| Note: The archive file types described in this article are all supported in the latest version of WinZip. If you have an earlier version of WinZip, the Table of file formats can be used to determine what archive file types your version supports. |
Zip files are the most common type of archive files that most people will see. However, you may occasionally encounter other file formats.
WinZip provides support for the most commonly found archive and compression formats and will be the associated program to open them, by default. Unless you have configured Windows to show file extensions, you may not see a difference as they will also display the WinZip file icon.
WinZip can extract from all of the file types listed in the table that follows. The Type column lists the file extension, the Create column lists whether or not WinZip can create files of this type (Y or N), and the Format column indicates:
- A - Archiving; used to group a set of files into one file
- C - Compression; storing files in a manner taking less space (when possible)
- D - Disc image; CD/DVD disc image files
- E - Encoding; encoded files for email transmission
Type |
Create |
Format |
Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zip | Y | AC | The most common archive file |
| Zipx | Y | AC | A Zip file created with advanced compression; WinZip 12.1 or later (or some other utilities) will be needed to extract the contents |
| 7Z | N | AC | 7-zip compressed archive |
| B64 | N | E | MIME encoded, also see MIM |
| BHX | N | E | BinHex encoded, also see HQX |
| BZ | N | C | BZIP compression format |
| BZ2 | N | C | BZIP2 compression format |
| CAB | N | C | Cabinet file, often used to distribute software |
| GZ | N | C | GNU (zipped) compression format |
| HQX | N | E | BinHex encoded, also see BHX |
| IMG | N | D | WinZip only works with disc image IMG files; also see ISO |
| ISO | N | D | Also see IMG |
| LHA | Y | AC | LHARC compression format, also see LZH |
| LZH | Y | AC | LHARC compression format, also see LHA |
| MIM | N | E | MIME encoded, also see B64 |
| RAR | N | AC | RAR compression format |
| TAR | N | A | UNIX "Tape ARchive" |
| TAZ | N | AC | UNIX compressed (.z) TAR file, also see TZ |
| TBZ | N | AC | BZIP compressed TAR file |
| TBZ2 | N | AC | BZIP2 compressed TAR file |
| TGZ | N | AC | GZIP compressed TAR file |
| TZ | N | AC | UNIX compressed (.z) TAR file, also see TAZ |
| UU | N | E | UUEncoded, WinZip creates .uue |
| UUE | Y | E | UUEncoded, also see UU |
| VHD | N | D | Virtual Hard Disk file |
| VMDK | N | D | Virtual Machine Disk file |
| XXE | N | E | XXEncoded |
| XZ | N | C | LZMA2 |
| Z | N | C | UNIX compression format |
If you have any questions about this information, please submit a Technical Support ticket.
Related Articles:
Table of file formats supported by WinZip
Additional Compression Methods Specification
How do I use UUencode/BinHex/MIME support?
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