Everything You Need to Know About Zip Files. Zip files can be used for a lot different things. File compression, encryption, split archives, and more are all just a few clicks away once you understand the different things that zip archives are capable of. Heres how you can download Windows 8. Pro ISO files legally and directly from Microsoft without needing a product key, and create bootable USB the. Bootstrapping Jenkins Windows slave nodes with DSC A tasty recipe for serving up Windows Jenkins nodes using Chocolatey, Jenkins Swarm Client, and DSC What Are Zip Files Think of the way a folder works in Windows. You drop contents into a folder to organize your files, and then you can transport that folder to any. Photo by Clare Bell. What Are Zip FilesGMToolbox features almost every Game Maker DLL Extension ever released listed, catagorised and searchable live in realtime. Installing Chrome on Windows 8 isnt as simple as you might think. Lets run through a few of the choices you have and issues you might run into while trying to. Win10.jpg' alt='Everything You Need To Know About Windows Executable Download' title='Everything You Need To Know About Windows Executable Download' />Think of the way a folder works in Windows. You drop contents into a folder to organize your files, and then you can transport that folder to any location on your computer, and the files inside of it go with it. Zip files work in a similar way, except the contents inside the folder zip file are compressed to reduce storage use. What if you have a folder that contains 2. Everything You Need To Know About Windows Executable Download' title='Everything You Need To Know About Windows Executable Download' />Well, you cant email a folder to someone, so youd have to email the 2. Thats where zip files become really useful, because you can zip up those 2. Along with the convenience of having all those files in a single zip archive, theyll also be compressed to reduce storage and make transmitting them across the internet that much easier. This is where the definition of a zip file ends for most people. What you may not realize is that you can do much more than just compress and combine files with zip archives. How to Zip and Unzip Files. Before we get to the more complicated topics, lets go back to our example and show how we would zip those 2. Windows has the ability to zip and unzip files without any extra software, so dont download any programs just to create basic archives or to unzip them. Youve got problems, Ive got advice. This advice isnt sugarcoatedin fact, its sugarfree, and may even be a little bitter. Welcome to Tough Love. To create a zip file, right click in a blank area on your desktop or in explorer, go to new, and select Compressed zipped Folder. Youll notice the process is similar to creating a new folder, as you can now rename the zip folder and move it around to different locations on your computer. With the zip file created, just select and drag your files into the zip folder. As you can see in the screenshot, the files are copied into the zip folder, and not moved or deleted from their original location. Now, you can transfer, backup, or do whatever else you want with your zipped contents. Another way to quickly zip some files is to highlight them, right click and hit Send to Compressed zipped folder. The easiest way to unzip a file is to right click on it and press Extract All. A new window will open up and you can select where you want the files to be extracted. By default, it will extract the contents to the same directory in which your zip file resides. Just hit extract and a folder will be created that has all of the zipped files in it. The Advanced Features. Windows can easily zip and unzip files, but youll need a third party application to do anything more than that. There are a bunch of programs out there that offer additional functions for zip files, but one of the most lightweight, feature packed, and efficient is 7 Zip. Zip is a free file archiver for Windows that comes with all the options that you should ever need for zip files. Click that link to be taken to their website and download the latest version of the program. Installation is straightforward, just accept the license agreement and click next until 7 Zip is installed. After that, you should be able to highlight files, right click them, and add them to a zip archive with 7 Zip. When you click Add to archive youll be presented with a bunch of options. Lets go through what each of these mean, and why they could come in handy. Zip File Encryption. This would be useful when you dont want someone without the proper authentication to see the files in your zip archive. Remember to use a strong password, so brute force and dictionary attacks become useless. Zip. Crypto vs. AES 2. If you choose to create a zip file as opposed to 7z, youll get to choose between Zip. Crypto and AES 2. Zip. Crypto is weak but has fewer compatibility issues. AES 2. Zip installed. Try to choose AES 2. Encrypting file names Sometimes file names can be just as important as the contents inside of a file. Other times, maybe not. If you need to encrypt your file names, so its impossible for someone to see what kind of files are in your archive, you will need to use the 7z file extension instead of This can be a problem, because you need 7 Zip to open 7z files, and what if the receiving user doesnt have 7 Zip  That problem can be solved by creating a self extracting archive, giving you the best of both worlds. If, for some reason, you NEED to use a. NEED file encryption, youll just have to settle for non encrypted filenames. If you do use the 7z archive format, the Encrypt file names checkbox will appear Self Extracting Archives SFXA self extracting archive is nothing more than a usual zip file, but with an. Executing the file will automatically start the extraction process. Advantages There are two big advantages to self extracting archives. First, you can utilize the. Second, the receiving user doesnt need any special software to open the archive. Hitman Blood Money Pc Crack here. Double click the. Disadvantages People wont be too anxious to open up an executable email attachment. If youre using 7 Zip to archive some files and send them to a person you dont know very well, they might be weary of opening the file, and their anti virus may even issue a warning. Other than that little caveat, self extracting archives are great. Splitting Archives to Volumes. Say you have a 1. GB file, and want to put it on two CDs. A CD can hold 7. MB of data, so you would need two discs. But, how do you split up your file so it can fit on to those two discs  With 7 Zip, thats how. You can choose from the common values as listed above, or enter your own custom size that youd like the volumes split into. Note that you cannot create a self extracting archive if you choose to split your archive like this. Encryption, however, is still possible. Also note that Windows isnt able to open split archives, so youll need 7 Zip or another capable program to open them up. To open a split archive, all of the pieces must be in the same location. Then, just open up the first file, 7 Zip or whatever application youre using will seamlessly combine them, and then extract the files for you. Better Compression. Another reason you may choose to use 7 Zip instead of the built in utility is for the better compression rate. Going above normal can make the process take significantly longer, particularly for a big group of files and slower CPUs. You also wont save a considerable amount of space, so it will usually just be best to keep the compression level on normal. However, sometimes those few extra megabytes are a big deal, so keep this option in mind for times like those.