How can you zip or unzip from the script using ONLY Windows built-in capabilities

Question

In Windows you can zip some files by      right click  rarr  Send to  rarr  Compressed  zipped  folder   And unzip by double clicking on the  zip file and extract the files   Is there a way to apply those abilities from a script   bat file  without the need to install any third-party software

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It isn t exactly a ZIP  but the only way to compress a file using Windows tools is   makecab  lt source gt   lt dest gt  cab   To decompress   expand  lt source gt  cab  lt dest gt    Advanced example  from ss64 com    Create a self extracting archive containing movie mov  C   gt  makecab movie mov  temp cab  C   gt  copy  b   windir  system32 extrac32 exe   temp cab   movie exe  C   gt  del  q  f  temp cab    More information  makecab  expand  makecab advanced uses

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Tar Windows 10 includes tar exe     example 1 tar exe -a -c -f out zip in txt   example 2 tar exe -x -f out zip  https   techcommunity microsoft com t5 containers - ba-p 382409 If you have older Windows  you can still download it  https   github com libarchive libarchive releases PowerShell   example 1 Compress-Archive in txt out zip   example 2 Expand-Archive out zip  https   docs microsoft com powershell module microsoft powershell archive Directory For both tools  you can use a file or directory for the input

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PowerShell 5 0  From Microsoft PowerShell Archive you can use    Compress-Archive Expand-Archive    E g     Create result zip from the entire Test folder   Compress-Archive -Path C  Test -DestinationPath C  result  Extract the content of result zip in the specified Test folder   Expand-Archive -Path result zip -DestinationPath C  Test

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If you have Java installed  you can compress to a ZIP archive using the jar command   jar -cMf targetArchive zip sourceDirectory      c   Creates a new archive file       M   Specifies that a manifest file should not be added to the archive       f   Indicates target file name

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If you need to do this as part of a script then the best way is to use Java  Assuming the bin directory is in your path  in most cases   you can use the command line   jar xf test zip   If Java is not on your path  reference it directly   C  Java jdk1 6 0 03 bin gt jar xf test zip

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Shell Application With Shell Application you can emulate the way explorer exe zips files and folders The script is called zipjs bat     unzip content of a zip to given folder content of the zip will be not preserved  -keep no  Destination will be not overwritten  -force no  call zipjs bat unzip -source C  myDir myZip zip -destination C  MyDir -keep no -force no     lists content of a zip file and full paths will be printed  -flat yes  call zipjs bat list -source C  myZip zip inZipDir -flat yes     lists content of a zip file and the content will be list as a tree  -flat no  call zipjs bat list -source C  myZip zip -flat no     prints uncompressed size in bytes zipjs bat getSize -source C  myZip zip     zips content of folder without the folder itself call zipjs bat zipDirItems -source C  myDir  -destination C  MyZip zip -keep yes -force no     zips file or a folder  with the folder itslelf  call zipjs bat zipItem -source C  myDir myFile txt -destination C  MyZip zip -keep yes -force no     unzips only part of the zip with given path inside call zipjs bat unZipItem -source C  myDir myZip zip InzipDir InzipFile -destination C  OtherDir -keep no -force yes call zipjs bat unZipItem -source C  myDir myZip zip InzipDir -destination C  OtherDir      adds content to a zip file call zipjs bat addToZip -source C  some file -destination C  myDir myZip zip InzipDir -keep no call zipjs bat addToZip -source  C  some file -destination C  myDir myZip zip  MAKECAB Makecab is the default compressing tool coming with windows  Though it can use different compression algorithms  including zip  file format is always a  cab file  With some extensions it can be used on linux machines too  compressing a file  makecab file txt  quot file cab quot   Compressing an entire folder needs a little bit more work  Here a directory is compressed with cabDir bat  call cabDir bat   myDir compressedDir cab  Uncompressing is rather easy with expand command  EXPAND cabfile -F      More hackier way is by creating self-extracting executable with extrac32 command  copy  b  quot  windir  system32 extrac32 exe quot   quot mycab cab quot   quot expandable exe quot  call expandable exe  TAR With the build 17063 of windows we have the tar command    compress directory tar -cvf archive tar c  my dir   extract to dir tar -xvf archive tar gz -C c  data   NET tools  net  and powershell  offers a lot of ways to compress and uncompress files  The most straightforward is with gzip stream  The script is called gzipjs bat    zip call gzipjs bat -c my file my zip   unzip call gzipjs bat -u my zip my file

