Zip files are very cool files that can store multiple other files inside them. They’re very handy for sending, uploading, or downloading large groups of files with just a few clicks. But if you have a zip file on your computer, you might not know how to open it.
So today, I’m going to show you how to open a zip file in Windows 10. If you want to learn how to open a zip file in Chrome OS, Android, or Google Drive, I have previous articles about how to do that.
But today, I’m going to show you how to open a zip file in Windows 10, and at the end of the article, I’ll also show you how to create a zip file in Windows 10.
Prefer to watch a video about how to unzip files in Windows 10? Click here.
How To Unzip Files In Windows
Obviously, the first thing you’ll need to do to open a zip file in Windows is to go into the file explorer and find your zip file.
Then, once you’ve found it, you’ll need to right-click on it. (If you’re using a standard mouse, you can just use the right-click button on the mouse, but if you’re using a trackpad, you’ll need to click with two fingers simultaneously)
Then, in the menu that appears, click “Extract All”.
Now, it will ask you where you want the unzipped files to be saved. By default, it will save the files in the folder where your zip file is, but in a subfolder with the same name as the zip file.
For example, my zip file is in the downloads folder and it’s named “Timmy’s Zip File”. So all the unzipped files will be saved inside a folder called “Timmy’s Zip File”, and that folder will be in the downloads folder.
I’d recommend just leaving this as it is because it usually makes things easier, but if you would prefer the unzipped files to be saved somewhere else, you can click on “Browse” and choose any location you want.
Once you’re happy with where the unzipped files are going to be saved, you’ll also have the option to “Show extracted files when complete”.
This means that if you tick that box, once the unzipping process is complete, the folder that the unzipped files are in will open up automatically ready for you to look at.
If you chose to have your unzipped files stored in a different location, it can be a handy feature to have, but if you just kept the location set to default, I’d recommend leaving this box unticked.
But regardless of which option you choose, once you’re happy with it, click on “Extract” to begin the extraction process.
Then, you’ll see a progress bar showing you the extraction progress. If your zip file only has a few small images in it like mine does, this process should only take a few seconds. But if your zip file contains lots of large files, it could take quite a while.
But regardless of how long it takes, once it’s done, you should see a new folder next to your zip file containing all the unzipped files.
Now, if you double click on the folder to go inside it, you will be able to see all the files that were in your zip file. And this new folder is just a regular folder like any other folder, so you can now move the files out of it, rename the files, delete some of the files, or do anything else you might want to do with them.
If you go back out of the folder, your zip file will still be there, and copies of the files will still be inside it. You can just leave the zip file there if you want, but it really doesn’t need to be there anymore, so if you don’t want it there, you can delete it by clicking on it to select it, and then pressing the “delete” key on your keyboard.
And that’s all there is to it, now all the files are out of the zip file and ready for you to do whatever you want with them.
How To Zip A File In Windows 10
If you ever want to zip files into your own zip file to upload somewhere or send to people, there’s a fairly easy way you can do that as well.
To do this, you’ll first need to have all the files you want to zip gathered in one location. If they’re all in one folder already, that’s perfect, but if they’re scattered all over your computer, you’ll need to move them all into one folder before you can zip them.
Once they’re all together, you’ll need to select every file you want to zip by clicking on the first one, holding down the “Shift” key on your keyboard, and then clicking on the last one.
Then, once they’re all selected, you’ll need to right-click on any of the selected files. (It doesn’t matter which one, as long as it’s one of them.)
Then, in the menu that appears, hover over “Send To”, and click “Compressed (Zipped) Folder”.
And then all your selected files will be zipped up into a zip file, this could take a bit of time if you selected a lot of large files, but if your files are small it will be pretty much instant.
The zip file will automatically be named with the same name as the first file inside it, and if you’re happy with that name you can just press enter. But if you want to give it a different name, all you need to do is type the name you want and press enter.
And that’s all there is to it! Your zip file is now all zipped and ready to do whatever you want to do with it.
