Powershell: Unzip and Zip Files with Compress-Archive and Expand-Archive Cmdlets

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On Windows, you can use the built-in PowerShell cmdlets to zip and unzip files from the command prompt or from PS1 scripts. Starting with PowerShell 5.0 (introduced in Windows 10), the Compress-Archive and Expand-Archive cmdlets are available for working with ZIP archives. These cmdlets are available in Windows PowerShell 5.0+ and PowerShell 7+.

The Compress-Archive

The Compress-Archive command allows you to create a compressed archive file from one or more specified files or folders.

If you want to compress a file and add it to a ZIP archive, use the command:

Compress-Archive -DestinationPath C:\temp\applog.zip -Path 'C:\temp\app.log' -Force

Note. Quotation marks are required around the file path if the source or destination file name contains a space.

Options for the Compress-Archive cmdlet

• DestinationPath – path to ZIP archive
• Path – the name of the file or folder you want to compress
• Force – overwrite the file if an archive with the same name already exists
• CompressionLevel – allows you to set the compression level. Possible values: NoCompression, Fastest, and Optimal (used by default)

If you want to zip only the directory contents (including subfolders), but not the directory itself, specify:

-Path C:\temp\*

In case you need the ZIP archive to contain the folder itself (instead of only its contents), you should specify the folder path without the wildcard character:

Compress-Archive `
-DestinationPath C:\archive.zip `
-Path C:\temp

Note that after extracting the archive, the Temp folder will be recreated together with all files and subfolders inside it.

To archive only folder contents:

Compress-Archive -DestinationPath C:\archive.zip -Path C:\temp\*

To archive the Temp folder itself:

Compress-Archive -DestinationPath C:\archive.zip -Path C:\temp

Note that Compress-Archive ignores hidden files and folders when creating/updating ZIP archives. This behavior also applies to current PowerShell 7 versions. If you need to include hidden or system files, you need to use the .NET System.IO.Compression API or a third-party archiving tool (such as 7-Zip).

If the source file or folder name contains wildcard characters (such as [ ], *, or ?), you can use the -LiteralPath parameter instead of -Path to prevent PowerShell from interpreting them as wildcard patterns:

Compress-Archive `
-LiteralPath "C:\Temp\[Report].txt" `
-DestinationPath C:\Archive.zip

Maximum file size in ZIP archive

Note that Compress-Archive has a limitation when adding very large individual files to a ZIP archive. In particular, files larger than 2 GB can cause the cmdlet to fail with a Stream was too long error because of limitations in the underlying .NET System.IO.Compression API. This limitation applies to both Windows PowerShell 5.1 and current PowerShell 7 versions. If you need to archive individual files larger than 2 GB, consider using 7-Zip/another archiving tool that supports large files.

Keep in mind that Compress-Archive uses the .NET System.IO.Compression ZIP implementation. The relevant limitation affects the size of an individual file being added to the archive, rather than the total size of the ZIP archive.

If you try to create a large ZIP archive file, in some cases the Compress-Archive cmdlet will return an error:

MethodInvocationException: Exception calling “Write” with “3” argument(s): “Stream was too long.”

Archive multiple directories at once

To archive multiple directories at once, specify a list of folders separated by commas in the Path parameter:

Compress-Archive -DestinationPath C:\archive.zip -Path C:\ps\, C:\temp\

The following example creates a separate ZIP archive for each subfolder, which is useful for backup, log collection, and automation tasks:

Get-ChildItem C:\Logs -Directory |
ForEach-Object {
Compress-Archive `
-Path $_.FullName `
-DestinationPath "C:\Archives\$($_.Name).zip"
}

Add a file to an existing ZIP archive

The Update option allows you to add a file to an existing ZIP archive:

Compress-Archive -DestinationPath C:\archive.zip -Path C:\temp\test.html -Update

List ZIP Archive Contents

In case you need to view the contents of a ZIP archive without extracting it, you can use the .NET ZipFile class from PowerShell:

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem

[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::OpenRead(
"C:\Temp\archive.zip"
).Entries

The command above returns a list of files and folders stored in the archive (including their names, sizes, and paths).

You can also display only the archived file names with the command:

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem

[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::OpenRead(
"C:\Temp\archive.zip"
).Entries |
Select-Object FullName

Zip all files with specific extensions from a folder

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Temp\ -Include "*.txt","*.log" -Recurse| Compress-Archive -DestinationPath C:\txt_log.zip

Compress-Archive also accepts file objects from the PowerShell pipeline. For example, in order to archive all log files from a folder, run the following command:

Get-ChildItem C:\Logs -Filter *.log |
Compress-Archive `
-DestinationPath C:\Logs.zip

How to Exclude Files When Creating a ZIP Archive

In some cases, you may need to archive a folder but exclude specific file types/files. For example, to exclude temporary files, use the following command:

Get-ChildItem C:\Temp -Recurse -File |
Where-Object {$_.Extension -ne ".tmp"} |
Compress-Archive -DestinationPath C:\archive.zip

Extract the archive with Expand-Archive cmdlet

Expand-Archive -Path C:\txt_log.zip -DestinationPath C:\Unzipped

If you want to extract the archive to the current working directory, you need to specify a period (.) as the destination path:

Expand-Archive `
-Path C:\Temp\archive.zip `
-DestinationPath .

Before extracting an archive in automation scripts, we recommend to verify that the ZIP file exists as a good practice:

if (Test-Path -LiteralPath C:\Temp\archive.zip) {
Expand-Archive `
-Path C:\Temp\archive.zip `
-DestinationPath C:\Restore
}

Add the -Force parameter if you want to overwrite files in the destination directory.

The -Force parameter overwrites existing files in the destination folder. This makes it useful for restoring/updating previously extracted content. Here is an example:

Expand-Archive `
-Path C:\Temp\archive.zip `
-DestinationPath C:\Restore `
-Force

Note. Keep in mind that Expand-Archive always extracts the entire archive (selective extraction of individual files/folders is not supported). If you need to extract specific archive contents, you can use the .NET System.IO.Compression.ZipFile API/third-party tools (such as 7-Zip).

Common Errors

When working with Compress-Archive and Expand-Archive, you may encounter the following errors:

Error	Possible Cause	Recommendation
The archive file format is invalid.	The ZIP file is corrupted/not a valid ZIP archive.	Verify the archive integrity/recreate the ZIP file.
The file already exists.	The destination archive/extracted file already exists.	Use the -Force parameter to overwrite existing files if appropriate.
Access to the path is denied.	Insufficient permissions to read or write the specified path.	Run PowerShell with appropriate privileges or verify NTFS/share permissions.
Cannot find path.	The source file/destination directory does not exist.	Check if the specified path is correct and create the destination folder if necessary.