Zipping a file is a very useful tool to have at your disposal, it allows you to shrink and compress file and folders, making them smaller in size which makes it become easier to upload or move to a different storage device.
What is Zip File format?
Zip file format is a data compression and archive format designed to reduce the original size of the original data. A Zip file usually contains more than one file that has been compressed to reduce the size of the file. Let’s say you have a few documents of approximately 30MB (Megabytes) and you need to send it to a friend via email. The problem is, these files will take too long to upload. In this kind of situation, you can use the Zip format to reduce the size of the file. The original file size can be reduced to as low as 5-7MB.
Benefits of using a Zip file
- Zipping your files helps you encrypt private data you sent over the internet
- Smaller file size reduces file upload time and email transmission time.
- Zipping large files can help you save up to 80 percent of storage space on your computer
How to Zip files and folders
This process will only work on the Windows 10 operating system. And you can do this directly from your windows explorer.
- First, open up the file explorer and then navigate to the files or folders you intend to Zip. Select the file or hold down ‘Ctrl’ and select multiple files or folders
- Next, right-click and head down to ‘Send to’. Select ‘compressed file folder’.
- A Zipped folder will appear within the directory you’re currently in, it contains the files or folder you selected.
How to unzip a file or folder
Thankfully, unzipping a file or folder is just as simple as zipping one.
- Right-click on the file and select ‘Extract all’
- Windows will ask for a location you want the extracted content to be saved.
- Once you have selected a location on your computer, click on ‘Extract’ and windows will immediately pull your content out of the Zipped file.
