Zip for Windows

Zip: package and compress zip-archive files

Version

Description

Zip is a compression and file packaging/archive utility. Although \highly compatible both with PKWARE’s PKZIP and PKUNZIP utilities for MS-DOS and with Info-ZIP’s own UnZip, our primary objectives have been portability and other-than-MSDOS functionality. Features not found in the PKWARE version include:

• creating zipfiles in a pipe or on a device
• VMS and OS/2 extended file attributes
• conversion between Unix, MS-DOS and Macintosh text file formats
• the ability to run on most of your favorite operating systems.

Zip is useful for packaging a set of files for distribution, for archiving files, and for saving disk space by temporarily compressing unused files or directories. Zip puts one or more compressed files into a single ZIP archive, along with information about the files (name, path, date, time of last modification, protection, and check information to verify file integrity). An entire directory structure can be packed into a ZIP archive with a single command.

Zip has one compression method (deflation) and can also store files without compression. Zip automatically chooses the better of the two for each file. Compression ratios of 2:1 to 3:1 are common for text files.

Homepage

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If you download the Setup program of the package, any requirements for running applications, such as dynamic link libraries (DLL’s) from the dependencies as listed below under Requirements, are already included. If you download the package as Zip files, then you must download and install the dependencies zip file yourself. Developer files (header files and libraries) from other packages are however not included; so if you wish to develop your own applications, you must separately install the required packages.

Description	Download	Size	Last change	Md5sum
• Complete package, except sources	Setup	950474	13 July 2008	5732ede29b1755ccbbbe485c5eaf06c5
• Sources	Setup	1090147	13 July 2008	a9a11254b52d728433c0abc65d8da8aa
• Binaries	Zip	576934	13 July 2008	5b268fe06ce5f89bc5762805a7a9d7aa
• Developer files	Zip	181941	13 July 2008	b52062993913052e694cef7bdcee3696
• Documentation	Zip	311214	13 July 2008	1f0096678f3769789a0d51d638000673
• Sources	Zip	1366491	13 July 2008	9914e56d5b3f2aaab4ef70b298a511ac
• Dependencies	Zip	31750	31 March 2008	8bd9a45e1259238c1f6bb277fe6386c0
• Original source	ftp://ftp.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/src/zip30.zip

You can also download the files from the GnuWin32 files page. New releases of the port of this package can be monitored.

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 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 unzip a file using the command line? [closed]

Want to improve this question? Update the question so it’s on-topic for Stack Overflow.

Closed 8 years ago .

Which commands can be used via the command line to unzip a file?
Preferably something built into Windows or open source/free tools.

10 Answers 10

If you already have Java Development Kit on your PC and the bin directory is in your path (in most cases), you can use the command line:

or if not in your path:

Complete set of options for the jar tool available here.

7-Zip, it’s open source, free and supports a wide range of formats.

Firstly, write an unzip utility using vbscript to trigger the native unzip functionality in Windows. Then pipe out the script from within your batch file and then call it. Then it’s as good as stand alone. I’ve done it in the past for numerous tasks. This way it does not require need of third party applications, just the one batch file that does everything.

Use it like this:

As other have alluded, 7-zip is great.

Note: I am going to zip and then unzip a file. Unzip is at the bottom.

7-Zip Command Line Version

You can put the following into a .bat file

I’ve shown a few options.

-r is recursive. Usually what you want with zip functionality.

a is for «archive». That’s the name of the output zip file.

-p is for a password (optional)

-w is a the source directory. This will nest your files correctly in the zip file, without extra folder information.

-mem is the encryption strength.

There are others. But the above will get you running.

NOTE: Adding a password will make the zip file unfriendly when it comes to viewing the file through Windows Explorer. The client may need their own copy of 7-zip (or winzip or other) to view the contents of the file.

EDIT. (just extra stuff).

There is a «command line» version which is probably better suited for this: http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

So the zip command would be (with the command line version of the 7 zip tool).

Now the unzip portion: (to unzip the file you just created)

As an alternative to the «e» argument, there is a x argument.

Create .zip folder from the command line — (Windows)

Is it possible to create a .zip file from a folder in the command line, I don’t want to use any third party executable.

I was thinking something like ‘send to compressed folder’ but I don’t know how to do it.

11 Answers 11

Windows 10 includes tar.exe :

If you have older Windows, you can still download it:

PowerShell

Directory

For both tools, you can use a file or directory for the input.

Imagine that you want to compress the same folder that you are on Command Prompt WITHOUT opening a powershell window:

I don’t think there is a command line for ZIP files built in to Windows (Other than compress in Server 2003 Resource Kit). You’d have to use a third party. Everybody loves 7zip!

I’ve combined this script from several different sources to suit my needs better. Copy and paste the script into a file with the extension «.vbs». The script was originally made for Windows XP, but it also works in Windows 7 x64 Ultimate — no guarantee’s if Windows will keep around the various Shell objects this uses.

Usage: in the run box or command line put-

Path to script, source folder, zip file to make (include .zip at the end).

It won’t copy empty folders so be careful.

Here is the vbs code —

It is possible to run PowerShell script from BAT. Bat file receive path to dir to be zipped and zip file name as parameters.

I will post something related to WSkids answer as sadly i cannot use the comment function.

Using the CopyHere() method in VBS introduces several issues. One of these issues is that the method returns immediately while the copy process starts in background whereas multiple CopyHere() calls will interfere each other and the ZIP won’t be created correctly. A wait loop is needed here to fix that. My wait loop is based on an answer to a similar issue posted here.

Here is an updated version which fixes the «Object required» error reported by pihentagy. It’s a timing issue as the newly created ZIP file is included in the Items collection when the script is executed on fast machines.