How to unzip a file in Powershell?

Here is a simple way using ExtractToDirectory from System.IO.Compression.ZipFile:

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
function Unzip
{
    param([string]$zipfile, [string]$outpath)

    [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory($zipfile, $outpath)
}

Unzip "C:\a.zip" "C:\a"

Note that if the target folder doesn't exist, ExtractToDirectory will create it. Other caveats:

  • Existing files will not be overwritten and instead trigger an IOException.
  • This method requires at least .NET Framework 4.5, available for Windows Vista and newer.
  • Relative paths are not resolved based on the current working directory, see Why don't .NET objects in PowerShell use the current directory?

See also:

  • How to Compress and Extract files (Microsoft Docs)

In PowerShell v5+, there is an Expand-Archive command (as well as Compress-Archive) built in:

Expand-Archive C:\a.zip -DestinationPath C:\a

In PowerShell v5.1 this is slightly different compared to v5. According to MS documentation, it has to have a -Path parameter to specify the archive file path. 

Expand-Archive -Path Draft.Zip -DestinationPath C:\Reference

Or else, this can be an actual path:

Expand-Archive -Path c:\Download\Draft.Zip -DestinationPath C:\Reference

Expand-Archive Doc

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