Open Z File

Files with the Z extension are used to compress a file for backup purposes. Typically a file with the Z extension is a compressed file present in UNIX-based operating systems.

However, unlike the more complex formats, Z files can only store one file and no folders.

Although Z is a more common file format in Unix-based systems, Windows users can also work with them, however, the most common in Windows is to work with similar files in ZIP format.

To differentiate a bit, Z files that have a lowercase Z ("z") are GNU-compressed files, while uppercase Z files are compressed using the compress command on some operating systems.

Z files are convertible to other formats, for example ZIP, RAR, 7Z, which means that the process goes through unzipping the file and compressing it in the other desired format.

Z files can be opened with most zip / unzip programs. Below is a list of them:

How to open Z files

Typical Z application file locations:

  • C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe "%1"
  • "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe" "%1"

Frequently used application names to open Z files:

Frequently associated Windows objects:

  • WinRAR

Related extensions