When you open a ZIP file on your Windows PC, what happens? Does an app like WinRAR or 7-Zip pop up and show you the contents of that archive?
What if I told you that you’re using the wrong app to open those files? While there’s nothing wrong with using third-party apps to handle your ZIP files and other archive formats, in Windows 11 with the latest updates, you don’t actually have to do that, and I’d argue you shouldn’t.
Windows has been able to handle plain ZIP files for ages, and you probably already know that. However, plenty of compressed files on the internet are in other formats. If you haven’t checked in a while, you may think that Windows 11 can still only open ZIP files, but as of Windows 11 24H2 the operating system natively supports RAR, 7z, and TAR archive files.
In the video below, you can see how this feature was introduced in 2024 first as part of the developer preview, and then rolled out to the rest of us.
This means that you don’t actually have to install any third-party apps on a new installation of Windows.
Third-party ZIP apps are often overkill for basic tasks
Apps like WinRAR and 7-Zip are powerful, but that’s part of the problem.
While most people use these apps to do nothing more than uncompress (or sometimes compress) files, they are capable of so much more. These apps are packed with advanced features, but that does mean they’re a little too complicated compared to just using Windows Explorer, which pretty much treats compressed folders like regular read-only folders.
Getting to your files using a third-party app has more friction between clicking on the archive and getting the files inside. It’s not the fault of these apps, it’s just that they were designed to be more than a simple file explorer extension.
The real problem: File associations and default apps
If your Windows installation predates the updates that add the ability to open these additional archive formats, then there’s a good chance you installed those third-party apps years ago and all archive files on your computer are now associated with them. The good news is that you don’t have to uninstall those apps if you don’t want to. To get to that leaner native Windows experience, all you have to do is change your file associations.
In Windows 11, this is known as changing or setting your default apps, and we have a simple guide on how to set your default apps on Windows 11 you can follow for each file type. The short version is that you go to Settings > Apps > Default apps, and then search for the file type you want to set a default app for.
Then choose “File Explorer” as the app to open each archive format I mentioned earlier. From here, double-clicking on the file will open it like a File Explorer window, and from there you can copy the files you want to the destination of your choice. Alternatively, you can right-click on the file and choose to extract it without opening it first.
As I said before, you don’t need to uninstall WinRAR or 7-Zip just because you’ve switched over to File Explorer as the lightweight default. There are still plenty of situations where you’d want to use these apps instead. For example, although you can choose which format you want to compress, the additional options are still fairly basic.
With full-blown third-party apps you can really fine tune your archive settings or use features like file splitting, and encryption with password protection. Speaking of which, if you download a password-protected archive, File Explorer may be unable to handle it.
Likewise, working with large archive files may be faster using a specialized third-party app, and if you want to work with batches of archive files, they’re generally also a better option. Also, obviously, if there’s an archive format that Windows doesn’t yet natively support, you’ll need the relevant app to open it.
I think these days it makes the most sense to simply use the Windows default archive tool for day-to-day zipping and unzipping, but keep those third-party apps installed for the rare situations where you need them. They don’t do any harm sitting there in your drive and don’t take up much space, so it’s worth saving yourself the inconvenience of downloading them when the need arises.
Regardless, don’t forget that when you download archived files from the internet, you may be downloading malware. So remember to scan the contents for anything dangerous before you use it. Incidentally, you don’t really need third-party antivirus on Windows anymore either!
