tar -xvzf filename.tar.gz
tar -xvjf filename.tar.bz2
This article explains what a tarball is and how to extract (open) it on a Windows PC. A "tarball" is a collection of multiple files and folders bundled into a single file using the Tape ARchive (tar) format. Often, the tarball is then compressed with a tool like gzip ( .gz ) or bzip2 ( .bz2 ) to save space.
If you’ve downloaded software, source code, or game mods from the internet, you’ve likely come across a file with a .tar.gz , .tar.bz2 , or simply .tar extension. On Linux and macOS, these are as common as .zip files. On Windows, however, they can seem mysterious.