Software & Apps File Types How to Open, Edit,and Convert LZH Files by Tim Fisher General Manager, VP, Lifewire.com Tim Fisher has 30+ years' professional technology support experience. He writes troubleshooting content and is the General Manager of Lifewire. our editorial process Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Tim Fisher Updated on November 25, 2019 Tweet Share Email LZH Files. Lifewire File Types Design Cryptocurrency MS Office Windows Linux Google Drive Apps File Types Backup & Utilities View More A file with the LZH file extension is an LZH Compressed file that's been compressed with the Lempel-Ziv and Haruyasu algorithm, which are the names of the algorithm's inventors. This compression format is popular in Japan but not really anywhere else. Though it has been used to compress video game installation files, like those in id Software's Doom and Quake, as well as used as the archive format in the Amiga computer. LZH files are like other compression formats (e.g. ZIP, 7Z, RAR) in that their purpose is twofold - two both reduce the size of files and to hold multiple files together in one single archive. The LZH format has basically replaced the original LHARC Compressed Archive (.LHA) format (which was previously named LHarc and then LH) that it was originally based on. How to Open an LZH File Japanese versions of the Windows operating system include an add-on to natively support LZH files without having to use any extra software. But if you're running a non-Japanese version, you can still open the LZH file using third-party software. We know of several programs that can do this. Our favorites are 7-Zip and PeaZip, (which both support the LHA format too), but there are some others out there, too. If you'd prefer, you should also be able to open LZH files on non-Japanese Windows installs without these programs so long as you install the add-on called Microsoft Compressed (LZH) Folder Add-on. You can get this through Windows Update with the Japanese language pack (Microsoft explains how), but you must be using an Enterprise or Ultimate version of Windows 7 to do this. If you find that an application on your PC does try to open the LZH file but it's the wrong application, or if you would rather have another installed program open LZH files, you can change the default program for a specific file extension. How to Convert an LZH File It's rarely a necessary task to convert an archive file format like LZH to another type of archive because it's unlikely that you want to save the actual LZH file to another format. It's more likely that it's a file inside the archive that you want to be converted. For example, if you have some PDF files inside an LZH file, converting the whole LZH file to another archive format wouldn't accomplish much. What you'd want to do instead is extract the PDFs out of the LZH file and then convert the PDFs to a new format. Once you've extracted the file from the LZH archive, use a conversion program if you want to convert it to a new file format. However, we do know of a couple LZH converters that can save the LZH file to an archive format like ZIP, 7Z, CAB, TAR, YZ1, GZIP, BZIP2, TBZ, etc. Just remember that doing this does not convert the files inside (which is likely what you want to do), but instead just converts the whole archive file itself. FileZigZag and Zamzar are two online file converters that can do this. With these tools, you have to first upload your LZH file to one of those websites before you can convert it, after which you have to then download the file back to your computer before you can use it. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up. Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit