Occasionally, yous find applications or games distributed as .jar files instead of the usual .exe file. You can't just double-click on a JAR file to run the app. How, so, exercise you lot open up a JAR file?

Java used to be a popular coding language to create freeware games and applications. Even now, many freeware apps are distributed as .jar files, which Windows does not natively support. This article will walk you through ways to open JAR files on your computer.

What Is a JAR File?

Internet browsers used Java to offering a dynamic browsing experience. Games and other interactive applets were coded using Java and could run on whatsoever platform.

But at that place was a small trouble. It took multiple HTTP requests to download all the assets required for that applet to piece of work, slowing down its load time. A better approach would be to parcel all the files into a unmarried file that Java could access to run an application.

And that'southward exactly what the JAR file is. Inspired by WinZip, JAR is a file archive used by Java to concur anything from multimedia files to code and is accessible to Java applets.

Install Java on Your PC

The virtually straightforward method to open a JAR file is to install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) on your computer. Not but does this give y'all the power to open .jar files, but it likewise makes your system capable of running Java apps.

  1. Download the latest JRE version, head to Oracle's official download folio.
  1. Scroll downwardly to find the right installation package for your operating system. There are both online and offline installers. The online setup will simply download the necessary files during the installation while the offline version downloads all necessary files first and so will showtime the installation.
  1. Run the downloaded file to brainstorm the installation of JRE on your computer. Accept the license understanding to get the setup underway. Usually, the installer volition automatically remove older versions of JRE, though you can do that manually if needed.
  1. A completed installation allows yous to run whatsoever Java app on your PC, including JAR files.

Note that this merely allows your computer to open JAR files using the method mentioned below, simply information technology doesn't associate the .jar extension, which ways that if you attempt to double-click a JAR file, Windows still wouldn't know what to exercise with the file.

Cheque the following section to larn how to open a JAR file once JRE has been installed.

Open up From Command Prompt

To be clear, this isn't a different method at all. You still need to have Java installed on your computer to open JAR files from the command prompt, then that stride comes starting time.

Once you've installed Coffee on your computer using the process in the final department, yous can and so use the command prompt to open JAR files.

  1. Open Control Prompt equally an ambassador. Type cmd in the search bar to locate the application.
  1. Enter the control coffee -jar C:pathtofile.jar , where "pathtofile" is the path of the file in question. Y'all can copy the file to the C bulldoze itself to make it easier, allowing y'all to enter just the file name.
  1. Upon execution of the command, Windows will use the JRE to interpret the JAR file. You should at present run into the Java awarding running.

Unless the application you want is distributed equally an executable Java file, you'll demand to execute all these steps each time you run a JAR file.

Excerpt as an Archive

JAR files are archived information with a fancy name. Sure they're meant for Java applications, just a .jar file only compresses and archives them into a unmarried bundle, thereby letting you extract JAR files using any leading file extraction tool like WinRAR or 7-Zip. This will let you lot see the contents of the package, though yous'll nevertheless need the JRE if y'all want to run the application itself.

  1. Download the vii-Zip installer to extract .jar files.
  1. Run the downloaded .exe file to install seven-Null on your computer.
  1. Navigate to the directory containing the JAR file you wish to extract.
  1. Correct-click on the file, select 7-Zip, and then select Extract All.
  1. The JAR file will exist extracted into the directory.

What is the All-time Method To Open a JAR File on Windows ten?

JAR files are usually Coffee applications packaged into a single file. To run them, you demand to accept the Java Runtime Environment installed on your PC. As JRE is free to download, this is the easiest way to get .jar files working on your Windows computer.

On the other hand, if you just want to look at the contents of the JAR archive but non actually run it, y'all tin ever apply a file extraction tool. Apps like 7-Goose egg or WinRAR tin can easily extract the contents of a .jar file.