Windows 11 Additional Compression Formats

In addition to the well-known ZIP compression format, Windows 11 will now get support for additional formats. Common to Linux users will be the tar and gz formats, while Windows users might also be familiar with 7-zip and rar files.

When storage space was still costly and considered more important, compression of data became a way to reduce file and disk space. Everybody knows ZIP and Windows has had the ability to natively read ZIP files for a long time. Great of course, because it means that you do not need any additional applications installed in Windows.

Additional applications like 7-Zip and WinRar are not a problem in themselves, but there is always a risk that users install the wrong app when looking for a decompression program online.

Microsoft is always looking at extending the functionality of Windows (and Office for that matter). Including additional features is a trade-off between scale, complexity, and development time. And there are really quite a few programs that should remain as separate solutions. I think not only because the vendors do a good job, but also because Microsoft needs competition.

But with such core functionalities as data compression, I think this is a good step. And with Microsoft and Linux coming ever closer (Windows Subsystem for Linux), having support for GNU Gzip and tar formats in Windows 11 is very helpful.

Microsoft announced the inclusion of these additional archive formats in a blog post (all the way at the bottom in the “In addition…” section). The new update includes support to both compress and decompress these formats. So, if you prefer any of the new formats, you can keep using them even without third-party software. Microsoft must have made a deal on licensing any proprietary compression formats to enable this.

So, look for the next Windows 11 update to start using the newly supported compression formats!