Taking Advantage of Windows’ Built-in Zip Support
Written by neilencio
From time to time, we still come across users who are having problems zipping their files, in the sense that they find the zipping utility they downloaded too difficult to understand (or they don’t actually have a zipping utility and are asking us where they can download one.)
The thing is that there is no need to download and learn how to use a new file compression utility if you’re using Windows XP or newer (Vista and 7) as your operating system (according to the stats provided by the forum, 93% of our forum users use a Windows-based OS and yes, your browser reports the OS you are using to every site that asks for the data.)
Windows already has built-in support for zipfiles, and unlike the newer versions of Winzip Pro, which introduces a proprietary compression algorithm (that results in zipfiles that are smaller in filesize but cannot be opened by other archiving programs), the zipfiles made by Windows conform to the standards and are supported by any file archiving utility.
Zipping files in Windows is a simple two-step process:
- Highlight the file(s) or folder(s) you want to zip
- Right click and select Send To > Compressed (zipped) folder
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- Macs also have built-in zip support, and it seems that all of the mac users in EPH already know how to zip their files.
- If you’re using a unix-based OS, you don’t need any tech support. And you would probably be insulted if I gave you one: sudo cut me some slack.
my old PC (with windows xp) didn’t have a built-in “send to zip folder” feature and i don’t know why. (it doesn’t appear when i right-click on the file) i even got a warn increase for an unzipped file i sent… so, i got the winrar zip instead…
XP users who don’t have access to windows’ zip features probably had it deselected during the OS setup (it can be enabled again thru Add/Remove) OR they have already installed another zipping program (some zip programs ingratiate themselves into your PC by removing windows “Send to> Compressed (zipped) folders”.)
^makikidagdag po ako
Another cause of losing the “Send to> Compressed (zipped) folders” option is if it was deleted from the SENDTO folder ( type “sendto” in the Run command box to open the sendto folder, any shortcut that is placed there will show up in Send To’s destination.