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This is an updated version to the answer provided by  PodTech io  This version has all of the vbs code correctly escaped in the batch file   It s also created into a sub-routine  which can be called with a single line from anywhere in your batch script          Main code   call  ZipUp  C  Some Path   C  Archive zip           SubRoutines    ZipUp   Arguments  Source folder  destination zip       echo Set fso   CreateObject   Scripting FileSystemObject        echo InputFolder   fso GetAbsolutePathName  WScript Arguments Item  0         echo ZipFile   fso GetAbsolutePathName  WScript Arguments Item  1         echo      echo   Create empty ZIP file      echo CreateObject   Scripting FileSystemObject    CreateTextFile  ZipFile  True   Write  PK    amp  Chr  5     amp  Chr  6     amp  String  18  vbNullChar       echo      echo Set objShell   CreateObject   Shell Application        echo Set source   objShell NameSpace  InputFolder   Items     echo objShell NameSpace  ZipFile   CopyHere  source       echo      echo   Keep script waiting until compression is done     echo Do Until objShell NameSpace   ZipFile    Items Count   objShell NameSpace   InputFolder    Items Count     echo     WScript Sleep 200     echo Loop   gt  zipup vbs CScript   Nologo  zipup vbs    1     2  del  zipup vbs goto  eof

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I ve been looking to answer this exact question and from my research  DiryBoy s response seems to be accurate   I found the compact exe program compresses files but not to create a highly compressed file  or set of files    It is similar to the option you get when right clicking on a drive letter or partition in Windows  You get the option to do cleanup  remove temp files  etc  as well as compress files   The compressed files are still accessible but are just compressed to create space on a drive that is low on space   I also found compress exe which I did happen to have on my computer   It isn t natively on most windows machines and is part of the 2003 resource kit   It does make a zipped file of sorts but it is really more similar to files from a windows setup disk  has the underscore as the last character of the file extension or name    And the extract exe command extracts those files   However  the mantra is  if it can be done natively via the GUI then there is likely a way to do it via batch   vbs  or some other type of script within the command line   Since windows has had the  send to  option to create a zip file  I knew there had to be a way to do it via command line and I found some options   Here is a great link that shows how to zip a file using windows native commands   https   superuser com questions 110991 can-you-zip-a-file-from-the-command-prompt-using-only-windows-built-in-capabili  I tested it with a directory containing multiple nested files and folders and it worked perfectly   Just follow the format of the command line   There is also a way to unzip the files via command line which I found as well   One way  just brings open an explorer window showing what the content of the zipped file is   Some of these also use Java which isn t necessarily native to windows but is so common that it nearly seems so   https   superuser com questions 149489 does-windows-7-have-unzip-at-the-command-line-installed-by-default  How to unzip a file using the command line

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To expand upon Steven Penny s PowerShell solution  you can incorporate it into a batch file by calling powershell exe like this  powershell exe -nologo -noprofile -command  quot  amp    Add-Type -A  System IO Compression FileSystem    IO Compression ZipFile   ExtractToDirectory  foo zip    bar      quot   As Ivan Shilo said  this won t work with PowerShell 2  it requires PowerShell 3 or greater and  NET Framework 4

