Windows 11 can now extract archive files — including .7z, .rar, and every major .tar variant — directly from File Explorer’s right-click menu, with no third-party software required. For the first time in over two decades, the operating system handles more than just ZIP files natively, and most users haven’t even noticed the change yet.
If you’re still keeping WinRAR or another unpacker installed purely out of habit, this guide will show you exactly what Windows 11 can do, how it works under the hood, and the few situations where a dedicated tool still makes sense.
Why Windows Finally Supports More Archive Formats
For more than 20 years, Windows could only open ZIP archives natively. Every other compressed format — .7z, .rar, .tar.gz, you name it — required hunting down third-party software, which introduced licensing headaches, potential security vulnerabilities, and unnecessary system bloat. Microsoft has now changed that decisively by integrating libarchive, a well-established open-source library, directly into the operating system.
Rather than extending the old zipfldr.dll handler (which was too limited to expand), Microsoft’s engineers built a new C++ class called ArchiveFolder backed by a supporting library, archiveint.dll — essentially their own compiled build of libarchive. The result is a modern, stream-based extraction engine baked right into File Explorer. Microsoft first announced this addition for Insider Preview Build 23493 in June 2023, and it has since rolled out to all supported Windows 11 versions from 22H2 onwards.
Archive Formats Windows 11 Now Supports
The new extract archive files engine handles a wide range of formats out of the box:
- .zip — supported since Windows XP; now handled by the same libarchive engine
- .7z — LZMA/LZMA2 compressed archives, natively supported since late 2023
- .rar — can be extracted (but not created, due to RARLAB licensing restrictions)
- .tar — plain tarballs in both GNU tar and POSIX ustar format
- .tar.gz — tar with Gzip compression
- .tar.bz2 — tar with BZIP2 compression
- .tar.xz — tar with xz compression
- .tar.zst — tar with Zstandard compression (excellent for modern multi-core CPUs)
- .gz — standalone Gzip files
That covers the overwhelming majority of archives the average user will ever encounter, from downloaded project files and Linux tarballs to old RAR backups.
How to Use Right-Click Extract in File Explorer
Using Windows file extraction couldn’t be simpler. Right-click any supported archive in File Explorer and you’ll see an Extract All option — the same prompt that always appeared for ZIP files. Click it, choose your destination folder, and Windows handles the rest using sensible defaults.
Need more control? Right-click any file or folder and hover over Compress to to create a new archive. You’ll see one-click options for ZIP, 7z, and TAR. Select one and Windows creates the archive immediately. For advanced settings, choose Additional options at the bottom of that sub-menu to open the full compression wizard, where you can:
- Choose TAR variants (GNU tar or POSIX ustar) with compression filters including BZIP2, Gzip, xz, and Zstandard
- Select the .7z compression method — LZMA1, LZMA2, or PPMd
- Adjust compression depth with a speed-vs-size slider
- Toggle preservation of symbolic links and hard links for complex directory structures
The whole workflow takes seconds and requires nothing extra installed. That’s a significant step forward for archive formats Windows can handle natively.
How libarchive Makes Windows File Extraction Fast
The key architectural difference in the new engine is that libarchive treats archives as a stream rather than loading the entire file into memory first. It reads the archive header, identifies the compression type, and extracts data to disk as it processes — meaning performance is determined primarily by your storage speed, not your available RAM.
On a fast NVMe SSD (which reads and writes at several gigabytes per second), the built-in Windows file extraction tool keeps pace with dedicated third-party applications for most archive types. The streaming model never becomes the bottleneck on that kind of hardware.
On older spinning hard drives or slow USB drives, the picture is different. Physical read heads must move constantly to service the sequential small reads and writes that streaming requires, and seek times add up. Applications like 7-Zip work around this by aggressively caching data in RAM, reducing how often they need to return to the physical disk. For users still on traditional HDDs with large archives, a third-party tool may still extract faster.
The compression format also matters for performance:
- Zstandard (.tar.zst) is designed for modern multi-core processors, distributing compression work across multiple threads simultaneously. It compresses and decompresses quickly.
- LZMA2 (.7z) prioritises compression ratio over speed and relies heavily on sequential processing. The same files will compress noticeably slower in .7z than in .tar.zst, even at identical sizes.
