How to use the Extract Archive
- Pick the archive, or several: ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR and the gzip, bzip2 or xz tarball variants are all accepted.
- Encrypted archive? Enter the password you were given in the Password box. Ordinary archives need nothing typed.
- Press Extract. Every document inside gets its own save button.
- Need the lot? Download all returns everything as one ZIP with the original folder layout.
Format detection you do not have to think about
7-Zip looks at the first bytes of the file, not just at its name. If a colleague renamed a 7Z to .zip so the mail filter would let it through, it still opens. RAR archives made by WinRAR 4 or WinRAR 5 are both readable, and compressed tarballs lose their outer gzip, bzip2 or xz layer and their TAR layer in a single run.
Inside 7Z files, the common methods (LZMA, LZMA2, BZip2, PPMd and Deflate) are all decoded, which covers what office archiving tools normally produce.
Memory, folders and what is skipped
The 7-Zip worker runs in a background thread, so the page keeps responding while a big archive unpacks. Extracted documents wait in browser memory until you save them, which means your device sets the ceiling: a phone is comfortable with a few hundred megabytes, while multi-gigabyte backups belong in a desktop browser.
Folder paths are remembered and rebuilt in the Download all ZIP. Empty folders have no download button because only files are listed. Multi-volume sets (a .z01 next to the ZIP, numbered .7z.001 pieces, part1/part2 RARs) cannot be joined here, since one archive file is opened at a time.
Questions
What happens with a damaged archive?
7-Zip checks the stored checksums. A CRC or data error stops the job and shows that message, so you are not handed half-broken spreadsheets or PDFs.
Can it crack a forgotten password?
No. Encrypted ZIP, 7Z and RAR archives open only with the correct password; there is no guessing or recovery feature.
Does it work on a locked-down office PC?
Usually yes, because nothing is installed. The roughly 1.7 MB decompression program loads with the page and runs in any current browser on Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Android or iOS.