What is a ZIP File?

What does ZIP and UNZIP mean?

A zip file is a single compressed file that contains a complete set of program files. Compressed files are valuable in the electronic world because they cut your downloading time drastically, and make it possible to download just one file instead of a number of different files (which can often number in the dozens or even hundreds).

To decompress (meaning UNZIP) a compressed file (meaning a ZIP or zipped file), you'll need a special program like those listed below. They themselves are compressed, but with a kind of compression called 'self-extracting' which means that after you download and double-click on them from Windows Explorer, they will automatically extract the compressed file to a download folder. If this all sounds like Klingon to you, please read our How to Download a File FAQ.

How to UNZIP

After downloading a ZIP file, open Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) and double-click on the file name. This will (normally) open the ZIP file in your preferred ZIP tool, giving you a list of files in the ZIP archive.

ZIP tools will have a command to copy files out of the compressed archive, normally called 'Extract'. Select this command, and you will be prompted for a folder where the extracted files will be placed; the best place to put extracted files is in a special temporary folder (for example 'C:\WORK').

Now, still using Windows Explorer, look in the folder where you extracted the files and look for a file with a name like 'readme.txt' or 'install.txt' which will contain instructions which you can read by opening the file in NotePad. Or if you want, you can go directly to the file with a name like 'setup.exe' or 'install.exe' which, if you double-click on it, will bring up the applications installation program.

After installing the program and seeing that it works properly, you can go back to the temporary directory where you decompressed the files and erase them in order to save disk space.

If you see some sort of error message when opening the ZIP file or extracting files, it's possible that the file was not completely downloaded - this can happen occasionally with large files. To fix this, the best thing is to download the file again.

Some Zip Tools

Here are links to just a few of the many freeware and shareware ZIP tools:

PKZIP - The original!
WinZip - Very highly regarded
Info-Zip WiZ

Please note that programs listed here are not specifically endorsed by King Stairs Software.

It is worth mentioning that Windows Me and Windows XP provide built-in support for ZIP files, which (in typical Microsoft fashion) they call 'Compressed Folders': You can double-click on a ZIP file to open it, or use the right-click context menu for other operations. Compressed Folders is an optional feature, so it may or may not be already installed.