diff --git a/.github/workflows/windows-artifacts.yml b/.github/workflows/windows-artifacts.yml
index bb8c127b9..335389593 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/windows-artifacts.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/windows-artifacts.yml
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ jobs:
     - uses: msys2/setup-msys2@61f9e5e925871ba6c9e3e8da24ede83ea27fa91f # tag=v2.27.0
       with:
         msystem: ${{ matrix.msystem }}
-        install: make zlib git p7zip mingw-w64-${{matrix.env}}-gcc
+        install: make zlib git mingw-w64-${{matrix.env}}-gcc
         update: true
 
     - name: display versions
@@ -48,11 +48,10 @@ jobs:
       run: |
         ./lib/dll/example/build_package.bat || exit 1
         mv bin/ zstd-${{ github.ref_name }}-${{matrix.ziparch}}/
-        7z a -tzip -mx9 zstd-${{ github.ref_name }}-${{matrix.ziparch}}.zip zstd-${{ github.ref_name }}-${{matrix.ziparch}}/
-        cd ..
 
     - name: Publish zstd-$VERSION-${{matrix.ziparch}}.zip
       uses: actions/upload-artifact@5d5d22a31266ced268874388b861e4b58bb5c2f3 # tag=v4.3.1
       with:
-        path: ${{ github.workspace }}/zstd-${{ github.ref_name }}-${{matrix.ziparch}}.zip
-        name: zstd-${{ github.ref_name }}-${{matrix.ziparch}}.zip
+        compression-level: 9  # maximum compression
+        path: ${{ github.workspace }}/zstd-${{ github.ref_name }}-${{matrix.ziparch}}/
+        name: zstd-${{ github.ref_name }}-${{matrix.ziparch}}