Need to open a HQX file?

What is a HQX file?

Native to Mac OS, HQX is a file format most used for transferring binary images, documents and other multimedia files as text in email attachments. This file format contains 7-bit text format encoded from an 8-bit binary format. Also known as BinHex 4.0 (Binary to Hexadecimal), HQX format maintains file integrity during transfer via email and internet download. It does that by combining the data fork and the resource fork from the MAC HFS structure into a single archive. For Windows users, Winzip is a great tool to access HQX file.

How to open HQX files

1. Save the .hqx file to the desktop. If your compressed file was downloaded from a website, it may be saved in the Downloads folder in your Documents or user directory.
2. Launch WinZip from your start menu or Desktop shortcut. Open the compressed file by clicking File > Open. If your system has the compressed file extension associated with WinZip program, just double-click on the file.
3. Select all the files and folders inside the compressed file. Or multi-select only the files or folders you want to open by holding the CTRL key and left-clicking on them.
4. Click 1-click Unzip and choose Unzip to PC or Cloud in the WinZip toolbar under the Unzip/Share tab.
5. Choose the destination folder to place the extracting files and click "Unzip" button.
6. Find your extracted files in the destination folder.

Open HQX files on Windows or Mac

WinZip opens and extracts HQX Compressed Archive Files—and many more formats

We designed WinZip to open and extract from the widest range of file formats, including all of the following: