How to Compress Files to a ZIP Archive in Windows

Learn how to zip a file

«Zipping» in Windows is when you combine multiple files into a single file-like folder with the .ZIP file extension. It opens like a folder but acts like a file, in that it’s just a single item. It also compresses files to save disk space.

Learn how to create a .ZIP file in Windows.

Instructions in this article apply to Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7.

Using File Explorer, navigate to where your files or folders that you would like to make into a ZIP file. These files may can anywhere on your computer, including external and internal hard drives.

Pressing Windows Key+E will open the Windows File Explorer.

Select the files you want to compress. If you want to zip all the files in a single location, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+A to select all of them.

If they are not in a single location, press and hold the left mouse button and drag over all the objects you want to select. The items you’ve selected will have a light-blue box around them, as seen here.

Press and hold the Ctrl key while selecting the files you want to zip. This will automatically select every file sitting between the two items that you clicked. Once again, all your selected items will be highlighted with a light-blue box.

Once your files are selected, right-click on one of them to reveal an options menu. Select Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder.

If you’re sending all the files in a particular folder, another option is to just select the entire folder. For example, if the folder is Documents > Email items > Stuff to send, you can go into the Email items folder and right-click Stuff to send to make the ZIP file.

If you want to add more files to the archive after the ZIP file has already been made, just drag the files right on top of the ZIP file and they’ll be added automatically.

Once you zip the files, a new folder appears next to the original collection with a big zipper on it, indicating that it has been zipped. It will automatically use the name of the last file you zipped.

You can leave the name as it is or change it to whatever you like. Right-click the ZIP file and choose Rename.

Now the file is ready to send to someone else, back up on another hard drive, or stash in your favorite cloud storage service. One of the best uses of zipping files is to compress big graphics to send through email, upload to a website, and so on.

Zip and unzip files

Zipped (compressed) files take up less storage space and can be transferred to other computers more quickly than uncompressed files. In Windows, you work with zipped files and folders in the same way that you work with uncompressed files and folders. Combine several files into a single zipped folder to more easily share a group of files.

Locate the file or folder that you want to zip.

Press and hold (or right-click) the file or folder, select (or point to) Send to, and then select Compressed (zipped) folder.

A new zipped folder with the same name is created in the same location. To rename it, press and hold (or right-click) the folder, select Rename, and then type the new name.

Locate the zipped folder that you want to unzip (extract) files or folders from.

Do one of the following:

To unzip a single file or folder, open the zipped folder, then drag the file or folder from the zipped folder to a new location.

To unzip all the contents of the zipped folder, press and hold (or right-click) the folder, select Extract All, and then follow the instructions.

To add files or folders to a zipped folder you created earlier, drag them to the zipped folder.

If you add encrypted files to a zipped folder, they’ll be unencrypted when they’re unzipped, which might result in unintentional disclosure of personal or sensitive information. For that reason, we recommend that you avoid zipping encrypted files.

Some types of files, like JPEG images, are already highly compressed. If you zip several JPEG pictures into a folder, the total size of the folder will be about the same as the original collection of pictures.

How to Zip a File with WinZip

With just a few simple steps, you can easily create a Zip or Zipx file with WinZip.

Zip your file using WinZip

1. Open WinZip.
2. In the Files pane, find and select files to zip from your PC, network or cloud services.
3. Click Add to Zip.
4. In the Actions pane, click Save as.
5. Choose to save your zip file to any local, network or cloud location.
6. Or, you may choose to email it; share it in an instant message; or share it via a supported social media service.

Note: If you turn on a Convert and Protect option after you add files to your Zip, you can still apply your Encryption and Conversion settings for all or just some of the files in your Zip by choosing “Apply to selected files in the Zip” from the Options button in the Actions panel.

Zip your files from a Windows Explorer folder

1. Open a folder window.
2. Find and select the files and/or folders you want to zip.
3. Right-click the highlighted area.
4. In the WinZip sub-menu, choose either:
   • Add to [filename].zip(x)
   • Add to Zip file… – this option lets you specify your own Zip file name, compression type, encryption, conversion options, and destination folder

How to zip files with WinZip Express

Using WinZip Express for Explorer

Using WinZip Express for Office

Also available:

WinZip Express for Outlook

«How-To» Quick Reference

1. Open WinZip.
2. Select your files.
3. Click Add to Zip.
4. Click Save as in the Actions Pane.

Now you know how to create a zip file. Download the trial to see
how easy it is for you to quickly zip your file(s).

