How to Browse ZIP, RAR and 7z Archives in ComfortFiles

Updated August 18, 2026

In ComfortFiles, an archive opens like a folder: double-click it and browse inside — no extraction step. That works for ZIP, RAR, 7z and the TAR family. ZIPs go one better and are editable in place: add files, rename entries, or delete them, and the archive is updated for you.

Browsing archives

Double-click a .zip, .rar, .7z or TAR-family archive (.tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2) to step inside.
Navigate it like any folder — Quick Look previews (Space) work on files inside.
Archives nested inside archives open too — keep double-clicking.

Editing a ZIP without extracting

Inside a .zip you can:

Add files — paste (⌘V) or drop them in.
Rename entries — F2, like anywhere else.
Delete entries — ⌘⌫.
Create folders or files — right-click → New.

The archive on disk is rewritten after each change; nothing is silently extracted to loose files.

Creating archives

Select files, right-click → Compress to… and pick a format: ZIP, TAR, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, or TAR.XZ. An “Additional options” dialog covers cases like choosing the archive name and settings before writing.

Protecting a ZIP with a password

In Compress to… ▸ Additional options…, type a password. Leave it blank and the archive is an ordinary one.

A protected archive is marked with a padlock on its icon, so you can tell before opening it — the same way a folder shortcut carries a small arrow.

The archive is encrypted with AES-256 — the real thing, not the old ZIP cipher. That choice has a cost, and it is worth knowing before you send the file to someone:

Opening it	Works?
Double-click on a Mac	Yes — macOS asks for the password and extracts it
ComfortFiles, or any Mac app built on the system’s archive engine	Yes
`unzip` in Terminal	No — Apple’s version cannot read AES (“unsupported compression method 99”)
Windows, built-in Explorer zip	No — it needs 7-Zip or WinRAR, both free

Windows 11 did gain built-in support for more archive formats in 24H2 — 7z, RAR and TAR — but encrypted archives were not part of it. Microsoft’s own answer is still that File Explorer handles the old ZipCrypto and not AES.

The alternative would have been ZipCrypto, which every tool on earth opens — and which a freely available program breaks in seconds when it can guess at part of the contents. A padlock that opens that easily is not protection, so it is not offered.

Two more things worth knowing about ZIP passwords generally, neither specific to this app:

The list of file names is not hidden. Any ZIP shows what is inside it before the password is asked for; only the contents are encrypted. If the names themselves are sensitive, put everything in one folder and compress that.
While the archive is being written, the password is passed to the system’s archiving tool as a command-line argument, where another program running as you could read it for those seconds. That program could read the files themselves just as easily — but if you reuse this password elsewhere, that is the part to think about.

Opening a protected archive

Double-click a locked ZIP and ComfortFiles asks for the password before showing you anything, then browses it like any other archive. Both kinds are handled: AES-256 and the older ZipCrypto that other tools produce.

The password is kept for as long as the app is running and never written anywhere — not to a file, not to the Keychain, not to a log. Quit and it is forgotten.

If the password is wrong you are told exactly that, and asked again. It matters because a ZIP shows its file names to anyone: without the distinction, an archive you have the password for looks identical to a damaged one, and you would go hunting for a problem that is not there.

Good to know

Editing in place is a ZIP feature. RAR, 7z and TAR-family archives open for browsing and extraction.
ComfortFiles reads RAR and 7z but does not create them — the menu lists 7z greyed out, and RAR’s compressor is proprietary.
Archives split across several volumes cannot be opened. ComfortFiles says so rather than showing you an empty folder.

Sent a .rar and no app opens it? Opening a RAR file on a Mac — the built-in Terminal command, the free apps, and the archives nothing on a Mac will open.