Extract TAR.GZ files on Windows

Two layers in one step

A .tar.gz is a TAR file (many files joined into one, with their folders and dates) compressed with gzip. On Windows that can mean extracting twice: first the .gz to get a .tar, then the .tar. Octoolo reads straight through both, whether the outer layer is gzip (.tar.gz, .tgz), bzip2 (.tar.bz2, .tbz2), XZ (.tar.xz, .txz) or Zstandard (.tar.zst). It looks at the file's first bytes rather than its name, so a TAR renamed oddly still opens.

A file compressed on its own, like access.log.gz or data.csv.xz, is shown as the one file inside it and comes out beside it, as access.log.

Linux links and odd names

TAR files from Linux can hold symbolic links, hard links and device files, which make no sense on a Windows PC and can be used to write outside the folder. Octoolo lists them but never makes them. Names Windows cannot hold get a safe version: a colon becomes an underscore, and names like CON or aux.c get an underscore in front. Names that try to climb out of the folder with .. are left out altogether.

The tar command, if you prefer

Windows 10 and 11 include a tar command, so tar -xf archive.tar.gz in a terminal also works. Octoolo's window adds a look inside before you extract, picking single files, a progress bar with Stop, and a check that the disk has room. Without opening any window, right-click the file in File Explorer and choose Octoolo, then Extract here.