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 in email, and you can sometimes send file formats such as .html and .exe’s in a zip file that would otherwise be denied by computer firewalls. A common task for users of all operating systems is how to unzip files in order to use the data or files stored in the zip file.

How to Unzip Files in Windows XP and Vista

The ability to unzip a file is built into Windows XP and Vista. The steps to unzip a file are:

Step 1 – Right click the file that is zipped.

Step 2 – Select the “Extract To” menu option on the subsequent dialogue menu.

Step 3– Choose the destination folder to extract the file to and the Operating System will conduct the file extraction operation.

How to Unzip Files in Windows 7

There are two ways to extract files in Windows 7.  The first is using the “Unzip Wizard” and the second is manually.

Unzip Files with the Unzip Wizard

Step 1 – Right click the zipped file and choose the “Extract All” menu option which will start the “Unzip Wizard.”

Step 2 – Choose the location to extract the files by selecting the “Browse” menu option.

Step 3 – Select the “Extract” menu option to complete unzipping the files.

Manually Unzip Files

Step 1 – Double-click the zipped file.

Step 2 – Browse the contents of the file archive.

Step 3– Drag the desired files from the archive to another location on your computer and they will be automatically unzipped.

How to Unzip Files in OS X

Starting with Mac OS X 10.3, the ability to unzip files is built into the operating system.

Step 1 – Select the “Finder” and locate the zip file on the computer to unzip.

Step 2 – Double click the zipped file.

Step 3 – The OS X operating system will extract the files in the archive to the same folder that the zip file is stored.

How to Unzip Files in Linux

All major versions of Linux support the zip and unzip file utilities. Many versions of Linux will come without these utilities installed. To install the unzip utilities and extract a file from the shell prompt do the following steps:

Step 1 – Open the shell prompt by selecting the “Application,” “System Tools,” and “Terminal” menu options.

Step 2 – Enter the following commands to install the zip and unzip applications: # apt-get install zip # apt-get install unzip Alternatively, the “yum” command can be used on Red Hat Linux installations.

Step 3 – Enter the following command to unzip a file to the current directory from the shell prompt once the unzip utility is installed: $ unzip myexample.zip

Using Third Party Software

It is also possible to use third party file archiving software to unzip files. It used to be only WinZIP was able to use ZIP files, but today almost any file archiving and compression software can open them. Some examples include WinRAR and 7-ZIP for Windows, and The Unarchiver or iZip for Mac.

How To Create ZIP Files

In addition to extracting ZIP files, most file archiving software also create them. For example, in WinRAR, a free alternative software to WinZIP, a ZIP file can be created by right clicking on a file or folder and selecting “Add to archive…”  This opens a window that contains more advanced options for creating a file archive. Here, the user can simply specify the file name, file path, and select “ZIP” from the option marked “Archive Format.”

Alternately, the user can simply right click a file and choose “Add to example.rar” (example is whatever the file’s name is) in order to create a RAR file, which is essentially the same as a ZIP file.