How to open a EAR/WAR file in windows 7

If you tell Windows that JAR, WAR and EAR files are compressed folders, Explorer will show you what is inside without having to rename them to ZIP. Very helpful when there is a JAR inside a WAR.

Run this in an Administrative Command Prompt window:

assoc .jar=CompressedFolder
assoc .war=CompressedFolder
assoc .ear=CompressedFolder

(Better late than never)

7zip will work, simply associate the ear/war extension with it.