How to zip/unzip files in Powershell?

Question

Is there a one-liner that will zip/unzip files (*.zip) in PowerShell?

related: [Unzip with PS in Server Core](http://serverfault.com/questions/446884/unzip-file-with-powershell-in-server-2012-core) — Ruben Bartelink, Aug 28 '13 at 16:20

score 154 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 17 '12 at 18:44

154

This is how you can do it purely from Powershell without any external tools. This unzips a file called test.zip onto the current working directory:

$shell_app=new-object -com shell.application
$filename = "test.zip"
$zip_file = $shell_app.namespace((Get-Location).Path + "\$filename")
$destination = $shell_app.namespace((Get-Location).Path)
$destination.Copyhere($zip_file.items())

edited Jul 17 '12 at 18:44

ulidtko

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answered Nov 14 '10 at 01:36

Ameer Deen

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use $destination.Copyhere($zip_file.items(), 0x10) for overwriting existing files. 0x4 hides the dialog box, and 0x14 combines these and overwrites and hides the dialog. – Peter Apr 19 '11 at 04:06
Ok but how do you unzip? – D3vtr0n Oct 18 '11 at 22:16
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The line `$destination.Copyhere($zip_file.items())` does the actual unziping. – Jonathan Allen Oct 28 '11 at 22:02
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You can parcel the above into a function, if you wanted: `function unzip($filename) { if (!(test-path $filename)) { throw "$filename does not exist" } $shell = new-object -com shell.application $shell.namespace($pwd.path).copyhere($shell.namespace((join-path $pwd $filename)).items()) }` – James Holwell Jan 29 '13 at 11:19
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This should be the accepted answer. – tugberk Apr 19 '13 at 21:06
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Agree about accepted. Is not a monstruous code like other PowerShell i see. 5 Lines is just great and is fully related to Powershell not to 3rd party software. – m3nda Dec 10 '13 at 07:04
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This fails for me when the zip file contains just a folder (items is empty) – James Woolfenden Aug 19 '14 at 09:16
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@Nico answer working for unzip in a destination – Kiquenet Jan 26 '15 at 08:22
Does `Copyhere` support passwords? – craibuc Jun 03 '15 at 14:50
Great! This works on PowerShell v2.0 and Windows 7 – ujeenator Dec 03 '15 at 16:32
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How to zip using your way ? – Jerome2606 Jul 12 '16 at 11:24
yes, how to zip with CopyHere? – johny why Sep 30 '16 at 18:23
how to zip with this method (> is command-prompt, src is a folder): `>$shellapp=new-object -com shell.application >$zippath="test.zip" >$zipobj=$shellapp.namespace((Get-Location).Path + "\$zippath") >$srcpath="src" >$srcobj=$shellapp.namespace((Get-Location).Path + "\$srcpath") >$zipobj.Copyhere($srcobj.items())` – johny why Sep 30 '16 at 18:43

score 56 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 30 '12 at 17:46

56

Now in .NET Framework 4.5, there is a ZipFile class that you can use like this:

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.IO.Compression.FileSystem')
[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory($sourceFile, $targetFolder)

answered Dec 30 '12 at 17:46

mousio

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It *definitely* worked - I used it to extract over 400 zip files. I'll check to make sure I don't have 4.5 on here, but it doesn't show up under Microsoft.NET. – GalacticCowboy Feb 13 '13 at 01:13
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This *would* be great if there were a simple method to ExtractToDirectory and an option to overwrite all existing files. – James Dunne Apr 02 '13 at 00:43
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This works with .NET 4.5. You do however need Powershell V3 too. – DalSoft Jun 16 '13 at 19:29
[Article with example](http://vcsjones.com/2012/11/11/unzipping-files-with-powershell-in-server-core-the-new-way/) based on [related question](http://serverfault.com/questions/446884/unzip-file-with-powershell-in-server-2012-core) – Ruben Bartelink Aug 28 '13 at 16:17
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Load the assembly with Add-Type, for example: Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem – Mike Sep 19 '13 at 02:39
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@JamesDunne - If you don't have other files you need to preserve, could use 'Remove-Item -Recurse $TargetFolder'. Otherwise, what you want can be done, but it would be non-trivial. You would need to open the zip for read, and then walk the zip, deleting any previous target object and unpacking the new one. Lucky for me, the easy solution works. ;) – Mike Sep 19 '13 at 02:44
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Be warned that relative file locations will use the *.NET* current directory, *not* the PowerShell one. See [here](http://stackoverflow.com/q/11246068/1394393). It's probably better just to `(Resolve-Path $someDir).Path` the arguments. – jpmc26 Aug 13 '16 at 03:45
Oh, I know this is 6 years old, but after trying to find a low-cost commercial (or open source) solution to extract files from a PKZIP SFX, and failing miserably, this solution right here made my day! – Shoeless Aug 30 '18 at 17:28

score 21 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 11 '12 at 20:33

21

DotNetZip will allow you to do this from PowerShell. It is not a one-liner, but the library will allow you to write the PowerShell script you need.

You can also use the COM interface, see Compress Files with Windows PowerShell then package a Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget.

Googling "zip powershell" or "unzip powershell" might also turn up useful results.

edited Mar 11 '12 at 20:33

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jun 03 '09 at 16:02

Kevin Kuphal

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+1 Linked article has useful Tasks unlike the most upvoted answer – Ruben Bartelink Apr 10 '12 at 10:09
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-1 for suggesting a Google search. This is the top StackExchange result in a Google search for "unzip powershell" – machine yearning Aug 20 '15 at 09:59

score 19 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 17 '15 at 20:59

19

I know this is a very old question, but I just saw it linked on Twitter on figured I'd post a current answer.

PowerShell 5, currently available on Windows 10 or via the Windows Management Framework 5 Production Preview, comes with two built-in cmdlets for 'zipping' and 'unzipping':

answered Oct 17 '15 at 20:59

Windos

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It is a *good* thing to provide new information to old questions. ;) +1 – jpmc26 Aug 13 '16 at 03:16

score 18 · Answer 5 · edited Mar 12 '12 at 07:56

18

You may wish to check out The PowerShell Community Extensions (PSCX) which has cmdlets specifically for this.

edited Mar 12 '12 at 07:56

Richard

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answered Jun 03 '09 at 15:59

Kevin Colby

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+1 PSCX is a great set of add-on cmdlets - I just wish I could pick and choose more which ones I want and which I don't. It seems to be changing a whole lot in my Powershell instance.... – marc_s Jun 12 '09 at 07:48
I've come across this because I actually want to automate the PSCX installation if I can for some coworkers. Trying it now to see what sort of issues I run into – jcolebrand Apr 27 '11 at 15:02

Nathan Hartley · Answer 6 · 2012-03-20T19:08:49.410

I also like Info-ZIP (the Zip engine found in most other Zip utilities) and 7-Zip, another favorite which has both a GUI and command line Zip utility. The point being, there are some good command-line utilities that will work for most PowerShell tasks.

There are some tricks to running command line utilities that were not built with PowerShell in mind:

Running an executable that starts with a number in the name, preface it with an Ampersand (&).

&7zip.exe
Wrap each token, the utility is expecting to see from the command line, in quotes.

&"c:\path with space\SomeCommand.exe" "/parameter2" "/parameter2" "parameter2's Value" "Value2 `" with a quote"

Try this:

zip filename.zip (Get-ChildItem somepath\*)

Or even:

zip filename.zip (Get-Content ListOfFiles.txt)

score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 03 '09 at 19:40

I find the simplest solution to just use infozip binaries which I have used for years and use in a UNIX environment.

PS> zip -9r ../test.zip * 
PS> cd .. 
PS> unzip -t test.zip Archive:  test.zip
    testing: LinqRepository/          OK
    testing: LinqRepository/ApplicationService.cs   OK
    testing: LinqRepository/bin/      OK 
... 
No errors detected in compressed data of test.zip.

It would be straighforward to put a powershell wrapper around the text output but in practice I never need that so I haven't bothered.

http://www.info-zip.org/

Nico · Answer 8 · 2013-10-11T18:03:18.260

James Holwell I like your answer but I expanded it a little bit

# Example
#unzip "myZip.zip" "C:\Users\me\Desktop" "c:\mylocation"
function unzip($fileName, $sourcePath, $destinationPath)
{
    $shell = new-object -com shell.application
    if (!(Test-Path "$sourcePath\$fileName"))
    {
        throw "$sourcePath\$fileName does not exist" 
    }
    New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $destinationPath -WarningAction SilentlyContinue
    $shell.namespace($destinationPath).copyhere($shell.namespace("$sourcePath\$fileName").items()) 
}

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 03 '09 at 19:49

0

WinRAR can work in CMD mode accepting arguments

answered Aug 03 '09 at 19:49

adopilot

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 13 '15 at 22:53

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The ionic approach rocks:

https://dotnetzip.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=PS-Examples

supports passwords, other crypto methods, etc.

answered Jan 13 '15 at 22:53

Jonesome Reinstate Monica

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered May 02 '15 at 22:13

I've created a PowerShell 2.0 compatible module that uses the native Windows OS commands to zip and unzip files in a synchronous manner. This works on older OSs, like Windows XP, and does not require .Net 4.5 or any other external tools. The functions will also block script execution until the files have all been zipped/unzipped. You can find more information and the module on my blog here.

How to zip/unzip files in Powershell?

11 Answers11

Linked