Microsoft has been adding new features and options to its newest version of the Windows operating system – Windows 11. Over the past two years, Windows 11 has gained several new features.
The team behind Windows 11 is now adding another handy feature to Windows 11, which allows users to open .7z, .rar, .tar, and several other archive file formats without installing additional software.
As you likely know, right now, .zip is the only archive file format supported by Windows out of the box. Windows can create or extract .zip files out of the box.
Other popular archive file formats like .7z and .rar do not enjoy native support. Because of this, users need to install programs like 7-Zip, WinZip, or WinRAR to open these file formats.
As per a blog post by Microsoft, Windows 11 uses libarchive open-source project to read .7z, .rar, .txz, .tar, .tar.gz, tar.bz2, .tar.zst, .tar.xz, .tzst, .tgz, and .tbz2 formats. The feature is currently available in Windows 11 Insider builds only.
That said, remember that you will need to install WinRAR, 7-Zip, or WinZip to create .7z or .rar files.
Extract .7z and .rar file formats in Windows 11 without using additional software
The feature is available in 23493 and later builds of Windows 11 Insider only. Type winver.exe in the search and press Enter key to know your Windows 11 build number.
Step 1: Open File Explorer and navigate to the folder containing the .7z or .rar archive file.
Step 2: Perform a right-click on the .7z or .rar file that you want to open, click Extract all, select a location/folder to save extracted files, and then click the Extract button. That’s it!
Our how to create password-protected ZIP files in Windows guide might also interest you.
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