diff --git a/internal/templates/userdata/gitea_linux_userdata.tmpl b/internal/templates/userdata/gitea_linux_userdata.tmpl
index 2b4dee03..4469e90f 100644
--- a/internal/templates/userdata/gitea_linux_userdata.tmpl
+++ b/internal/templates/userdata/gitea_linux_userdata.tmpl
@@ -57,10 +57,8 @@ function fail() {
 
 function downloadAndExtractRunner() {
 	sendStatus "downloading tools from {{ .DownloadURL }}"
-	curl --retry 5 --retry-delay 5 --retry-connrefused --fail -L -o "/home/{{ .RunnerUsername }}/{{ .FileName }}" "{{ .DownloadURL }}" || fail "failed to download tools"
-	mkdir -p "$RUN_HOME" || fail "failed to create actions-runner folder"
-	sendStatus "extracting runner"
-	xz -d -c "/home/{{ .RunnerUsername }}/{{ .FileName }}" > "$RUN_HOME/act_runner" || fail "failed to extract runner"
+    mkdir -p "$RUN_HOME" || fail "failed to create actions-runner folder"
+	curl --retry 5 --retry-delay 5 --retry-connrefused --fail -L -o "$RUN_HOME/act_runner" "{{ .DownloadURL }}" || fail "failed to download tools"
 	chown {{ .RunnerUsername }}:{{ .RunnerGroup }} -R "$RUN_HOME"/ || fail "failed to change owner"
 	chmod +x "$RUN_HOME/act_runner" || fail "failed to set executable flag"
 }
diff --git a/workers/cache/gitea_tools.go b/workers/cache/gitea_tools.go
index 2eda4a2b..a6bc987b 100644
--- a/workers/cache/gitea_tools.go
+++ b/workers/cache/gitea_tools.go
@@ -47,15 +47,15 @@ var nightlyActRunner = GiteaEntityTool{
 	Assets: []GiteaToolsAssets{
 		{
 			Name:        "act_runner-nightly-linux-amd64.xz",
-			DownloadURL: "https://dl.gitea.com/act_runner/nightly/act_runner-nightly-linux-amd64.xz",
+			DownloadURL: "https://dl.gitea.com/act_runner/nightly/act_runner-nightly-linux-amd64",
 		},
 		{
 			Name:        "act_runner-nightly-linux-arm64.xz",
-			DownloadURL: "https://dl.gitea.com/act_runner/nightly/act_runner-nightly-linux-arm64.xz",
+			DownloadURL: "https://dl.gitea.com/act_runner/nightly/act_runner-nightly-linux-arm64",
 		},
 		{
 			Name:        "act_runner-nightly-windows-amd64.exe.xz",
-			DownloadURL: "https://dl.gitea.com/act_runner/nightly/act_runner-nightly-windows-amd64.exe.xz",
+			DownloadURL: "https://dl.gitea.com/act_runner/nightly/act_runner-nightly-windows-amd64.exe",
 		},
 	},
 }
@@ -207,8 +207,9 @@ func getTools(ctx context.Context, metadataURL string, useInternal bool) ([]comm
 			slog.InfoContext(ctx, "ignoring unrecognized tools os", "tool", asset.Name)
 			continue
 		}
-		if !strings.HasSuffix(asset.DownloadURL, ".xz") {
-			// filter out non compressed versions.
+		if strings.HasSuffix(asset.DownloadURL, ".xz") || strings.HasSuffix(asset.DownloadURL, ".sha256") {
+			// filter out compressed files and sha256 sums. Windows does not have any way to uncompress
+			// .xz by default.
 			continue
 		}
 		slog.DebugContext(ctx, "found valid tools", "download_url", asset.DownloadURL, "os", os, "arch", arch, "file_name", asset.Name)