diff --git a/StabilityMatrix.Avalonia/Helpers/UnixPrerequisiteHelper.cs b/StabilityMatrix.Avalonia/Helpers/UnixPrerequisiteHelper.cs
index 5d1250493..1beacfd09 100644
--- a/StabilityMatrix.Avalonia/Helpers/UnixPrerequisiteHelper.cs
+++ b/StabilityMatrix.Avalonia/Helpers/UnixPrerequisiteHelper.cs
@@ -559,12 +559,16 @@ public async Task InstallNodeIfNecessary(IProgress<ProgressReport>? progress = n
             )
         );
 
-        // unzip
-        await ArchiveHelper.Extract7ZAuto(nodeDownloadPath, AssetsDir);
-
         var nodeDir = Compat.IsMacOS
             ? AssetsDir.JoinDir("node-v20.19.3-darwin-arm64")
             : AssetsDir.JoinDir("node-v20.19.3-linux-x64");
+
+        // Node's tarball contains relative symlinks from bin/ into lib/ (e.g. bin/npm -> ../lib/...).
+        // Bundled 7-Zip 26.01's default symlink checks reject these ../lib links, regardless of filesystem.
+        // -snld6 was the lowest level that accepted them in testing, so relax the check for this archive only.
+        // A filesystem that cannot create symlinks (e.g. exFAT) may still fail independently.
+        await ArchiveHelper.Extract7ZTar(nodeDownloadPath, AssetsDir, symlinkSecurityLevel: 6);
+
         Directory.Move(nodeDir, NodeDir);
 
         progress?.Report(
diff --git a/StabilityMatrix.Core/Helper/ArchiveHelper.cs b/StabilityMatrix.Core/Helper/ArchiveHelper.cs
index bd05b7033..b5dd87234 100644
--- a/StabilityMatrix.Core/Helper/ArchiveHelper.cs
+++ b/StabilityMatrix.Core/Helper/ArchiveHelper.cs
@@ -86,9 +86,20 @@ public static async Task AddToArchive7Z(string archivePath, string sourceDirecto
         result.EnsureSuccessExitCode();
     }
 
-    public static async Task<ArchiveInfo> Extract7Z(string archivePath, string extractDirectory)
+    public static async Task<ArchiveInfo> Extract7Z(
+        string archivePath,
+        string extractDirectory,
+        int? symlinkSecurityLevel = null
+    )
     {
-        var args = $"x {ProcessRunner.Quote(archivePath)} -o{ProcessRunner.Quote(extractDirectory)} -y";
+        if (symlinkSecurityLevel is < 0 or > 20)
+        {
+            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(symlinkSecurityLevel), "Must be between 0 and 20.");
+        }
+
+        var symlinkSecuritySwitch = symlinkSecurityLevel is { } level ? $" -snld{level}" : string.Empty;
+        var args =
+            $"x {ProcessRunner.Quote(archivePath)} -o{ProcessRunner.Quote(extractDirectory)} -y{symlinkSecuritySwitch}";
 
         var result = await ProcessRunner
             .GetProcessResultAsync(SevenZipPath, args)
@@ -176,7 +187,11 @@ public static async Task<ArchiveInfo> Extract7Z(
     /// <param name="archivePath"></param>
     /// <param name="extractDirectory"></param>
     /// <returns></returns>
-    public static async Task<ArchiveInfo> Extract7ZTar(string archivePath, string extractDirectory)
+    public static async Task<ArchiveInfo> Extract7ZTar(
+        string archivePath,
+        string extractDirectory,
+        int? symlinkSecurityLevel = null
+    )
     {
         if (!archivePath.EndsWith(".tar.gz"))
         {
@@ -194,7 +209,7 @@ public static async Task<ArchiveInfo> Extract7ZTar(string archivePath, string ex
 
         try
         {
-            return await Extract7Z(tarPath, extractDirectory).ConfigureAwait(false);
+            return await Extract7Z(tarPath, extractDirectory, symlinkSecurityLevel).ConfigureAwait(false);
         }
         finally
         {
@@ -251,7 +266,7 @@ public static async Task Extract(
         var progressMonitor = progress switch
         {
             null => null,
-            _ => new Timer(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(36))
+            _ => new Timer(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(36)),
         };
 
         if (progressMonitor != null)
@@ -264,28 +279,29 @@ public static async Task Extract(
             };
         }
 
-        await Task.Factory.StartNew(
-            () =>
-            {
-                var extractOptions = new ExtractionOptions { Overwrite = true, ExtractFullPath = true, };
-                using var stream = File.OpenRead(archivePath);
-                using var archive = ReaderFactory.Open(stream);
+        await Task
+            .Factory.StartNew(
+                () =>
+                {
+                    var extractOptions = new ExtractionOptions { Overwrite = true, ExtractFullPath = true };
+                    using var stream = File.OpenRead(archivePath);
+                    using var archive = ReaderFactory.Open(stream);
 
-                // Start the progress reporting timer
-                progressMonitor?.Start();
+                    // Start the progress reporting timer
+                    progressMonitor?.Start();
 
-                while (archive.MoveToNextEntry())
-                {
-                    var entry = archive.Entry;
-                    if (!entry.IsDirectory)
+                    while (archive.MoveToNextEntry())
                     {
-                        count += (ulong)entry.CompressedSize;
+                        var entry = archive.Entry;
+                        if (!entry.IsDirectory)
+                        {
+                            count += (ulong)entry.CompressedSize;
+                        }
+                        archive.WriteEntryToDirectory(outputDirectory, extractOptions);
                     }
-                    archive.WriteEntryToDirectory(outputDirectory, extractOptions);
-                }
-            },
-            TaskCreationOptions.LongRunning
-        )
+                },
+                TaskCreationOptions.LongRunning
+            )
             .ConfigureAwait(false);
 
         progress?.Report(new ProgressReport(progress: 1, message: "Done extracting"));