Extract text from Compressed virtual machines (VMCZ)
To convert VMCZ Virtual machines to another format, you need Microsoft Hyper-V or other Compressed software.
To convert other file formats to the "Virtual Machine Archive" file type, you need software like Microsoft Hyper-V or a similar tool.
A .VMCZ file is a Hyper-V Compressed Virtual Machine archive created by Microsoft. It packages the configuration files (VMCX), virtual hard disks (VHDX), and runtime state (.VMRS) of a virtual machine into a single compressed file. IT administrators use this format to export, back up, and transfer complete virtual machines between different Windows servers.
The main disadvantage of the .VMCZ format is its proprietary lock-in. These files are strictly bound to the Microsoft Hyper-V ecosystem. You cannot open them directly on macOS or Linux without specialized tools. Furthermore, because they contain entire operating systems and disk drives, .VMCZ files are massive - often ranging from 10GB to over 100GB. This makes them extremely difficult to share, upload, or process through standard web services.
Users typically want to convert the internal disks to VMDK for VMware, QCOW2 for KVM, or standard OVF / OVA appliances to escape the Hyper-V ecosystem.
Standard online converters fail to process .VMCZ files because the massive file sizes exceed browser limits and the internal data structure requires a dedicated hypervisor to parse. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format - like standard ZIP compression - viewing or extraction of the internal configuration text might still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your VMCZ file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert VMCZ file to ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR, GZ, BZ2, XZ, LZMA, CAB, ACE, ARJ or LHA, you can use Microsoft Hyper-V or similar software from the "Virtual Machine Export Archive" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert XXE, 7Z, Z, PAK, LHA, DEB, UUE, TAR, LZH, ZIP, PKG or RAR files to VMCZ, try Microsoft Hyper-V or another comparable tool in the "Virtual Machine Export Archive" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our VMCZ converter.