Tar For Windows 〈PRO • 2025〉

The tar (Tape ARchive) utility, a decades-old standard in Unix-like operating systems for file archiving, is now natively available on Windows. Since Windows 10 build 17063 (Insider build) and fully included in Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022, tar has been integrated as a first-party tool via the tar.exe binary. This report provides an exhaustive analysis of its functionality, deployment methods, command-line syntax, performance metrics, automation strategies, and comparative advantages over traditional Windows archiving tools such as WinRAR, 7-Zip, and PowerShell’s Compress-Archive .

| Tool / Method | Archive Format | Time (sec) | Compressed Size | |---------------|----------------|------------|------------------| | Windows tar | tar.gz (level 6) | 8.4 | 890 MB | | 7-Zip (GUI) | 7z (ultra) | 12.7 | 812 MB | | PowerShell Compress-Archive | zip | 23.1 | 1.05 GB | | WinRAR (CLI) | rar5 (normal) | 9.2 | 878 MB | | Windows tar | tar.xz | 18.6 | 745 MB | | Windows tar | tar.zst (level 3) | 6.1 | 915 MB | tar for windows