You can now view and extract individual files. How to extract the archive

A ZIP archive is an ordinary file in which other files are stored. Archives are often used to reduce the total size of all files in total. If this is your first time encountering such archives, then you probably have a question about how to unpack this archive.

Below we will look at two methods that will allow you to unzip a ZIP archive.

Method 1. Using standard Windows tools

For that matter, to extract files from an archive, users do not necessarily need to install third-party programs, because this procedure can be quite successfully performed using standard Windows tools.

To do this, simply right-click on the ZIP archive and go to "Extract All" .

A new window will appear on the screen in which you need to specify the path on the computer where the extracted files will be saved. After that, all you have to do is press the button "Extract" to begin the unpacking process.

After a few moments, you can find the unpacked files in the folder you specified.

In addition, you can unzip files in a much simpler way: just double-click on the archive with the left mouse button, after which the files contained in it will open as in a regular folder.

Method 2. Using WinRAR program

WinRAR is the most popular program for unpacking various archive formats. The program has a Russian-language interface and all the basic functions that allow you to work with archives, i.e. you can both unpack and create archives. In addition, through this program, if necessary, you can.

You can download the program for free using the link at the end of the article. Having completed the simple installation procedure, all archives by default can be opened using this program.

To unpack an existing archive, just right-click on it and go to "Extract to files" . Also, with the help of this program you can, which, in fact, are also archives.

Specify the folder where the files will be extracted and click the button "OK" . After this, the program will begin unzipping, which depends on the number and size of files.

In addition, as in the previous method, you can double-click on the archive icon with the left mouse button, after which the same WinRAR window will open.

What do we end up with? You can easily unpack ZIP archives using standard Windows tools, but with RAR archives you can’t do it without third-party programs. WinRAR, in addition to supporting all known archives, allows you to pack files into an archive, and even set a password for the archive. But what method to use to extract files from a ZIP archive is up to you.

Download WinRAR for free

Download the program from the official website

In order to save space when transmitting information or storing it, special formats are used today - archives. Essentially, such files are some kind of containers that contain the desired files in compressed form. One of the most common formats today is the ZIP format. In this article we will look at how you can extract a file from a ZIP archive. This operation in English is called either Decompress or Extract. It all depends on the application you are using. You can give some practical recommendations that may be very useful to you in the future.

How to extract a file from a ZIP archive: general principles

When unpacking any type of archived information, initially two main directions can be distinguished when performing the selected operations. First of all, all data can be completely extracted. The second option is to select a specific object for unpacking. If we talk about extracting a file from a ZIP archive, it is important to consider that all existing archive programs support the creation and extraction of information from such archives. However, when it comes to the initial creation of a packaged directory, it's not all that simple. The thing is that some programs, when saving information, can use additional encryption and compression algorithms or apply access restrictions by setting a password. However, this will be discussed a little later.

How to extract data from a ZIP archive: programs for creating archives

Until recently, it was believed that ZIP archives could only be created using the WinZIP archiver, which was very popular at the dawn of computer technology. There were times when there really was no alternative to this application. However, after the advent of such powerful utilities as 7-Zip and WinRAR, the main program took second place, since it was possible to create archives of this format using new tools. Today, WinZIP is quite capable of recognizing many other formats. But there is nothing wrong with using this particular program. For standard information extraction, you can use a simple double-click on the archive, indicating the final unpacking location. If you need to decide how to extract a file from a ZIP archive (we are talking about only one object, if the archive contains several at once), then first you need to launch the program, open the desired ZIP file in it and select the desired object from the contents, and then This will indicate the location where you want to save the extracted file.

Standard tools of operating systems of the Windows family

Recently, operating systems of the Windows family have a built-in tool for unpacking data from an archive. In essence, this is the same as the WinZIP archiver itself, which simply migrated to the standard set of operating system tools. The program is built directly into Explorer. You can also use this option to extract data by double-clicking the mouse and selecting objects from the list. The Windows operating system does not provide automatic extraction by default. Instead, the archive will be opened as a separate folder. However, you can use the decompression command.

