How to Open a Zip File: General Information

To open a file with a .zip format, you need to have a decompression program installed on your computer. To see if you have one, double click on a zipped file (the document ending format letters will show .zip). If you have decompression software already on your computer, a dialog box will come up, and you should get questions on how to proceed, usually involving the word Next, Open, Save to your computer, Unzip, or by double clicking to open the file or an icon for the file.

If a zipped file does not open, you do not have a program for it installed on your computer, you can download one from the internet. You can use an internet search engine to find one, such as www.google.com. type in .zip, unzip, shareware zip or open .zip to find a program to download that will "unzip" a .zip file. You could also go to a site such as www.zdnet.com and click on their Downloads section to see what they have available to download for free or on a trial basis. You will have to put keywords in on their site also, usually in a box named Search.

Decompression applications have names such as: 1 Click Unzip. WinZip, PKZip and ZipItFast.

Click on one of these on the zdnet download page; read about it, then click the download button. Make sure it is for your OS (operating system, ie. Windows 98). You will have to decide where on your computer to put it. Generally, it is a good idea to make a "Downloads" directory if you don't have one, so you can put your downloaded files all in the same place to find them more easily. After the chosen unzip utility is finished downloading, you will need to then find the folder that you saved it to on your computer and install it, usually by double clicking on the file with the .exe extension. (The file name will usually be install.exe or setup.exe) This will begin installing the "unzipping" software onto your computer. (If by chance you don't see the file with the .exe extension, look for a ReadMe file for installation instructions. If you are prompted to choose an application to use for viewing the ReadMe file, select NotePad (Windows) or SimpleText (Mac).It wouldn't hurt to read this anyway!) The software should take over at this point, asking you questions and putting the program files where they belong.

How to Unzip a file - Although each shareware application's dialog boxes may look somewhat different, they will all do the same thing, decompress a compressed (.zip) file. Generally, you will be asked whether you want to open it right away, or save the file to a place on your computer. Whichever you decide, any .zip files you download can be double-clicked to activate the unzip utility. A window will appear, displaying the contents of the .zip file with menus at the top. Select the file you wish to decompress.Search the menus for the Extract All or unzip option. When you choose it, you will be presented with a dialog box asking you to select another folder into which the new files will be decompressed. You can choose the same folder you created for the download in the first place or put it some other place more convenient on your computer. You may see a file with the same name as the .zip file, but it will have a different format extension, such as .htm or .doc. That is the "unzipped" file. You can usually open it by double clicking on it.

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Help with ZIP Files