How to zip and unzip files in Windows 10 using the built-in feature

I am sure that you have heard about ZIP files. It is a compressed file format that can be used to compress & pack one or more files or folders together, to save disk space, as its size is smaller. It is one of the most common file formats enabling you to compress files to save hard drive space, store rarely-used files, send documents and images via email or make it a lot easier to transfer or share them over the network. You can also compress them to zip format for making them available for download on websites or via FTP servers.

In this article, we will walk you through the simple steps to zip and unzip files and save storage on the hard drive of your computer, using the built-in ZIP functionality.

How to zip unzip files in Windows 10

To zip files in Windows 10 using the built-in feature:

1. Open File Explorer and navigate to the file/s and/or folder/s that you want to compress to the .zip format.
2. Press the right-click and select all the desired items.
3. A blue selection rectangle will be seen.
4. Right-click on it and select Send To > Compressed (zipped) folder
5. The .zip file will be created.

Name it as required, and you are done with zipping the selected files to save the hard drive storage.

How to unzip files in Windows 10

To unzip files in Windows 10, follow this procedure step by step:

1. Locate the compressed folder which you want to unzip.
2. Right-click on it and click the Extract all option.
3. By default, the path would be of the same location as the zipped folder. But you can change the destination by clicking the Browse button.
4. Then click the Extract button and the files will be unzipped to the selected destination.

By following these procedures, you will be able to zip and unzip files in Windows 10.

How to disable Windows built-in Zip or Cab support in Windows 10

Windows offers the feature to compress files by supporting Zip functionality. While it is a very useful feature if you are already using some third-party compression utility, some may want to disable Windows built-in Zip support and let the external zip program be associated with the zip file format. In this post let us see how to disable this Windows built-in ZIP or CAB functionality.

In Windows XP, this solution worked. All you needed to do was to unregister a dll file. Open the Run box, type the following and hit Enter:

This may not work in Windows 10/8/7/Vista, as unregistering of that particular dll file is unsupported in these later operating systems. If you try it, you will receive an error message.

Disable built-in Zip or Cab support in Windows 10

To disable Windows built-in Zip support in Windows 10/8/7, you will need to open regedit and delete the following two registry keys:

To disable support for zip files delete this key:

To disable support for cab files delete this key:

The Windows Registry may not allow you to delete these keys easily.

You may need to take ownership of these registry keys. I suggest you use our RegOwnIt to do so easily.

If you have another zip or file compression software installed, you may want to consider disabling this built-in zip support, to save some resources.

Goes without saying – create a system restore point first!

Date: February 10, 2018 Tags: Compression, Features

How to zip and unzip files on a Windows 10 computer using built-in tools

• Zipping is a popular method for compressing files, and you can zip and unzip files on Windows 10 in several ways without installing any additional software.
• You can zip files by using Windows’ right-click menu to «send» them to a zipped folder.
• You can unzip quickly by double-clicking the zip file and dragging the individual files out to the desktop.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Zipping is one of the oldest, most commonly used methods for compressing files. It’s used to save space and transmit them more quickly.

In fact, it’s so common that zip compression and decompression is built into Windows. Here is how to zip files, plus two methods for unzipping them.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

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How to zip files in Windows 10

1. Put all the files you want to zip in the same location, such as the same folder.

2. Select all the files. An easy way to do this is to drag a selection box around them with the mouse pointer.

3. Right-click one of the selected files.

4. In the drop-down menu, choose «Send to» and then click «Compressed (zipped) folder.»

5. A new zip file will appear in the same folder. You can identify a zip file visually because the icon has a zipper on it.

How to unzip files in Windows 10 with drag-and-drop

1. Double-click the zip file you want to unzip. You can identify a zip file visually because the icon has a zipper on it.

2. The zip file will open a folder, showing you the individual files inside.

3. Select all the files, or just the ones you want to use, and drag them out of the folder to another location on your computer. You can drag them into a folder or place them on the desktop.

The files have now been unzipped and can be used normally. You can now delete the zip file, if there’s nothing left in there that you want.

How to unzip files in Windows 10 with the zip wizard

1. Right-click the zip file. In the drop-down menu, click «Extract All…» The zip wizard will appear.

2. If you want to unzip the files to a different folder, click «Browse…» and choose a location.

3. Click «Extract» and the files will be unzipped and copied to the folder indicated.

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

How to find the product key for your Windows 10 computer, depending on how you bought the software

How to take a screenshot on any Windows 10 computer in several different ways

How to boot your Windows 10 computer into ‘Safe Mode,’ to diagnose and troubleshoot problems

How to make a zip file on your Mac computer, to save some storage space and clear digital clutter

Insider Inc. receives a commission when you buy through our links.

How can you zip or unzip from the script using ONLY Windows’ built-in capabilities?

In Windows you can zip some files by

right click → Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder

And unzip by double clicking on the .zip file and extract the files.

Is there a way to apply those abilities from a script (.bat file) without the need to install any third-party software?

17 Answers 17

Back in 2013, that was not possible. Microsoft didn’t provide any executable for this.

