How to open archives by operating system
Step-by-step guides for extracting and creating archives on every major desktop and mobile platform.
Windows is the most common desktop OS for handling archives. Windows 11 added native handling for 7z, RAR, TAR, and a wide set of Unix compression formats in 20…
macOS handles ZIP and Unix tarballs out of the box, but anything else — RAR, 7z, modern compression like zstd or brotli — requires a third-party app. Two free o…
Linux is the natural home of the tarball. Every distribution ships tar, gzip, bzip2, xz, and usually zstd. RAR and 7z require optional packages but are one apt-…
Stock Android does not include an archive manager. To open a RAR or 7z file emailed from a desktop you need a third-party app. The two most popular choices are …
iOS gained native ZIP support in iOS 13 (2019). The Files app can create and extract ZIPs with a long press. For RAR or 7z, install one of the App Store archive…
ChromeOS Files app handles ZIP, RAR, 7z, TAR, and GZIP natively — Google added the broad set in Chrome 88. ChromeOS treats archives as virtual folders: double-c…