Help! Opening a file that ends in tar.gz

Christy · Contributor Joined: 19 Dec 2004 Posts: 27

I've downloaded a file that ends in .tar.gz and unfortunately, Windows doesn't know what to open the file with. It brings up a dialogue box, asking me what I want to open the file with.

Trying to install software...and getting very frustrated in the process! Any techies know what I should do with a .tar.gz file? How do I open this file, so that I can install the software?

Derrick Pizur · Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:17 pm Post subject:

try downloading winrar from download.com

Derrick
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Christy · Contributor Joined: 19 Dec 2004 Posts: 27

Thanks, Derrick. Worked great. Although, now I'm curious...why would the company use tar.gz, instead of making the downloadable file in .zip form? Is there a special reason to use tar.gz instead of .zip?

Michel Fortin · Site Admin Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 254

It's a standard Unix compression protocol. And most servers are Unix/Apache based.
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Christy · Contributor Joined: 19 Dec 2004 Posts: 27

Thanks.