Using the WinRAR application

This program is different in that it accepts many different archive formats. But there is no way to extract the desired object without launching the application manually. But if you use the context menu with the selection of the “Extract all...” action or double click, then you will not need to specify unpacking in the current directory or click on the browse button to select a folder, since the application offers to independently create a directory with the same name as the archive . It is the WinRAR program that is considered one of the best utilities for creating and working with self-extracting SFX archives. According to the principle of operation, such archives resemble ordinary EXE files.

7-Zip program: advantages over other archivers

The 7-Zip utility is relatively new. In terms of its functionality, it is in many ways superior to classic utilities for working with archives. Files created using this program sometimes cannot be unpacked using standard operating system tools. This is only due to the fact that this program can use additional encryption and compression algorithms that are disabled or simply not available in the standard settings of other applications.

How to unpack an archive with a password?

Now let's talk about how to correctly extract a file from a ZIP archive with a password. In its simplest form, you just need to enter it into a special field before starting the unpacking process. If there is no password, then for files downloaded from the Internet, you need to check it on the site from which the download was made. If there is no password as such, you can use any archiver in combination with the Advanced Archive Password Recovery program. In the program settings, you first need to set the path to the archive, and then the method for determining the password and its approximate length. When choosing the Brute-force method, you must indicate which characters were supposedly used in the password (symbols, letters, numbers, or combinations thereof). In the password search method, you must select the built-in dictionary, for which you must enter the path to the file located in the ARCHPR directory.

Extracting Information on Android Mobile Devices

In conclusion, let's look at how to correctly extract a file from a ZIP archive on Android devices. The Android operating system does not have its own tools to perform such operations; for this reason, you will have to use third-party applications. Among the most popular applications of this kind are the following: Unzip&Zip, Easy Unrar, RAR for Android, AndroZip, ES Explorer, Solid Explorer and others. The last two programs are powerful file managers that already have a built-in archiver. The steps to extract information from archives are not very different from standard procedures.

Which is better to use?

Now it should be more or less clear to you how you can extract a file from a ZIP archive. It remains only to give a few simple recommendations on using utilities for working with archives. Despite the fact that classic programs like WinRAR or WinZIP are very popular, it is still better to give preference to the 7-Zip archiver. This program has advanced capabilities in terms of functionality. It supports advanced information compression and encryption technologies. The AAPR utility described above is best suited for guessing passwords. It is worth noting that no Disassembler, which allows you to view the “decompiled archive code,” will help here, since the password itself is encrypted unilaterally. For operating systems of the Android family, in order not to install additional archivers, an excellent solution would be to use the ES Explorer file manager, which is considered the most powerful and advanced tool among all software products of this type.

In the modern world, every computer user has at least once encountered files packaged in an archive. They are convenient to send over the Internet and store various information (documents, photos and videos), since it takes up less space.

Archives are something like a container in which files compressed using a certain algorithm are stored. They are created by special archiving programs. But in addition to creating them, such programs are also able to unpack them. They understand many different formats, so you can extract a file from an archive if it is saved in one of the popular ones: * .rar, *.zip, *.7z, *.tar, *exe or any less popular format.

On our website you can find an article describing free archivers: free archivers for Windows in Russian. Among them there are such popular ones as: 7-Zip, FreeArc, HaoZip, IZArc and others. Almost everything is integrated into Windows Explorer, so to extract files you just need to right-click on the archive and select the appropriate item. There will be several of them: “Extract to” - you specify the desired folder, "Extract to current"– the files will be saved in the same path where the archive is located, “Open in [archiver name]”– a program window will open where you can go into the archive and extract only the necessary files from it.

If you select something from the list of programs, you will be able to not only extract files from archives, but also create them yourself, encrypt them, set passwords, create self-extracting ones, and many different functions will be available.

For those who often come across archives, for example, at work or study, and do not want to take up disk space with utilities, of all the functions of which only one will be used, there is another option - programs for unpacking archives. Their main advantages include the following: they take up little space, have a limited set of functions, are easy to use, and understand a lot of formats. Let's look at them briefly.

Universal Extractor

Universal Extractor – using this program, you can unpack an archive in the following format: .7z, .rar, .exe, arc, .bz2, .tbz2, .tar.bz2, .deb, gz, .tgz, .tar.gz, .iso, lzh, .lzma, .pea, .msi, . wim, .msm, .xz, .jar and others. Follow the link above and in the article you will find a detailed description of how to use it and a download link.

There is a version for installation on a computer, and there is a portable version that will not make any changes to the operating system. The interface language is supported in Russian and knows how to extract files from a self-extracting archive. You can also use it to extract individual files from the archive. There are very few settings that will not distract you from the main task.

The interface is extremely simple. There are only two fields: in the first, indicate the path to the archive, in the second, the path to the folder where the files will be extracted. Click "OK" and wait for the process to complete. It works very quickly.

ExtractNow

ExtractNow is another free unpacker, you can download it from the link provided. Can open the following formats: zip, rar, iso, bin, img, ima, imz, jar, gz, lzh, lha and sit. There is no Russian language for the interface and this is a disadvantage, since you can select various parameters in the program. You can also specify in the settings if you want to add the utility to the context menu.

You can add files to the main window by simply dragging the mouse from Explorer or from the Desktop. The advantage is that you can add several archives at once, and then start unpacking them.

The program can search for archives in a specified directory - click on an empty space in the main window, select a folder and wait until all archived files are found.

Choose either an archiver program if you plan to create archives yourself in the future, or one of the described programs that will easily help you extract files from the archive.

Before extracting data from compressed or zipped files, you must first determine the type of compressed file. On modern computers or laptops running Windows OS, this can be determined using the file extension. The most popular extensions are .ZIP, .RAR, TAR.GZ or .TGZ. Below is an example of what some compressed files look like in the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Once you have determined the type of compressed or zipped file, you must use the appropriate program. For example, many users use WinZip or WinRaR archivers. However, we recommend using 7-ZIP as it is free and open source and supports all major formats.

Tip: If you are using the operating system Windows XP and higher, then a ZIP archiver is automatically installed on your computer along with the OS.

Tip: If you want or cannot install the program on your computer or laptop, you can zip or unpack files on the Internet.

Once the archiver has been installed on your computer, you can extract the contents from the compressed files. Below are some basic steps on how you can extract the files.

Microsoft Windows OS users

In Windows OS, select the compressed file and right-click on the file. This should bring up a menu that says "Extract" or "Extract All". Click on one of the following options to extract the file. By default, the files will be extracted to the folder where you are located. In order to choose where to extract files, you need to open the archive and click on “Extract”, then select the path where to extract the files.

After the files have been extracted from the archive, open the folder containing the extracted files and run the installer if necessary to install the program.

Linux operating system users

Unlike many other operating systems, almost all versions of Linux have pre-installed programs for working with archives. These programs are capable of compressing and decompressing files with the extension: TAR, TGZ or tar.gz.

Today, in order to save space for storing or transmitting data, special formats called archives are used. In essence, they are a kind of container containing the required files in compressed form. One of the most common is the ZIP format. Now we will look at how to extract a file from a ZIP archive. In English, this operation is called either Extract or Decompress (it all depends on the application used). To do this, you can give some practical advice that will be useful in the future.

How to extract a file from a ZIP archive: general principles

In general, initially when unpacking any type of archived data, two main directions can be distinguished in performing the selected actions. First, you can extract all the data completely. Secondly, you can select a specific object for unpacking.

