# Archives — ZIP, 7z, RAR and tar open like folders

> Step into ZIP, 7z, RAR and tar archives as folders — browse, preview, search and copy out without unpacking, password-protected ZIP and RAR included. Packs too.

- Canonical: https://cwdio.com/features/archives/
- Updated: 2026-08-15
- Product: Cwdio File Manager (cwdio) — https://cwdio.com

An archive is a folder that happens to be one file. cwdio treats it that way: <kbd>Enter</kbd> on a `.zip`,
`.7z`, `.rar`, `.tar` or `.tar.gz` steps inside, and browsing, previewing, searching and copying out all
work as they do anywhere else — without unpacking the archive first.

## What it does

- **Browse without extracting.** Listing reads only the archive's index (the central directory of a ZIP, the
  end header of a 7z, the member headers of a tar), so a multi-gigabyte archive opens instantly.
  <kbd>Space</kbd> previews an entry; search reads inside it; the hex viewer inspects its raw bytes.
- **Copy out lazily.** <kbd>F5</kbd> a file or a whole subtree to the other panel and only those entries are
  decoded, streamed straight from their byte range. Copying many files out of a solid 7z block decompresses
  the block once. Every ZIP and 7z entry is CRC-checked as it is extracted.
- **Password-protected ZIP and RAR.** A masked prompt appears when you step into a locked archive or when a
  transfer touches one you dismissed earlier; the password is verified, remembered for the session only, and
  never stored or put on a URL.
- **Pack.** Select files or folders and choose **File ▸ Pack** (ZIP), **Pack to 7z archive** or **Pack to
  tar.gz archive**. The 7z writer uses its own LZMA encoder and its output is validated by real 7-Zip; the tar
  writer streams and produces standard USTAR/GNU archives readable by `tar` and 7-Zip.
- **Extract.** **Extract archive here** and **Extract archive to subfolder** unpack a selected archive
  through the normal queue — with progress, conflict prompts and undo of the copied files.
- **Encoding-correct names.** ZIP entry names are decoded as UTF-8, CP866 or CP437 by detection, with a
  per-archive override under **View ▸ Archive names**; archives cwdio writes always flag UTF-8.

## How to use it

1. Put the cursor on an archive and press <kbd>Enter</kbd> — or use **Open as archive** on a file whose
   extension does not say what it is. `..` at the top steps back out to the archive's folder.
2. Navigate, preview and search exactly as in a folder. <kbd>F5</kbd> copies entries out to the other panel.
3. To create one, select the sources, then **File ▸ Pack** / **Pack to 7z archive** / **Pack to tar.gz
   archive** and name the file. Developers: **Pack without ignored** skips what the folder's `.gitignore`
   excludes — a source tree packs without its `node_modules`.

## Formats

| Format | Browse | Extract | Create | Encrypted |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ZIP | Yes | Yes | Yes | ZipCrypto yes; AES entries refused |
| 7z (Copy, LZMA, LZMA2) | Yes | Yes | Yes (LZMA) | Not yet |
| RAR 4 and 5 | Yes | Yes | No — the format is proprietary | Yes; name-encrypted archives cannot be listed |
| tar, tar.gz, tgz | Yes | Yes | Yes | No such thing in tar |

A 7z that uses a filter chain (BCJ, Delta) or an unusual codec (BZip2, PPMd) still lists; only extracting
those entries is refused with a clear message. `.tar.bz2` and `.tar.xz` are not supported.

## What it deliberately does not do

- It does not write into an archive. Adding, deleting or editing an entry in place means extract, change,
  and pack again — the archive is a read-only volume while you are inside it.
- It does not shell out to 7-Zip, WinRAR or anything else. The readers are dependency-free clean-room
  implementations (ZIP, 7z with an LZMA/LZMA2 decoder written from the public spec, tar) plus the official
  unrar engine for RAR, so a missing external tool can never break browsing.
- It never unpacks an archive to a temp folder just to show it. The one exception is a gzip-compressed tar,
  which is not seekable and is gunzipped once on open — bounded by an 8 GiB guard.

## Related

- [Transfers and the queue](/features/transfers-and-queue/) — what extract and pack run through.
- [Quick Look and preview](/features/quick-look-preview/) — previews inside archives.
- [Search](/features/search/) — content search inside an opened archive.

## Frequently asked questions

**Do I need 7-Zip or WinRAR installed?** No. The ZIP, 7z and tar readers are built into cwdio, and RAR reading uses the official unrar engine bundled with the app. Nothing external is called and nothing needs installing. cwdio can also create ZIP, 7z and tar.gz archives on its own.

**Which encrypted archives can it open?** Password-protected ZIP archives using the traditional ZipCrypto scheme, and password-protected RAR archives — you are asked for the password when you step in or before you copy out, and it is kept only for the session, never written anywhere. AES-encrypted ZIP entries and encrypted 7z archives are listed but cannot be extracted yet, and a RAR whose file names are themselves encrypted cannot be listed.

**Can I edit a file inside an archive?** Not in place. Archives are read-only providers: you can browse, preview, search and copy files out, and a text file inside one opens read-only in the editor. To change something, extract it, edit, and pack again.

**What about Cyrillic or other non-Latin file names in old ZIPs?** cwdio decodes ZIP entry names as UTF-8 when the archive says so or when the bytes are valid UTF-8, otherwise as CP866 for Cyrillic or CP437 for Western names — which fixes the classic mojibake from archives made by older Windows tools. If the guess is wrong, View ▸ Archive names lets you pick UTF-8, CP866, CP1251 or CP437 for that archive. Archives cwdio creates always flag UTF-8, so they read correctly everywhere.