One of the few good features of Windows is its ability to view a zip file as a folder. Is there some way, possibly using a third party app, to do the same on the Mac?
I know there are a number of apps which will mount the zip file as a volume, but I haven’t found a way to see one simply as a folder.
Edit 2019
Zipster is dead & gone, see other answers below.
Zipster does exactly that.
blurb straight from their site
What is Zipster?
Ever been envious of the way Windows users can just browse into Zip files, copy files in and out of them with ease and all without running a Zip utility? With Zipster, your Zip files are just like another folder in Finder. Plus, unlike on Windows, you can open files and save into them from any application.
Zipster is
- Free.
- Fast. Writes and compression are done in the background so you can get on with your work. And we’ve done a bit of work to make reading snappy too.
- Friendly. No more pesky .DS_Store files — and your friends on other platforms won’t be complaining any more.
- Useful. In addition to plain Zip files, Zipster works with JAR, WAR, ipa and apk files.
It does have slight limitations when it comes to trying to put things away; it reacts a bit like a mounted .dmg except it's right where the file was, not on the desktop, but it's not a bad attempt at transforming .zips into folders.
If you're comfortable with the command line and just want to get a list of the files inside the zip file, you could also use the zipinfo command:
$ zipinfo Archive.zip
Archive: Archive.zip
Zip file size: 465 bytes, number of entries: 3
-rw-r--r-- 2.1 unx 6 bX defN 18-Jun-19 05:00 baz.txt
-rw-r--r-- 2.1 unx 6 bX defN 18-Jun-19 05:00 foo.txt
-rw-r--r-- 2.1 unx 23 bX defN 18-Jun-19 05:00 bar.txt
3 files, 35 bytes uncompressed, 41 bytes compressed: -17.1%
Or, unzip -l:
$ unzip -l Archive.zip
Archive: Archive.zip
Length Date Time Name
--------- ---------- ----- ----
6 06-19-2018 05:00 baz.txt
6 06-19-2018 05:00 foo.txt
23 06-19-2018 05:00 bar.txt
--------- -------
35 3 files
Here's one that people often overlook: BetterZipQL. This is a free module for Finder's "QuickLook" function and allows its Preview pane to show you the contents of an archive just as if it were a folder full o' files.
Nice suggestion but not a complete solution: Zipster (v1.0.4, apparently from 3/2/15 per the file times) doesn't support encrypted files at this time. I know because I tried it. :-(
OTOH there is now a Mac version of WinZip. I haven't tried it. Costs $30.
It appears that Zipster is dead. You can check out Archive Mounter instead.
https://www.charlessoft.com has Pacifist. You can use it
if you want to inspect a downloaded package to see what it will install before installing it.
Also
allows you to extract individual files and folders out of [.pkg package files, .dmg disk images, and .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, and .xar archives]
There's also a Quick Look extension. So you can use spacebar to see the contents. In the free version, you face a 15 second delay.
Not affiliated with the development or profit of the product.
iZip does a decent job. Mounts the archive as volume. Supported formats are zip and rar.
