To speed up the transfer of information e-mail and reducing the load on the communication channel, data compression (archiving) is used. The compression operation is also used if there is not enough space on the external media to download all the data or if you want to "unload" HDD on your computer by backing up unused files and folders. In addition, to protect programs from viruses, they are archived, and in case of infection, they are extracted from the archive to the folder with the program (executing exe file).

The most popular among users is the zip archive. It has a fairly high compression ratio. But for many novice users, when receiving an archive, for example by e-mail, the question arises - how to open files with the zip extension. Consider programs with which you can easily and easily extract the contents of a zip file.

The easiest way to extract files and folders from a zip archive on a computer is to use Windows 7 Explorer, which already has this unpacker built into it. To do this, select the desired archive in Explorer, right-click on it and select "Extract all ..." from the drop-down menu.

The Extract ZIP Files Wizard will appear, prompting you to specify a location for decompressing and performing the unzip operation.

Unfortunately, only ZIP format can be opened through Windows 7 Explorer, other archivers are not supported.

How to unzip zip in Total Commander

In the file manager Total Commander, opening an archive with a zip extension will not be difficult. It already has support for unpacking the most popular formats. You can find out which ones it supports on the “Configuration” - “Settings” - “Archivers” tab.

Note that the pkunzip.exe program is built into it for unpacking, therefore, the manager uses the pkzip.exe utility for archiving. Here you can change the compression ratio.

To unpack from a zip archive, just open it by pressing the Enter key and copy the contents to any specified location or a pre-created folder. You can also unpack files and folders using the Alt + F9 keys, to do this, put the cursor on the zip archive, and in the second window of the manager, specify the location where you want to extract the contents.

To create an archive, select the files that you want to pack and press Alt + F5. In addition to zip archiving, other formats arj, rar, etc. are also available. To add files to an already created archive, open it and simply copy them there.

How to open a file with 7-zip

The 7-zip archiver is the best free program in its class with a high compression ratio. On Windows 7, you need to run it as an administrator. In addition to the specified format, it supports many archives, including 7z, rar, iso and many others.

After installation, 7-zip is added to the Windows context menu item, just like WinRAR. If you right-click on the archive in Windows Explorer, you will see the 7-zip item appear, where you can select the unpacking mode you need.

You can also open and extract data in the program window by specifying additional settings.

Opening a damaged archive in WinRAR

There are situations when an error occurs when unpacking a zip archive, and extracting data from it is very important. In this case, in the WinRAR window, in the "Miscellaneous" section, check the box next to the item "Leave damaged files on the disk."
When, during unpacking, the archiver issues a warning about the impossibility of unpacking the damaged file, click "Cancel". Part of the damaged file will also be saved in the specified folder.

The zip format can be compared to a safe. This is a "shell" in which you can not only put all files (programs, movies, music, documents, books, etc.), but also encrypt, put a password and compress to save space.

On the web, the zip format is called an archive. Although the most common RAR is zip, there are still many files that are downloaded from the Internet.

What program to open the zip extension

If your computer does not have installed program archiver, you will not be able to extract the downloaded files placed in the zip archive.

There are many archivers themselves, there are paid and free ones. The most popular is WinRAR. It is paid, but it is not necessary to pay - it will work as paid, it will only remind you of payment at each launch.

From free programs, small (no more than 2 MB) in Russian, opening not only zip formats, but also almost all others (7z, ZIP, CAB, ISO, Z, MSI, RPM, DEB, NSIS, LZH, BZIP2, RAR, ARJ, WIM, CHM, GZIP, TAR, CPIO, and RPM ) for me, 7-Zip is the best, although there are many others.

If you want to download it (you can quickly and without waiting, on the site "free software library", in the archivers section), then after installation, run it (it does not create a shortcut, but is located on the "C" drive, in the "Program Files" folder) .

Then click on the top "service" and click on "settings". You will see a window as shown in the picture below. Find zip in it, check the box, click "apply" at the bottom and click "OK".

After that, as soon as you download the file with the zip extension, and double-click on it, the 7-Zip program will open it on its own, you just need to click "extract" and indicate the place where to put it, otherwise you won't find it later .

I can't say that 7-Zip is the best zip file opener out there.

There are many such archivers. This is a matter of taste and habit. For example, I'm used to working with WinRAR and it's very convenient for me.

You can try all the “library of free programs” available on the site and choose the most convenient for yourself, since almost all the files that you will download from the Internet are in archives, therefore, you will often resort to this program. Good luck.

Chief Technology Writer

Someone emailed you a ZIP file and you don't know how to open it? Maybe you have found a ZIP file on your computer and wondered what it is? Windows may tell you that you cannot open it, or, in the worst case, you may encounter the corresponding error message associated with the ZIP file.

Before you can open a ZIP file, you need to figure out what kind of file the ZIP file extension is.

Advice: Incorrect ZIP file associations can be a sign of other underlying problems in your operating system Windows. These invalid entries can also cause other associated problems such as slow Windows startup, computer freezes and other PC performance problems. Therefore, we highly recommend that you scan your Windows registry for bad file associations and other registry fragmentation related issues.

Answer:

ZIP files have Compressed Files, which is predominantly associated with Compressed Archive File.

ZIP files are also associated with Back4Win Backup Archive (Alistair George Manufacturing) and FileViewPro.

Other types of files may also use the ZIP file extension. If you are aware of any other file formats that use the ZIP file extension, please contact us so we can update our information accordingly.

How to open your ZIP file:

The fastest and easy way to open your ZIP file is to double-click on it. In this case Windows system will select the appropriate program to open your ZIP file.

In the event that your ZIP file does not open, it is highly likely that you do not have the required software application installed on your PC to view or edit files with ZIP extensions.

If your PC opens the ZIP file but in the wrong program, you will need to change the file association settings in your Windows registry. In other words, Windows associates ZIP file extensions with the wrong program.

Software downloads related to ZIP file extension:

• FileViewPro*()
• Compressed Archive File

* Some ZIP file extension formats can only be opened in binary format.

ZIP Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME):

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