How to Open a .tar.gz File on Windows (No Extra Software)
By the UtilityNest team · · 5 min read
A developer friend has sent you the website backup you asked for: site-backup-2026-10.tar.gz. You only need one thing out of it, last month's contact-form.csv. You double-click the file on your Windows laptop and get asked which app should open it.
Files ending in .tar.gz (or .tgz) come from the Linux world: software downloads, datasets, server backups. For years Windows could not open them without extra software. That is no longer true, and if you only need one file out, you do not even have to unpack the lot.
The short version: on an up-to-date Windows 11 PC, right-click the file and choose Extract All. On Windows 10 or 11, tar -xf filename.tar.gz in Command Prompt works too. Or drop it on Extract TAR in your browser, browse the folders, and download just what you need.
What a .tar.gz actually is
It is two formats stacked together:
- TAR bundles many files and folders into one file, without compressing them.
- GZ (gzip) compresses a single file.
So the creator bundles everything into a .tar and then gzips it. To open it you reverse the process. .tgz is just a shorter name for the same thing. A plain .gz such as access.log.gz is usually one compressed file with no TAR inside.
Method 1: File Explorer on Windows 11
Microsoft added support for TAR, GZ, 7z, RAR and other archives to File Explorer in Windows 11 in late 2023.
- Make sure Windows Update is current.
- Right-click the .tar.gz and choose Extract All.
- Pick a destination and click Extract.
You can also double-click to browse it first. Very large archives can be slow in File Explorer.
Method 2: The built-in tar command (Windows 10 and 11)
Windows has included tar since Windows 10 version 1803.
- Open the folder containing the file in File Explorer.
- Click the address bar, type
cmdand press Enter. - List what is inside:
tar -tf site-backup.tar.gz - Extract everything here:
tar -xf site-backup.tar.gz - Extract somewhere else (the folder must exist):
tar -xf site-backup.tar.gz -C C:\output
Windows' tar detects gzip by itself, so you do not need the z flag. The same commands work in PowerShell, macOS Terminal and Linux.
Method 3: In your browser, in one step
Good for a work PC with Command Prompt locked down, a Chromebook, or when you want one file without unpacking everything. Nothing is uploaded; decompression happens on your device.
- Drop the .tar.gz, .tgz or .tar.xz onto Extract TAR. It decompresses and unpacks in one go, and the folder tree appears straight away.
- Browse, or type in the search box to find a file by name. Click the eye icon to preview text, scripts or images.
- Download a single file, tick several and download them as a ZIP, or in Chrome and Edge choose Extract to a folder to write everything to your disk.
A worked example: one CSV out of a backup
site-backup-2026-10.tar.gz is 310 MB and holds about 12,000 files. You need one 48 KB spreadsheet.
- The old way: extract all 12,000 files to your Desktop, dig through nested folders, then delete the lot.
- In the browser: drop it on Extract TAR, type
contact-formin the search box, click the eye icon to check it is the right month, click download. One file on your computer, nothing else.
A file Windows asks you to "look for an app in the Store" to open.
A browsable folder tree with search and preview, and only the files you want saved.
Before running anything from a downloaded tarball, open it in the browser first and read the README or install script with the preview button. It is a quick way to see what you are about to run without unpacking anything.
Is it safe to open?
Extracting does not run anything, but the files inside could be programs or scripts. Treat a .tar.gz from an unknown sender like any ZIP: let your antivirus scan it and do not run executables you were not expecting. Software projects often publish a SHA-256 checksum; check yours in Command Prompt with certutil -hashfile file.tar.gz SHA256.
When extraction goes wrong
"Not in gzip format"
Some browsers quietly decompress a .tar.gz during download but keep the name, so it is really a plain TAR. Extract TAR detects the format from the file itself, not the name, and tar -xf does the same.
A few files fail on Windows
Linux allows characters in names that Windows does not, like :, ? and *, and treats upper and lower case as different names. WSL or a Linux machine avoids this.
.tar.bz2 or .tar.zst
The browser tool recognizes these but does not unpack them yet. Use 7-Zip on Windows, or tar -xjf file.tar.bz2 on Mac or Linux.
Path too long
Deeply nested archives can hit old Windows path limits. Extract to a short location like C:\x.
Other options
- 7-Zip (free): handles every variant, but takes two steps for .tar.gz (first the .gz, then the .tar).
- Mac: double-click and Archive Utility does it in one step.
- Plain .gz files: Extract GZ gives you the original file back, with its original name when the GZIP stores one.
Which method should you pick?
If you want the whole archive unpacked onto your disk and you are on Windows 11, File Explorer is the simplest. If you are comfortable with a command line or need to script it, tar is fast and handles huge archives well. If you only want a few files, want to look before you unpack, or are on a computer where you cannot install or run much, the browser route wins. Archives up to about 1 GB open there, depending on your device's memory.
Quick answers
Is .tgz the same as .tar.gz?
Yes. Every method above handles both.
How do I make a .tar.gz on Windows?
Run tar -czf archive.tar.gz FolderName, or use Create TAR, add a folder and choose .tar.gz.