A JAR file is a Java archive file. These types of files contain Java program code and in some cases executable files.
By default, you cannot open a .jar file in Windows 10 or Windows 11. If you try to open a JAR file, Windows will ask you which app you want to open the file with.
To open a JAR file you need to install software. This is the Java software from Oracle or OpenJDK. If you do not want to install Oracle software due to privacy issues and licensing, OpenJDK is an alternative.
Open JAR file in Windows 10 or Windows 11
To start, I recommend that you check if Java is already installed on your computer. You can check this by Find Java version.
Download Java
If you have not yet installed Java, download one of the two Java platforms to your computer:
Install Java
After you download Java, you need to install it on your computer.
Java will itself download and install the appropriate Java version and architecture on your computer. Java is then installed, this will not take long.
After installing Java, go back to the location where the “.JAR” file is located and double-click the file to open it.
I recommend only opening .jar files whose content and developer you trust. Jar files can contain unwanted content such as executable code and therefore malware.
I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading!