File Extension Deb - How to open .deb files  

Overview

The file extension .deb is used by Debian based operating systems to package software into a single file. A file with the extension .deb is a Debian archive file used to package together many files that provide some feature, program or commands for Debain based systems. These .deb pakage files are standard Unix ar archives that include two tar files inside.

Open File Extension deb in Windows

Microsoft Windows cannot open deb files by default. To open deb files you must download and install third party software. In this case we will use the free software Zipware.

1) Download archive software

 Download freeware software Zipware.

2) Install archive software

Open the downloaded Zipware file and follow the prompts to complete the installation accepting the defaults as you go. Once installed you should see the Zipware icon on your desktop.

3) Run Zipware

Run Zipware by double clicking the desktop icon shown below.

      

4) Open file extension deb

Click the open icon on the toolbar and browse to the .deb file you would like to open. You can also open the deb file by dragging and dropping it directly into Zipware's main window pane. Once opened you will be able to see all files and folders inside the archive as shown in the below screenshot. You can open any of these files by double clicking on them or dragging them to your desktop. To extract all of the files so that they are acessible via Windows explorer see the next step.

 

5) Extract file extension deb

To extract all the files from a .deb archive file simply click the Extract button in the toolbar and select the destination directory. Note that by default zipware will create a containing folder with the same name as the deb file in the destination directory. The extract windows default options are fine in this case but for more information regarding the other options shown below please refer to Zipware's help: extracting archives.

Please note that if the size of the .deb file is very large it may take some time for Zipware to decompress and extract the files. When Zipware finishes extracting the files you will be able to access the files like any other Windows files using Windows Explorer.