When working with Windows Server 2012 Core edition, you'll quickly discover that the traditional approach using Shell.Application COM object fails because:

• Server Core lacks the graphical shell components
• COM automation via Shell.Application returns E_FAIL errors
• Core edition is designed specifically without GUI components

Starting with PowerShell 5.0 (included in WMF 5.1), Microsoft introduced the Expand-Archive cmdlet:

# PowerShell 5+ method (requires WMF 5.1 on Server 2012)
Expand-Archive -Path "C:\package.zip" -DestinationPath "C:\extracted" -Force

For environments where WMF 5.1 isn't installed, we can use .NET's System.IO.Compression namespace:

# .NET 4.5+ method (works on Server 2012 Core)
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
function Unzip-File {
    param(
        [string]$ZipFile,
        [string]$Destination
    )
    
    [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory($ZipFile, $Destination)
}

# Usage:
Unzip-File -ZipFile "C:\package.zip" -Destination "C:\extracted"

For large archives, consider this enhanced version with progress tracking:

function Expand-ZipArchive {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
        [string]$ZipPath,
        
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
        [string]$DestinationPath,
        
        [switch]$Force
    )
    
    Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
    
    try {
        $zip = [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::OpenRead($ZipPath)
        $total = $zip.Entries.Count
        $current = 0
        
        foreach ($entry in $zip.Entries) {
            $current++
            $percent = ($current / $total) * 100
            Write-Progress -Activity "Extracting files" -Status $entry.FullName -PercentComplete $percent
            
            $targetPath = [System.IO.Path]::Combine($DestinationPath, $entry.FullName)
            $dir = [System.IO.Path]::GetDirectoryName($targetPath)
            
            if (-not (Test-Path $dir)) {
                New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $dir -Force | Out-Null
            }
            
            if (-not $entry.FullName.EndsWith("/")) {
                [System.IO.Compression.ZipFileExtensions]::ExtractToFile($entry, $targetPath, $Force)
            }
        }
    }
    finally {
        if ($zip -ne $null) {
            $zip.Dispose()
        }
    }
}

When automating deployment:

• Always validate paths exist before extraction
• Implement proper error handling
• Consider file locking issues during extraction
• Handle long path names (enable long path support in registry if needed)

# Example with full error handling
try {
    if (-not (Test-Path $ZipPath)) {
        throw "Zip file not found at $ZipPath"
    }
    
    if (-not (Test-Path $DestinationPath)) {
        New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $DestinationPath -Force | Out-Null
    }
    
    Expand-ZipArchive -ZipPath $ZipPath -DestinationPath $DestinationPath -Force
}
catch {
    Write-Error "Extraction failed: $_"
    # Additional error handling/logging
}

If you need to download and extract in one operation:

$url = "http://example.com/package.zip"
$tempZip = "$env:TEMP\download.zip"
$destination = "C:\extracted"

# Download the file
(New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($url, $tempZip)

# Extract using .NET
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory($tempZip, $destination)

# Clean up
Remove-Item $tempZip -Force

When working with Windows Server 2012 Core edition, you'll quickly discover that traditional COM-based approaches for file extraction fail because:

• Server Core lacks the graphical shell components (shell.application COM object)
• Standard .NET methods prior to PowerShell 5.0 are limited for ZIP operations
• Third-party tools require additional deployment overhead

Here are three effective approaches that work in Server Core environments:

Method 1: Using .NET Framework 4.5+ (Best for Server 2012 R2)

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
function Unzip-File {
    param(
        [string]$ZipFile,
        [string]$Destination
    )
    
    [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory($ZipFile, $Destination)
}

# Usage:
Unzip-File -ZipFile "C:\package.zip" -Destination "C:\extracted"

Method 2: For Base Server 2012 (Without .NET 4.5)

function Expand-ZipFile {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
        [string]$File,
        
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
        [string]$Destination
    )
    
    $shell = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application
    try {
        $zip = $shell.Namespace($File)
        foreach($item in $zip.items()) {
            $shell.Namespace($Destination).CopyHere($item)
        }
    } catch {
        Write-Warning "Shell method failed - trying .NET fallback"
        [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.IO.Compression.FileSystem")
        [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory($File, $Destination)
    }
}

Using Windows Built-in Tools

# Requires DISM (Available in Server Core)
dism /online /apply-image /imagefile:archive.wim /index:1 /applydir:C:\target

Deploying 7-Zip via PowerShell

$url = "https://www.7-zip.org/a/7z2107-x64.msi"
$output = "$env:TEMP\7zinstaller.msi"

# Download
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -OutFile $output

# Silent install
Start-Process msiexec.exe -Wait -ArgumentList "/i $output /qn"

# Usage
& "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" x archive.zip -oC:\output -y

• Always verify file existence before extraction
• Implement proper error trapping for network interruptions
• Consider using SHA checksums for downloaded archives
• For production environments, pre-stage dependencies