Archive Explorer

About Archive Explorer

An independent encyclopedia of compressed archive file formats, the software that opens them, and how to use them on every operating system.

What this site is

Archive Explorer is a focused reference for one of the oldest, most universal pieces of computing: the archive file. Every download you have ever opened — every .zip on your desktop, every .tar.gz from a Linux mirror, every .apk sideloaded onto Android — is one of the formats we cover here. We aim to be the place you can land on when you see an extension you have never seen before and walk away in two minutes knowing what it is, how to open it, and what it would replace it in 2025.

Close-up of an open computer hard disk drive showing the platters and read/write head

What we cover

  • The major formats: ZIP, RAR, 7z, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ, Zstandard, plus dozens of less common ones.
  • The packaging formats built on top of them: APK, IPA, JAR, DOCX, EPUB, NuGet, Wheel, deb, rpm — most are ZIP or TAR with extra metadata.
  • The disk and filesystem images: ISO, DMG, IMG, WIM, VHD, VMDK, QCOW2, OVA.
  • The software: 7-Zip, WinRAR, PeaZip, Keka, The Unarchiver, GNU tar, ZArchiver and more — what they support, when to use which.
  • The operating systems: step-by-step extract and create guides for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and ChromeOS.

Where the data comes from

Format coverage is built from a combination of public references including the Wikipedia "List of archive formats" article, the Library of Congress Digital Formats registry, the IANA media-type registry, and the 7-Zip project documentation. Where authoritative sources disagree (and they often do, especially on legacy formats), we note both interpretations. Curated facts — magic bytes, default algorithms, history — are double-checked against vendor documentation where it exists.

What we are not

We are not affiliated with PKWARE, RARLAB, the 7-Zip project, Apple, Microsoft, Google, or any other vendor. We do not host pirated software, cracked archivers, or "premium" downloads behind ads — every link here is to a real, legitimate official source.

Get in touch

Found a mistake, an obscure format we missed, or a step that no longer matches the current version of an OS? Please contact us — corrections are gratefully accepted.