The Files app in Chrome OS have a “Google Drive” section. This section shows all the files and folders from your Google Drive. If you have a zip file there, the Files app can soon unzip it, without leaving the app.
This is of course still work in progress, and behind a flag. To get this working, you need to enable the following flag:
ZIP archiver for Drive Chrome OS
Enable the ability to archive and unpack files on Drive in the Files app #enable-zip-archiver-on-file-manager
The unzipping part of this is currently working on the Canary channel of Chrome OS. I enabled this flag, restarted my Chromebook, and unzipped a file right from the Drives section.
From the way it looks, the app downloads the zip files and unzips it locally. This will be available to you even if you close the app and open it again.
The archiving part of this feature might take some more time to show up / work. For now, however, this makes using Google Drive inside Chrome OS much more user friendly.
Are there any other similar features in your wishlist? Drop me a comment.
I must be missing something here, I’ve been able to unzip Zip files for a long time on my chromebook. What I wish I could do is specify a password when creating or expanding a Zip file.
Go to the Google Drive section of the files app and try unzipping a file, without any extensions.