How to extract just part of a ZIP file

To extract only part of a ZIP file, open it in Disk Sort by Zaweba, where it appears as a folder in the tree, tag the files you want and choose Extract tagged files. The window that opens has a New folder button, so you can make a fresh place for them on the spot. Everything else in the archive stays where it is.

This is handy when a download holds hundreds of files and you need three, or when an old backup ZIP contains one document you are after. There is no need to unpack the lot and then delete what you did not want.

Opening the archive

Disk Sort treats ZIP, 7z, RAR and TAR files as folders. Find the archive in the folder tree and open it as you would any folder, with a click or the Right arrow. Its contents appear in the FILES tab like the contents of a normal folder, and you can switch between thumbnails (Ctrl+1) and the detailed list (Ctrl+2).

The detailed list includes a Files inside column for archives, and you can sort by it. That is a quick way to see which ZIP in a downloads folder is the big one before you open it.

If you want to look at a file before deciding, open it. Disk Sort copies a file opened from inside an archive to a temporary folder first, read-only, so looking at it cannot change the ZIP.

Choosing the files

Tagging is how Disk Sort marks a set of files for an action. Move to a file and press T to tag it and move on, or U to untag. Ctrl+T tags everything shown and Ctrl+U untags it all, and I inverts the tags, which is useful when you want everything except a few.

For a pattern, Tag by file spec (Ctrl+Shift+T) tags by name, for example every PDF. The kind filter can narrow the list to one kind of file first, such as pictures or documents, and the name filter (Ctrl+F) takes * and ? wildcards. Press G at any point to see every tagged file in one list and check you have the right ones.

Extracting them

With your files tagged, choose Extract tagged files. Pick where they should go. If that place does not exist yet, use the New folder button in the window, give it a name and the files go into it.

There are two other ways out of an archive. Extract to on the right-click menu extracts what you have selected, and Extract all to unpacks the whole archive. All three windows have the New folder button, and there is an option to move the ZIP itself into the new folder after extracting, which keeps the archive and its contents together.

Small things that save time

Tags carry across folders, so you can tag a few files in one archive, a few more in another and a couple of ordinary files elsewhere, then deal with the tagged set as one. When you have finished, Clear all tags (every folder) empties the set so it does not get in the way of the next job.

If you only need one file, you do not have to tag at all. Select it and use Extract to on the right-click menu.

Disk Sort reads ZIP, 7z, RAR and TAR, but it writes ZIP only. If you want to bundle the extracted files up again, Z or Add to ZIP makes a new ZIP from the selection, and the ZIP menu makes one from tagged files or adds them to an existing ZIP.

Disk Sort by Zaweba is free and works offline, so extracting from a large archive does not depend on a connection or an account.