How to Extract ZIP Files in Chromebook – Google’s Chrome OS might work fantastic as an operating system designed for paintings and plug and play environment but the platform lacks some essential capabilities. If you are a Chromebook user, you should have noticed that the OS does not characteristic a choice to extract ZIP files. Actually, there’s a manner to extract or unzip ZIP files in Chrome OS however it’s not as simple because the “Extract All” button that we’ve come to expect from unique laptop platforms.

Along with a native way, there are other ways as well to extract compressed files in Chrome OS. So, without any further ado, here’s how to extract ZIP files in Chrome OS:

Using the Files App

As we mentioned, there’s no choice to right-click on a ZIP file and extract its contents to a new folder in Chrome OS. However, one more way to get the extracted files in a Chromebook. Here’s how it goes:

• When you open a ZIP folder or file in Chrome OS, it opens up as if it’s mounted. Basically,the Files app opens up a ZIP file like an external drive, thus it opens up in an individual tab in the left pane of the Files app. Since the file is mounted, its contents are shown in extracted form.

• Once the ZIP file is mounted,create a new folder, where you’d like the contents of the ZIP file to be saved

• Once done,copy the contents from the mounted ZIP file and paste it in the new folder you just created.

That’s it! Whilst you have to do things manually here, it’s a quite clean process. However, this method works only for .ZIP and .RAR files. If you want to extract documents in different compressed formats like 7Z, TAR, RPM, ISO, PAX, CPIO, CAB, AR, DEB and many others., you could try out the loose Chrome application “wicked good Unarchiver“, which lets you mount all ZIP document formats in the documents app on Chrome OS. As soon as the application mounts those files, you can then use the aforementioned steps without problems to extract them into some other folder.

Using Zip Extractor or ZipShare

In case you don’t like the local approach in Chrome OS to extract ZIP files, you could use an application to get it carried out for you. While are numerous apps for windows & Mac that unzip files, the Chrome OS net store is quite lacking in this front. The only application really worth a mention is ZIP Extractor, which isn’t even an application per sec.

The ZIP Extractor application takes you to a web tool, that lets you add files from your Chromebook or Google drive and extracts these documents to Google drive, so that you can access them without difficulty on your Chromebook. You will first have to authorize the application via your Google account to get the decompressed files in your Google drive.

You have to be wondering that if it takes you to a web device, why not use another device from the web? Well, that’s due to the fact the app integrates itself in to Chrome OS. The ZIPs stored in Google drive could have ZIP Extractor as a choice within the “Open” menu. You may additionally set ZIP Extractor as the default application to handle ZIP files. Having said that, the ZIP Extractor web tool may be a bit unreliable at instances, as in our testing, it did fail while we uploaded a massive ZIP file. If you want a greater dependable web tool, you could additionally check out ZIPShare, which lets you upload ZIP documents up to 500 MB in its free version. For even larger ZIP file support, you can get its monthly subscription starting at $9.95/month.

How to ZIP files in Chrome OS

Well, you can use the aforementioned ways to extract ZIP files in Chrome OS. However, if you have been wanting to compress files in Chrome OS, you can just right click on a file or folder and hit the “Zip Selection” option. Then, the file or folder will be compressed in a few minutes. Pretty easy, right?