From Windows 8 on, .NET Framework 4.5 is installed by default, with System.IO.Compression.ZipArchive and PowerShell available, one can write scripts to achieve this, see https://stackoverflow.com/a/26843122/71312

To expand upon Steven Penny’s PowerShell solution, you can incorporate it into a batch file by calling powershell.exe like this:

As Ivan Shilo said, this won’t work with PowerShell 2, it requires PowerShell 3 or greater and .NET Framework 4.

If you have Java installed, you can compress to a ZIP archive using the jar command:

c = Creates a new archive file.

M = Specifies that a manifest file should not be added to the archive.

f = Indicates target file name.

PowerShell 5.0

Create result.zip from the entire Test folder:

Extract the content of result.zip in the specified Test folder:

It isn’t exactly a ZIP, but the only way to compress a file using Windows tools is:

Advanced example (from ss64.com):

Using 7-Zip:

Zip: you have a folder foo , and want to zip it to myzip.zip

Unzip: you want to unzip it ( myzip.zip ) to current directory ( ./ )

100 machines in production which don’t have 7zip on them. To install that I would have to get the DevOps install it on all those machines and on all new machines that will be added to the clusters. I would rather avoid it. – Roee Gavirel May 9 ’16 at 5:27

I’ve been looking to answer this exact question and from my research, DiryBoy’s response seems to be accurate.

I found the compact.exe program compresses files but not to create a highly compressed file (or set of files). It is similar to the option you get when right clicking on a drive letter or partition in Windows. You get the option to do cleanup (remove temp files, etc) as well as compress files. The compressed files are still accessible but are just compressed to create space on a drive that is low on space.

I also found compress.exe which I did happen to have on my computer. It isn’t natively on most windows machines and is part of the 2003 resource kit. It does make a zipped file of sorts but it is really more similar to files from a windows setup disk (has the underscore as the last character of the file extension or name). And the extract.exe command extracts those files.

However, the mantra is, if it can be done natively via the GUI then there is likely a way to do it via batch, .vbs, or some other type of script within the command line. Since windows has had the ‘send to’ option to create a zip file, I knew there had to be a way to do it via command line and I found some options.

Here is a great link that shows how to zip a file using windows native commands.

I tested it with a directory containing multiple nested files and folders and it worked perfectly. Just follow the format of the command line.

There is also a way to unzip the files via command line which I found as well. One way, just brings open an explorer window showing what the content of the zipped file is. Some of these also use Java which isn’t necessarily native to windows but is so common that it nearly seems so.

How to Zip a Folder in Windows

Download Winzip and
Compress Folders Today

Table of Contents

How do you compress a folder in Windows? And how do you zip a folder in Windows 10? The process is straightforward once you know how to do it, and that’s what we are going to teach you in this article. You can either download an extensive program for managing swift folder compression or use Window’s built-in compression tool. Both methods will create so-called «zip» files, with the file extension ‘.zip.’ Zipping folders have many advantages. And the chances are that if you haven’t done it before, you’ll start to as soon as you discover its vast possibilities.

Why folder compression?

But why would you want to compress a folder in the first place? Folder compression is a fast and convenient way to reduce file size, leaving you with more space on your hard drive. But not only that, thanks to the reduced file size, transferring files will also be faster. And rather than sending all files in a folder one by one, you can zip the entire folder, allowing the recipient to extract the folder in their computer.

In this article, we’ll look at Windows compression software and how to zip a folder in Windows 10.

Windows Compression Software

There are several popular Windows compression software online. Most compression tools use the standard compression algorithm DEFLATE, which is the most effective in speed and compression. Some algorithms can compress folders further, to save even more hard drive space. But these processes take a longer time than the DEFLATE algorithm. They are often included as more advanced functions in windows compression software.

So which Windows compression software should you choose?

Download Winzip and Compress Folders in Windows Today

Best Windows Compression Software

WinZip, launched in 1991, has over a billion downloads and has since been the go-to compression software for Windows. The software supports all major archive file formats, including zip, tar, gzip, RAR, 7z, IMG, ISO, and zips/unzips at lightning speed.

WinZip also has added functionality like top-level encryption to protect your zip files and manage and access data on your PC, network, and clouds. Plus, instant connection with your cloud drives, like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive.

With its easy-to-use interface and fast compression, you can effectively compress your folders for all desired purposes. Whether it is to send a folder of files to a friend or compressing your photo folders to save space.

How To Zip A Folder In Windows 10

How to zip a folder in Windows? You can quickly zip a folder in Windows 10. The functionality is located right within your folders. The built-in method is simple and lacks the features of dedicated compression tools. But it works great for basic zipping and unzipping (extracting files from within a zip file.)

To zip and compress a folder in Windows 10, follow the below steps:

Find a folder you want to compress.

Right-click on the folder.

Find «Send To» in the drop-down menu.

Select «Compressed (zipped) folder.»

Following these steps will create a Zip (.zip) file in the directory where the folder you compressed is.

Or a better option is to use WinZip and have more control over how you zip and manage your files and folders. WinZip also allows you to zip folders with bank-level security to keep your data safe.

Final Words

Now you know how to compress a folder in Windows, using the integrated support and tool in Windows or taking advantage of a dedicated compression tool, like WinZip.