Copyright ©2021 Corel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. WinZip is a Registered Trademark of Corel Corporation

How to Zip a File or Folder in Windows 10

By Melanie Pinola 26 August 2015

Zipping files compresses them so they take up less space on your hard drive, and the smaller ZIP files can more quickly be shared with others or transferred to other computers. You can zip files and/or folders in Windows 10 directly from File Explorer—no third-party tools needed.

To zip one or more files or folders in Windows 10, the first step is to open up File Explorer. From there, all you have to do is select your files and use either the Send To menu or the Ribbon menu, whichever you prefer.

Zip Files Using the Send To Menu

We’ll use the context menu to quickly zip files or folders.

1. Select the file(s) and/or folder(s) you want to compress. If you want to zip just one file or folder, skip to step 2. Otherwise, there are two ways to select multiple files and folders:
To select a consecutive group of files or folders, click the first item, then hold down the Shift key and click on the last item. The two files/folders you selected and everything in between will be selected.
To select non-consecutive files or folders, hold down the Ctrl key as you select the individual files and/or folders.

2. Right-click on the file or folder (or group of files or folders), then point to Send to and select Compressed (zipped) folder.

3. Name the ZIP file. Enter the name you want the zipped file to have or hit Enter to accept the suggested filename.

Tip: Windows automatically suggests a filename for the ZIP file based on the file you right-click on. In the example above, I right-clicked on the breadcrumbs.png file, so the suggested ZIP file is breadcrumbs.zip. When zipping multiple files, make sure you right-click on top of the one in the selection that you would want the ZIP file to have the same name.

Zip One or More Files with the Ribbon Menu

The File Explorer in Windows 10 has a Zip command in the Ribbon menu. This is convenient for 2-in-1 laptop owners who might prefer to tap to zip files rather than right-click. To use this:

1. Select your file(s) and/or folder(s) as in Step 1 in the Send To menu instructions above.

2. Navigate to the Share tab in File Explorer.

3. Click the Zip button.

The Ribbon menu method works in Windows 8.1, by the way, and the Send To menu works in previous versions of Windows as well.

Add a File or Folder to an Existing ZIP File

Finally, you can add files and folders to an existing ZIP file simply by selecting the ones you’d like to add then dragging them on top of the ZIP file.

How To Zip Files On Windows

Zip is a file format widely used in every operating system. Data containing single or multiple files can be grouped, compressed and protected using zip.

In this guide, you will learn different methods to zip files in windows.

How to zip files in windows

Follow these steps on your Windows PC, to create zip file.

1. Find the files which you want to gather together in a zip file.
2. If all of the files are located at one place and you need to select them all, just press CTRL + A from keyboard or drag the mouse with left or right click. SHIFT + RIGHT CLICK is used when you want to select multiple files.
3. After selecting your files, Left Click from mouse (make sure that the files are selected while clicking left mouse button).
4. Point on Send to .
5. Then click on Compressed (zipped) folder .
6. Selected files will be added to zip file. You can change the name of the zip file by left clicking on it and then clicking on Rename.

If you want to add folder in zip file, Left Click on folder and start from step 3.

If zip file is already created, to add more files in it, just drag and drop the files in zip folder.

There are many third party applications available to zip, but the best ones are going to be part of this guide.

Create zip file using WinRAR on windows

If you are unfamiliar with WinRAR, you must install it in your windows pc. It is a light weight software used to deal with zip, RAR and some other formats.

Below is the guide to create zip file in windows using WinRAR.

1. Select the files you need to add to zip.
2. Right click while selecting the files.
3. Click on “ Add to Archive ”.
4. A WinRAR box will open. Mark the zip radio button.
5. Click on OK button.

You can download and Install WinRAR from this link.

Zip files using WinZip

WinZip is also a popular software to play with zip format. Here is the brief guide to make zip using WinZip.

https://www.winzip.com/win/en/

1. Make sure that you have installed WinZip in your PC.
2. Open it.
3. Click on file panel to add files which you want to add to zip folder.
4. Select file(s) from local disk, network or cloud storage.
5. In action panel, click on Save as .
6. Choose your path to save the zipped file.

Also, WinZip provides shortcut menu in mouse’s left click menu. So, you have to select and right click on file(s), and navigate to WinZip submenu and select zipping option.

Make a zip in windows 10

All the methods discussed before are available in windows 10 also. In addition to these, windows 10 has added shortcut in the windows explorer.

Open windows explorer and navigate to “Share” tab on the top menu (called Ribbon menu) of the explorer. Select the files you want to add to zip, then click on Zip from ribbon menu. That’s it.