Zipping a folder is just like zipping a file and can easily be done within minutes in order to compress a folder's contents and keep the files organized. Generally, any program that can zip a file can also zip a folder. While some users may not be familiar with the most popular zipping software, this article will list a number of free zipping programs that will allow the user to zip his/her folders. WinZip WinZip is the most popular zipping program and can quickly zip files and folders of all Read More

A PDF (Portable Document Format) file is a word processing document in which text, images, and notes can be organized and displayed in the form of an electronic book. PDF files allow users to highlight text, organize content in the form of page numbers and chapters, and insert notes, fonts, and images. They differ from other word processing document types due to their lack of dependency on any particular application, software, or operating system. Adobe Systems created the PDF format in 1993 and it has been in popular use ever Read More

A RAR file is a special computer file format that can store single or multiple documents and folders in a compressed form. The file can later be decompressed to extract the original documents and folders. The term RAR is an abbreviation of Roshal ARchive, derived from the name of its creator Eugene Roshal. The RAR compression software is available for a wide range of platforms like Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, DOS, OS/2, FreeBSD and others. The Windows version is called WinRar. File compression programs gained popularity during the early Read More

PKZip utilizes a proprietary stream cipher that is vulnerable to a known plaintext attack, as Eli Biham and Paul C. Kocher describes in A Known Plaintext Attack on the PKZIP Stream Cipher. In ZIP Attacks with Reduced Known-Plaintext, Michael Stay describes an improved known plaintext attack that works against files that non-PKZip zip programs such as InfoZip, WinZip, and NetZip create. The Stay attack requires the Zip archive to contain a minimum of five files. In addition to these two attacks, it is also possible to recover a Zip password Read More

With the advent of the Internet, there have been many different archive programs created over the past few years, the majority of which are accessible for free. While most of these programs are nearly identical, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Likewise, not all of these programs are compatible with the same operating systems and other programming environments. This article will focus specifically on archive programs that are compatible with the various Mac operating systems. ZipIt ZipIt runs on Mac OS X and is made specifically for moving files Read More

Tar refers to a tape archiving file format and the program that creates them. Tar stands for tape archive. It combines multiple files together so that they can be used for programs, applications, and critical system files. While Tar does not directly install files to a user’s hard drive, it is responsible for compiling the files together so that they can be transferred from one computer to another while preserving important information such as directory structures, user permissions, and dates. Tar can be used on its own to archive and/or Read More

ZIP is a standard file format used for compression and archival of data files. When a file is “zipped” it will normally save a significant amount of file storage space if the files that are zipped are based on text data. Pictures and other multimedia files will not normally compress significantly when zipped if they are a format that already incorporates compression technology such as JPEG ,GIF, and BMPs (bitmaps). Advantages of zipping files include saving storage space on the local hard drive, creating the ability to send smaller attachments Read More

A zip file works by acting as a container to transport the file. The same way that random things aren't tossed around a cargo ship–instead, they stack cargo containers to save space–sending files without first zipping them results in less available space. A zip file comes in handy when you are trying to send a lot of files through e-mail. You can't send too many, but when they are zipped, you can send more. How Do Zip Files Work Zip files works by doing three things. The first thing that Read More

An .r01 file is a RAR archive split into several parts. The RAR archive is actually a compression utility and can handle virtually any file. For example, in a four-part archive called “sample”, the separate parts would be “sample.rar”, “sample.r00”, “sample.r01”, and “sample.r02”. Sample.rar would be the first part in a multi-part series, each followed by .rnn, depending on the size of the file. Splitting files into several small parts is most commonly done for posting to Usenet newsgroups. A RAR sequence always starts with .rar, .r00, .r01, .r02, etc. Read More

The hard drive found in most modern computers is large enough to hold a vast stockpile of files of various types. When transferring these files through uploads, email attachments, or by other means, however, the user may encounter file size limits. To counter this drawback, the user can take advantage of a number of file compression and file archiving programs that are able to compress files into a much smaller amount of virtual memory while maintaining the file structure and contents. The following is a list of file compression software. Read More