Windows has built-in file compression. Compressed files take up less space on your hard drive and can be moved to another computer or hard drive partition faster than uncompressed files. Compressed files are also more convenient for sending by email. In order to compress a file or folder using the built-in Windows tools, you need to perform just a few simple operations.
Instructions
Step 1
Find the file or folder you want to compress. Right-click the file or folder, select Send, and then click Compressed ZIP Folder.
Step 2
After running this command, a compressed folder will appear in the same directory as the source files or folders. If you need to add a new file or folder to an existing compressed folder, simply drag and drop it into that compressed folder.
Step 3
To extract a single file or folder from a compressed folder, you must double-click on it to open it. Then drag the required files or folders from the compressed folder to the new location. To extract the entire contents of a compressed folder, right-click the folder and then select Extract All.
Step 4
The compression ratio (that is, the ratio of the volume occupied by files on the hard disk before archiving to the volume occupied by the archive) depends on the type of files and the archiver used. Text files are best compressed, while compressing video or audio files, as well as images does not lead to a gain in space, since almost all common multimedia formats, including JPEG, MP3 or MPEG, already initially provide for compression of their content with a large ratio …
Step 5
For archives created using the built-in Windows archiver, the compression ratio, as a rule, does not exceed 1, 3 - 1, 4. Using third-party archivers - paid (WinRar or ALZip) or free (7-Zip, FreeArc) - allows you to create archives with higher compression ratio (up to 3 - 5). The higher the compression ratio, the more time it takes for the archiver to compress files and, subsequently, unpack them.
Step 6
Archivers allow you to create archives with special properties - for example, password-protected or divided into parts (volumes) that do not exceed a user-specified size. They can also be used to create self-extracting archives that have the.exe extension and can be unpacked even on a computer that does not have the appropriate archiver installed. It is impossible to create such archives using standard Windows tools.
