .gz, tar.gz and .tar.
This command is built into your operating system, so you don’t need to install anything to use it. If you have a RAR file divided into multiple files, you only need to open the first one, and during the extraction process, 7Zip will reassemble and extract the files accordingly. After you complete the steps, the contents of the archival container will extract to the destination folder.
- 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.
- A GZ file is an archive file compressed by the standard GNU zip (gzip) compression algorithm.
- Other not-so-common formats that you may come across on your computer are tarballs, or .TAR, and .XZ.
- WindowsDigitals is an independent tech website that features articles, how-to guides, tutorials, and news related to Windows 11 and Windows 10.
WinRAR – supports both Tar and Gzip
Due to this extension, your document opens with a simple double-click. Changing the file extension will not damage the contents of the file. Instead, it will change the default program with which the file is to be opened. These GZ files are developed and used commonly in Linux distros and macOS. This does not mean that we cannot open GZ files in Windows and Android. It is one of the file compressors using the GNU zip compression algorithm.
In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Once you complete the steps, you can use the Ubuntu terminal to extract RAR, 7z, and GZ files on Windows 11. Enter or browse to the extraction destination path (the location where you want to extract the files to), then click OK to begin the extraction.
Similar to these, GZ is also a compressed archive to compress files. You would have come across ZIP files often, but GZ might be rare to you. If you have received a GZ file for the first time, then it may raise a few questions such as how to open GZ file in Windows 10, in Android phones, or online.
The FileInfo.com team has independently researched the Gnu Zipped Archive file format and Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android apps listed on this page. Our goal is 100% accuracy and we only publish information about file types that we have verified. Alternatively, if you use the Windows Subsystem for Linux, you can install the P7Zip app to open and extract RAR, what is meant by lifo and fifo 7z, and GZ files using commands. Since Windows 11 doesn’t include native support to manage archival containers, such as RAR, 7z, and GZ, you will have to rely on free third-party tools, such as 7zip. Now, you will have all the files and folder extracted to the specified destination.
However, gzip does have one drawback it can’t really compress multiple files at once, so we need to use gzip along with tar if we want to compress multiple files. Another way to open a GZ archive in macOS is to use free apps. There are popular options, like The Unarchiver or Keka (paid on the macOS App Store but free on the developer’s site). Both apps support several other formats as well, including ZIP and RAR.
