How to Quickly Extract .tar.gz Files on Windows 10?

A file with .tar.gz format is a file that has been created using the application tar and then compressed with gzip compression. These files are also called "tarballs". Usually, you see the extension of .tar.gz but it can also be shortened to .gz or .tgz. These files are actually used by macOS and Ubuntu users for data backups and archival. If you are a Windows user and want to extract the content of these files, then read below. 

You can use a third-party app like PeaZip or 7-Zip to extract .tar.gz files on Windows 10. These apps don't always work with .tar.gz files on other platforms and are slow to uncompress. In Windows 10, you can use the Command prompt to extract these files. 

Alternately, you can use the WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). It includes native support for SUSE, Fedora, and Ubuntu. You can access various Linux tools such like tar to extract .tar.gz file content on Windows. Here, we are going to mention all the steps that you need to perform in order to use native tar commands. 

How to Extract .tar.gz Files Using tar on Windows 10?

Below are all the steps that you need to follow to extract tarballs using tar on Windows 10. 

Step 1: Launch the Start menu on Windows 10.

Step 2: Search for Command Prompt. After that, go to the top result and then right-click on it. Then, select the option of "Run as administrator". 

Step 3: Enter the command given below to extract the files using tar:

tar -xvzf C:\PATH\TO\FILE\FILE-NAME.tar.gz -C C:\PATH\TO\FOLDER\EXTRACTION

After performing the steps given above, all the folders and files will get extracted to the destination you selected.  

 

Use tar on Linux To Extract .tar.gz Files on Windows 10

You are  required to install Windows subsystem for Linux on Windows 10 in order to use tar on Linux. Below are the steps that you need to follow to extract .tar.gz file on Windows 10 using Linux. 

Step 1: First of all, launch the Start menu. 

Step 2: Type Ubuntu in the search area and open the app by selecting the top result. 

Step 3:To extract .tar.gz file content, enter the command mentioned below. 

sudo tar -xvzf /mnt/c/PATH/TO/TAR-FILE/Desktop/FILE-NAME.tar.gz -C /mnt/c/PATH/TO/DESTINATION/FOLDER

After that, you need to mention the destination from where you want to extract the tar file. Please ensure that the destination folder starts with / mnt / c / and not with c: \. This is important because you are working on Linux. You need to be careful with the uppercase and lower case letters while entering the command.