Not sure what are .PAK files, what they are used for and how to open them on your Windows or Mac? This guide explains all about PAK files.
This Article Covers:
What are .PAK Extension Files?
PAK or Package files are compressed archive files, very similar to the ZIP file extension. Multiple files or whole volumes of files can be compressed into one PAK file for easier distributing and use.
PAK files may contain compressed or uncompressed data.
What are PAK Files Used for
PAK Files are usually used by game developers and most probably you may have seen them in games folders. The PAK files used in games may contain graphics, sound, texture, objects or some other game data. However, different games may have different PAK file formats.
The files inside the PAK files are used by the games, though you can open the PAK files to see what it contains. PAK files are also used by other software like Google Chrome.
Related File Extensions:
How to Open PAK Files
The first thing you should try when opening PAK file is to rename the file from .pak to .zip and open it with an application which can open ZIP files. This is the simplest way to open PAK files and works with some of the PAK files.
You can try opening the PAK file with WinRAR by the following method.
- Right-click on the PAK file and select Open with. Select WinRAR from the list. If WinRAR is not present there, manually browse and select the application by clicking Look for another app on this PC.
- Once the file is opened with WinRAR, you can view and extract the content of the PAK file.
There are many other applications available for opening different formats of PAK files. It is very much possible that you may not be able to open the PAK file using the above method with WinRAR.
You have to try using different applications for opening different formats of PAK files. Some of the programs that can open PAK files are listed below.
- WinRAR
- WinZip
- QuaArk
- Dragon UnPACKer
- PAK Explorer
However, be careful when modifying PAK files, because the program that uses that PAK file may not work properly if the some changes have been made to the file.
Also, renaming the file from .pak to something else can also cause problems. Always create a backup when modifying these files.
We hope that we were able to provide you with the information you were looking for about PAK files.
