Questions and answers

A browser extension for Chrome, Edge and Brave, with a small free helper program for Windows. Give it a link to a zip and it shows what is inside and what extracting will cost, then writes the files you pick straight into a folder. The zip itself is never saved.

Yes. It is free and open source under the GNU GPL v3 or later, with no account and no ads. The code is on GitHub.

Not yet. The helper program is written for Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit) first. macOS and Linux helpers are planned.

Chrome 116 or newer, Edge, Brave and Chromium, on Windows 10 or 11.

A browser extension can't write thousands of files into a folder of your choice, or keep a multi-gigabyte download going on its own. A small program on your PC can. The extension talks to it through the browser's native messaging. The helper only runs while you use LinkUnzip and closes 30 seconds after the last activity.

No. The files you extract take the same space as always. LinkUnzip saves the space of the zip itself, and the download of everything you leave out. For Blender 4.2 that meant 925.6 MB on disk instead of 1.26 GB. More on disk space.

Yes, when the server can send parts of a file. LinkUnzip reads only the zip's index and lists every file and folder with its size. For the 18.01 GB COCO train2017 zip the index was 11.9 MB. How to preview a zip.

Yes. Tick it in the File List and LinkUnzip downloads only that part of the zip, plus the index. One 219 KB photo out of the 18.01 GB COCO train2017 zip took 12.2 MB of download. Take one file out.

The full experience (the cost preview, choosing files, parallel connections) needs a server that can send parts of a file, known as HTTP Range requests. Most download servers, CDNs and cloud storage can. For the others there is Stream it anyway, which reads the zip once from start to end and still doesn't save it.

Yes. Release downloads on GitHub can send parts of a file, so they get the full experience. The green Code, Download ZIP button can't, so LinkUnzip reads that archive in one pass with Stream it anyway, still without saving the zip. A GitHub archive of 1,562 files came out as 35.1 MB from 13.1 MB read.

Yes, when the site logs you in with cookies, as most do. LinkUnzip asks once per site before it uses your login there, and your cookies go only to that site. Signed links from cloud storage work while they are valid; if one has expired, get a fresh link from the page. How your login is used.

Not with downloads that only exist inside a web page (blob: links, like WhatsApp Web), or links that need a form POST or a one-time token. If a link opens a web page instead of the file, LinkUnzip says so and offers the normal download.

LinkUnzip treats every archive as untrusted. It refuses paths that would escape the folder (.., absolute paths, drive letters) before anything is written, renames names Windows can't store and says so, never writes more than a file's declared size, and gives a file its real name only after its size and CRC-32 check out.

Each file is written under a temporary .part name, checked against the size and CRC-32 stored in the zip, and only then renamed. The done screen says how many files were verified.

No. There are no accounts, no analytics and no servers of ours. The extension talks only to the helper on your PC, and the helper connects only to the server of the link you chose. Privacy policy.

Yes, for now. The installer is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may say Windows protected your PC. Click More info, then Run anyway. You can check your copy against SHA256SUMS.txt on the release page. Details on the install page.

There is no 2 GB limit: LinkUnzip reads ZIP64 archives and its memory use stays flat. What you need is free space for the files you extract, and the Cost Analysis shows it before anything is written.

No. LinkUnzip extracts ZIP files from links. RAR, 7z and creating archives are not part of it.

Not yet; it is planned. The same goes for compression methods other than the two common ones (stored and deflate). LinkUnzip names the files it can't extract instead of failing silently.

The files that are finished stay. Resume carries on into the same folder and skips them; the file that was being written starts again. In one-pass mode (Stream it anyway), a dropped connection starts the pass again and skips the files already done. Stop and Resume.