A few years ago, storing your information was quite expensive. Every megabyte of space had to be applied.
With this precept, file compressors were born. Basically, these are apps capable of reducing the size of any file so that you can store them more comfortably.
Compress files, you can store more stuff in the same rack. However, over time the value of storage has become cheaper, and now you can get many terabytes of space at a reasonable price.
What will you find here: What is the zip? The best programs for the zip. What are WinZip and WinRAR? Lots of other super useful information!
But stay Those who tend to work with large files have another problem. When you need to send these kinds of files, the wait to download them can make anyone impatient. And also who has to lower them on the other side.
For him compressing a file can be the solution to many problems. Storage, shipping and also ordering.
What is the zipper
Fundamentally the action of compressing is nothing other than compressing a file, or a group of files, so that its size decreases. This allows you to store it much more easily, and also allows you to send it by email, WhatsApp or other means much faster.
Once you have finished zip a file or a set of files, the result is a single file with the ZIP extension. This compressing action can be done using WinZip or other file compressing tools, as we will see later.
In this direction the world’s most widely used file compression and decompression software on WinZip. This fantastic program offers a large number of options which allow you to compress and decompress in the easiest possible way.
However, this is not the only option on the market, since you can find others, as good as WinZip, but for free. Alternatives to WinZip, you have a few.
One of the most popular is 7Zip, which also allows you to unzip and compress RAR files. Peazip is another very interesting one.
If you want to know more alternatives to WinZip, in this link you will find the best, and also free!
What is a Zip file
Today, despite the low cost of storage and the speed reached by the Internet, the truth is, file compression is still widely used. You compress videos to send them by WhatsApp, you compress photos so that they take up less space and much more tasks.
In addition, it was adopted at the file compression as something to do after the job is done. This way it is packed with all of its parts in one place.
Now, Do you really know what a ZIP file is?
Today, except for their distinctive icon, ZIP files behave the same as any folder on your PC.
That is, you can move or delete them, as well as add new files or delete those that you no longer need.
However, the file compression It is not something you only do at will. File compression is used in many other tasks. For example, by sending photos through messaging programs.
Practically everything we download from the internet is compressed. This fact also allows game files, for example, to be downloaded to your computer without problems of corrupted or missing files.
In a few words, A ZIP file can be thought of as a replica of a file or folder with files that have been reduced in size. But inside, it houses all of the original information ready to be unzipped to return to its original form. This folder is called “Zipped folder”.
Zip compression format
the ZIP compression format It was developed in the mid-1980s by a company called PKWARE. The format itself was created by Phil Katz. Over the years, the ZIP format has become popular due to its ease of use and power.
It should be noted that this is a so-called format of “Lossless compression”.
This format expanded and gave birth to a multitude of programs that flourished in the 90s and are classics today, such as WinZip, which we will talk about later.
Technically speaking, when you create a ZIP file, you add files to a container folder. Each file you add to the ZIP is compressed separately. In other words, every ZIP file you create contains unique files with their name and extension, not a unified dataset.
that ZIP compressed files taking up less space is possible thanks to the compression algorithm developed by Phil Katz. This allows excellent data compression.
This allows the files to be recovered from the ZIP without needing to process the file from scratch which results in better performance.
As well it helps a lot with the integrity of the data you store in a ZIP, because if one part is damaged, you can always recover the rest.
Finally, it should be noted that ZIP and RAR archives can be password protected. In this sense, you have probably heard that several users forgot the password and could never open the file again.
However, this happens most of the time out of desperation. At this point, there are many tools on the web to reset the password of a compressed file, such as Zip password recovery tool.
How to recognize a zipped file?
If you are new to the world of IT, chances are you still don’t know a lot about it. One of them may be to know differentiate a common file from a compressed ZIP file.
Fortunately, this is a simple task, as compressed files have their own identifying extension.
In this direction, the easiest way to identify a ZIP file compressed is to check its extension. In this case, if the file was compressed with WinZip a similar tool, the extension will be “.Zipper”
However, It is not the only compressed file extension on the market. In the following list, you can find the most popular compressed file extensions and the programs with which you can open them.
- RAR. RAR files can be opened by WinRar, WinZip, 7-zip, The Unarchiver or iZip, among others. We will talk about this later.
- 7Z. This type of compressed file can be opened by WinZIP, gZip or Stuffit Expander.
- GZ or GZIP. This compressed file can be opened by Coldcompress, Spread, Freezeit and many other file decompressors.
- ARJ. Another compressed file format that can be opened by most decompression programs.
- DMG. is The compressed file format is very common on Mac. In this operating system, no external tool is needed. But for other operating systems, the best option is PeaZIP.
What is WinZip
In this article, we have talked a lot about ZIP, but not about the most used tool to compress and decompress files in this format: WinZIP. This software is one of the most comprehensive you can find for working with compressed files.
If you want to know how to download, install and use it perfectly, we recommend this article: WinZip Free: How to download, install and use it step by step.
Unzip the ZIP
Unzip a compressed file, either in ZIP or RAR it is a fairly simple task. However, to do it like an expert you might need a few useful tips and tricks.
If you want to know them, the best thing to do is check out this article: GUIDE to unzip ZIP and RAR
Online compression tools
Internet technology has come a long way. Today, you can take advantage of services that you could only perform before by installing an application on your computer. One of these services is compressing and decompressing files online.
This can be very useful when you are working on a PC which does not have WinZIP, WinRAR or any other tool to compress or decompress.
In addition, these online services are able to offer you other advantages, such as conversion between compressed file formats.
Most of these services give you the option of convert between the following most popular compression formats, in addition to converting to ZIP and RAR:
- ZIP to TAR
- ZIP to ZIP
- ZIP to RAR
- RAR to ZIP
- TAR to ZIP
- ZIP to 7Z
If you want to know what online squeeze tools you have available, in this article you will find the best alternatives: Unzip RAR files online
RAR, the ZIP competition
Other widely used format in compressing and decompressing files It’s rare. This compressed file format was developed and released in 1993. The developer was Russian software engineer Eugene Roshal.
In general, RAR performs the same function as ZIP. Of course, they have their differences, but the way they work is the same. That is, you take a file or a group of files and compress them. As easy as that!
You could say that the RAR file in rival ZIP compression format.
Obviously each of them has its advantages and disadvantages compared to the other. Generally, ZIP compressed archives are more common, so you probably don’t have any compatibility issues.
Additionally, ZIP archives tend to be created much faster than RAR archives.
A point in favor of RAR archives is that if you really need to make space, RAR offers higher compression ratios. In addition, RAR offers the possibility of compressing a large file and then separating it into several parts, which makes it easier to distribute.
Fundamentally Compressing or decompressing a RAR file is as easy as its ZIP counterpart.
Now, if you want to do it in the best possible way, we invite you to read this article: How to unzip a RAR file.
There is a lot of ways to compress or unzip a RAR file, However, your best bet is by far to use the best performing application for this task: WinRAR.
This decompression software offers several options for work with archives compressed in RAR.
All of them will make your digital life easier, since you won’t have to worry about the quality or size of your compressed files. They will always be of the best quality.
If you want to learn how to download, install and use WinRAR, but also want to know the best tips and tricks, we recommend you to check this article: How to DOWNLOAD WinRAR for free and use it.