If you're on an older Windows version or need advanced features (encryption, password protection, more formats), these are excellent:
Windows 11 (starting with version 23H2) integrated support for various archive formats, including TAR and GZ, directly into File Explorer. How can I untar or unzip tar.gz file on windows 11?
If you are a developer using Windows, you likely have the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) installed. This allows you to run native Linux tools directly on Windows. This is the fastest method if you are already in a terminal environment.
tar -xvzf archive.tar.gz -C "C:\target\folder"
As of late 2020, Microsoft added native support for tar to Windows 10 and Windows 11. You no longer need to download extra software to interact with these files, though the interface is minimal.