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I have a problem with all these solutions    They re not exactly the same  and they all create files that have a slight size difference compared to the RMB -- gt  send to -- gt  compressed  zipped  folder when made from the same source folder  The closest size-difference I have had is 300 KB difference  script   manual   made with   powershell Compress-Archive -Path C  sourceFolder -CompressionLevel Fastest -DestinationPath C  destinationArchive zip    Notice the -CompressionLevel  There are three possible values  Fastest  NoCompression  amp  Optimal   Default  Optimal    I wanted to make a  bat file that should automatically compress a WordPress plugin folder I m working on  into a  zip archive  so I can upload it into the WordPress site and test the plugin   But for some reason it doesn t work with any of these automatic compressions  but it does work with the manual RMB compression  witch I find really strange   And the script-generated  zip files actually break the WordPress plugins to the point where they can t be activated  and they can also not be deleted from inside WordPress  I have to SSH into the  back side  of the server and delete the uploaded plugin files themselves  manually  While the manually RMB-generated files work normally

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Adding upon  Jason Duffett s answer and its comments  here s a script that gets input and output  file name and directory name  respectively  from the user     echo off set input  1 set output  2 powershell exe  Add-Type -A  System IO Compression FileSystem    IO Compression ZipFile   ExtractToDirectory   input      output        Usage     unzip bat path to file zip path to output directory

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This one worked for me  in 2021   tar -xf test zip  This will unzip the test in the current directory

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Back in 2013  that was not possible  Microsoft didn t provide any executable for this   See this link for some VBS way to do this  https   superuser com questions 201371 create-zip-folder-from-the-command-line-windows  From Windows 8 on   NET Framework 4 5 is installed by default  with System IO Compression ZipArchive and PowerShell available  one can write scripts to achieve this  see https   stackoverflow com a 26843122 71312

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You can use a VBScript script wrapped in a BAT file  This code works on a relative PATH   There isn t any need for any third-party tools or dependencies  Just set SOURCEDIR and OUTPUTZIP   Filename  ZipUp bat  echo Set fso   CreateObject  Scripting FileSystemObject    gt   zipup vbs echo InputFolder   fso GetAbsolutePathName WScript Arguments Item 0    gt  gt   zipup vbs echo ZipFile   fso GetAbsolutePathName WScript Arguments Item 1    gt  gt   zipup vbs    Create empty ZIP file  echo CreateObject  Scripting FileSystemObject   CreateTextFile ZipFile  True  Write  PK    amp  Chr 5    amp  Chr 6    amp  String 18  vbNullChar   gt  gt   zipup vbs  echo Set objShell   CreateObject  Shell Application    gt  gt   zipup vbs echo Set source   objShell NameSpace InputFolder  Items  gt  gt   zipup vbs echo objShell NameSpace ZipFile  CopyHere source   gt  gt   zipup vbs  echo   Keep script waiting until compression is done echo Do Until objShell NameSpace  ZipFile   Items Count   objShell NameSpace  InputFolder   Items Count  gt  gt   zipup vbs echo     WScript Sleep 200  gt  gt   zipup vbs echo Loop  gt  gt   zipup vbs  CScript   zipup vbs   SOURCEDIR    OUTPUTZIP   del  zipup vbs   Example usage  SET SOURCEDIR C  Some Path SET OUTPUTZIP C  Archive zip CALL ZipUp   Alternatively  you can parametrize this file by replacing the line CScript   zipup vbs   SOURCEDIR    OUTPUTZIP  with CScript   zipup vbs   1   2  in which case it can be even more easily called from by simply calling CALL ZipUp C  Source Dir C  Archive zip

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Using 7-Zip   Zip  you have a folder foo  and want to zip it to myzip zip   C  Program Files 7-Zip 7z exe  a  -r myzip zip -w foo -mem AES256   Unzip  you want to unzip it  myzip zip  to current directory        C  Program Files 7-Zip 7z exe  x  myzip zip  -o   -y -r

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Open source is your friend  -   Here is the unzip  http   gnuwin32 sourceforge net packages unzip htm  There is a ZIP command as well  http   gnuwin32 sourceforge net packages zip htm  The binaries download is enough

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You say you re trying to do this without a third-party software  I m not sure if you d consider  NET  third-party  software   But you can create your own command line utility in  NET  It shouldn t require more than a few lines of code   ZipFile Class

[windows] How can you zip or unzip from the script using ONLY Windows' built-in capabilities?

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