If we talk about how to extract a file from a ZIP archive, it is important to remember that modern archive programs support both creating and extracting data from such archives. But when it comes to the initial creation of a packaged directory, it’s not so simple. The fact is that some programs, when saving data, can use additional encryption and restrict access by setting passwords. This will be discussed a little later.

How to extract a file from a ZIP archive: the program that was used to create the archive

Until recently, it was believed that ZIP archives could initially be created exclusively using an archiver called WinZIP, popular at the dawn of the development of computer technology.

Yes, indeed, at that time there was no alternative to this application, but with the advent of such powerful utilities as WinRAR and 7-Zip, the main program seemed to fade into second place, since archives of this format could be created and unpacked using new tools. But today WinZIP is also capable of accepting many other formats, but there is nothing wrong with using this particular program.

For standard data extraction, you can use a regular double-click on the archive, indicating the final unpacking location. If you need to decide how to extract a file from a ZIP archive (we are talking about just one object, if there are several of them in the archive), you should first launch the program, open the desired ZIP file in it, select the desired object in the contents, and then specify the location to save the extracted file.

Standard tools for Windows systems

Relatively recently, a built-in tool for decompressing archived data appeared in Windows systems. In fact, this is nothing more than the same WinZIP archiver, which has migrated to the standard set of the operating system (it is built into Explorer).

In principle, you can use this option to extract information, using a regular double-click and selecting an object/objects from the list (in Windows, automatic extraction is not provided by default; instead, the archive is opened as a separate folder). But you can also use the decompression command.

WinRAR application

This program is different in that it accepts a lot of formats. It will not be possible to extract a single object without manually launching the application.

But if you use a double click or select the “Extract all...” action, you do not need to press the browse button to select a folder (although there is such an option) or indicate unpacking to the current directory, since the application itself offers to create a directory with the same name as the archive. In addition, this particular utility is considered one of the best for creating and working with SFX files (self-extracting archives, the operating principle of which is similar to regular EXE files).

7-Zip program: advantages over other tools

7-Zip is a relatively young program. However, it is in many ways superior to classic utilities, and files created with its help sometimes cannot be unpacked using standard tools.

This is only due to the fact that it can use those additional compression and encryption algorithms that are disabled or simply absent in the standard settings of other applications.

Unpacking archive with password

Now a few words about how to extract a file from a ZIP archive with a password. In the simplest version, you just need to enter it into a special field before starting the decompression process. If the password is missing, for files downloaded from the Internet you need to check it on the site from where they were downloaded.

If there is no password as such, you can use any archiver together with the Advanced Archive Password Recovery program. Its settings first indicate the path to the archive, then the method for determining the password and its approximate length. When choosing the Brute-force method, you need to indicate which characters were supposedly used in the password (numbers, letters, symbols or combinations thereof); in the password brute force method, you need to specify a built-in dictionary, for which you need to enter the path to the file located in the ARCHPR directory.

Data extraction on Android mobile devices

Finally, let's see how to extract a file from a ZIP archive on Android devices. The system does not have its own funds to carry out such an operation, so you will have to use third-party applications.

The most popular ones include the following:

• Easy Unrar, Unzip & Zip;
• Andro Zip;
• RAR for Android;
• Solid Explorer;
• and etc.

The last two programs are powerful file managers that already have a built-in archiver. The actions themselves to extract data from archives do not differ much from standard procedures.

What to use?

How to extract a file from a ZIP archive is already clear. It remains to give some tips on using the utilities. Despite the popularity of classic programs like WinZIP and WinRAR, it is still better to give preference to the 7-Zip archiver, since it has great functionality and supports the most advanced technologies for data compression and encryption. In terms of password selection, the above-described AAPR utility is suitable. By the way, no Disassembler that allows you to view the “decompiled” archive code will help, since the password is encrypted unilaterally. Well, for Android systems, in order not to install additional archivers, an excellent solution would be to use the ES Explorer file manager, which is considered the most powerful and advanced among all programs of this type.