- File count matters more than total size. Thousands of small files (source code, game assets, documents) create far more read-and-write operations than a single large file of the same aggregate size. Folder-heavy archives will hit the streaming engine’s limits harder than a single large video or disk image.
Extract Archive Files: What Windows 11 Still Cannot Do
The native implementation is excellent for most people, but it has two notable gaps you should know about before ditching a third-party tool entirely.
No RAR Creation
Windows 11 can open and extract RAR files without any extra software, but it cannot create them. This is a permanent licensing restriction imposed by RARLAB, the company behind the RAR format. That restriction is not going to disappear, so if you need to package files into RAR for someone else, you’ll need WinRAR or a compatible tool.
No Password Protection or Encryption
The most significant current gap is the lack of support for password-protected and encrypted archives. If you receive a .7z file secured with AES-256 encryption, or need to send sensitive files protected with a password, the built-in Windows file extraction wizard cannot help. For those use cases, 7-Zip remains the go-to free option. You’ll also need a dedicated application if you work with multi-volume split archives.
When You Still Need Third-Party Archive Software
For the vast majority of everyday users, the native Windows 11 extract archive capability is now sufficient. But here’s a clear breakdown of when a dedicated tool is still worth keeping:
- Creating RAR archives — only WinRAR can do this legitimately
- Password-protected archives — 7-Zip handles AES-256 encrypted ZIP and .7z files
- Multi-volume split archives — splitting a large backup across several files requires dedicated software
- Maximum compression ratios — power users squeezing every byte may prefer 7-Zip’s fine-grained control
- Older spinning hard drives with very large archives — 7-Zip’s RAM caching can be meaningfully faster here
If none of those apply to you, uninstalling your third-party unpacker is a perfectly reasonable move. Your system will run a little cleaner without background processes from software you no longer need.
Windows 11 Archive Support and the KB5089549 Update
Archive format support has been iteratively expanded across Windows 11 updates. The Windows 11 KB5089549 update released in May 2026 continued this trend, introducing further archive format improvements alongside 120 security patches and other feature additions. Staying current with Windows Update ensures you have the most complete and secure version of the native extraction engine.
If you haven’t already upgraded to Windows 11, or if you want to make the most of features like native archive extraction, the right Windows licence matters. Buy Now Key offers Microsoft Windows 11 Pro from €17.90 — a genuine retail key with lifetime activation, so you get every feature update Microsoft ships, including all the File Explorer improvements covered in this guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Windows 11 extract archive files like .7z and .rar without extra software?
Yes. Since Windows 11 version 22H2 (build 22621.2361, released late 2023), the operating system natively extracts .7z, .rar, .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.xz, .tar.zst, and .gz files using the integrated libarchive library. Simply right-click the archive in File Explorer and choose Extract All.
Can Windows 11 create .7z and .tar archives without third-party apps?
Yes. Right-click any file or folder, hover over Compress to, and choose ZIP, 7z, or TAR. An Additional options menu opens a full compression wizard with format-specific settings including compression level, TAR filter type, and link preservation. No additional software is needed.
Why can’t Windows 11 create RAR files if it can open them?
RAR is a proprietary format owned by RARLAB, which licenses creation capability exclusively. Microsoft can implement RAR extraction without restriction, but creating RAR archives requires a RARLAB licence that is not available for third parties to embed. This is a permanent limitation, not a missing feature on Microsoft’s roadmap.
Does native Windows file extraction support encrypted or password-protected archives?
Not currently. The built-in extraction wizard cannot open password-protected ZIP, .7z, or .rar files, and it cannot create encrypted archives. For those needs, 7-Zip (free, open-source) remains the best option, supporting AES-256 encryption for both ZIP and .7z formats.
Is the built-in Windows 11 archive extraction as fast as 7-Zip?
On NVMe SSDs it is broadly comparable for most archive types. The libarchive engine uses a streaming model that suits fast storage well. On older spinning hard drives or slow USB drives, 7-Zip may be faster for large archives because it caches more data in RAM. The compression format also affects speed — Zstandard is faster than LZMA2 at comparable sizes.