TAR to ZIP so Windows can just double-click
Unix bundles made friendly for the other side: same files, same folders, zero extra software.
Runs in your browser. Your file never leaves your computer.
- WindowsOpens it natively
- SizeOften smaller; tar was raw
- HierarchyUnchanged
- ReadIn-memory, local
A plain tar bundles files without compressing them, and hands Windows users a puzzle their Explorer cannot solve. Converting to ZIP fixes both at once: the archive gains compression the tar never had and becomes double-clickable on every desktop. Folder hierarchies pass through unchanged. The tar is read in memory locally, rebuilt, and typically comes out smaller than it went in, an unusual bonus in format conversion.
Questions
Why was the tar not compressed already?
Plain tar only bundles; compression is a separate layer Unix adds as gzip or others. This ZIP applies its own compression during the rebuild.
Do Unix permissions survive into ZIP?
ZIP does not model them fully; files and folders arrive intact, executable bits may need restoring on return to Unix.
Local conversion?
Yes, memory-based and browser-contained.
Related conversions
- TAR to tar.gzThe missing compression layer added: same bundle, gzip-packed, as the tools always intended.
- Extract TARUnix bundles opened outside the terminal: contents into a folder, hierarchy exactly as packed.
- RAR to ZIPNo WinRAR at the other end? Repack the archive as a ZIP, folders intact, in one local step.
- 7z to ZIP7-Zip's format opened and rebuilt as the archive every device understands, folders and all.
- GZ to ZIPLinux-world downloads repacked as ZIPs: the tarball inside is understood, unpacked and rebuilt.
- BZ2 to ZIPThe bzip2 layer and any tarball inside unpacked, then rebuilt as an archive for everyone.
Part of convert archives in your browser. Every other conversion is on the conversions index.