diff --git a/dist/setup/index.js b/dist/setup/index.js
index 4a555e0..ab1d6b3 100644
--- a/dist/setup/index.js
+++ b/dist/setup/index.js
@@ -129211,12 +129211,20 @@ async function downloadVersion(downloadUrl, artifactName, platform, arch, versio
     const downloadPath = await tc.downloadTool(downloadUrl, undefined, githubToken);
     await (0, checksum_1.validateChecksum)(checkSum, downloadPath, arch, platform, version);
     let uvDir;
-    const extension = getExtension(platform);
     if (platform === "pc-windows-msvc") {
-        const fullPathWithExtension = `${downloadPath}${extension}`;
-        await node_fs_1.promises.copyFile(downloadPath, fullPathWithExtension);
-        uvDir = await tc.extractZip(fullPathWithExtension);
         // On windows extracting the zip does not create an intermediate directory
+        try {
+            // Try tar first as it's much faster, but only bsdtar supports zip files,
+            // so this my fail if another tar, like gnu tar, ends up being used.
+            uvDir = await tc.extractTar(downloadPath, undefined, "x");
+        }
+        catch (err) {
+            core.info(`Extracting with tar failed, falling back to zip extraction: ${err.message}`);
+            const extension = getExtension(platform);
+            const fullPathWithExtension = `${downloadPath}${extension}`;
+            await node_fs_1.promises.copyFile(downloadPath, fullPathWithExtension);
+            uvDir = await tc.extractZip(fullPathWithExtension);
+        }
     }
     else {
         const extractedDir = await tc.extractTar(downloadPath);
diff --git a/src/download/download-version.ts b/src/download/download-version.ts
index 3e7096c..5c71e6c 100644
--- a/src/download/download-version.ts
+++ b/src/download/download-version.ts
@@ -108,12 +108,21 @@ async function downloadVersion(
   await validateChecksum(checkSum, downloadPath, arch, platform, version);
 
   let uvDir: string;
-  const extension = getExtension(platform);
   if (platform === "pc-windows-msvc") {
-    const fullPathWithExtension = `${downloadPath}${extension}`;
-    await fs.copyFile(downloadPath, fullPathWithExtension);
-    uvDir = await tc.extractZip(fullPathWithExtension);
     // On windows extracting the zip does not create an intermediate directory
+    try {
+      // Try tar first as it's much faster, but only bsdtar supports zip files,
+      // so this my fail if another tar, like gnu tar, ends up being used.
+      uvDir = await tc.extractTar(downloadPath, undefined, "x");
+    } catch (err) {
+      core.info(
+        `Extracting with tar failed, falling back to zip extraction: ${(err as Error).message}`,
+      );
+      const extension = getExtension(platform);
+      const fullPathWithExtension = `${downloadPath}${extension}`;
+      await fs.copyFile(downloadPath, fullPathWithExtension);
+      uvDir = await tc.extractZip(fullPathWithExtension);
+    }
   } else {
     const extractedDir = await tc.extractTar(downloadPath);
     uvDir = path.join(extractedDir, artifactName);