ZIP is a compressed file format used to archive several files together and compress them to reduce the space used. It is a very common compression format and is supported by almost every modern OS natively. Popular tools for creating and unpacking zip files include WinZip, Stuffit Expander, etc.
Open ZIP File on Windows OS
- Look for an ZIP file you need to open in Windows Explorer and double-click on it
- If the file doesn’t open automatically and you see a “Windows can’t open a file” message then you should search for a program which can open ZIP file
- If you have a program which can open ZIP file installed on your computer then launch that program and select “File” and then “Open” or similar options from its menu to open the ZIP file
- If you don’t have the program installed then you need to try searching for “ZIP wiki”, “how to open ZIP file” in the search engine.
- Once you find the application, install it on your computer
- After the program is installed double-click on the ZIP file to open it
File extensions are used by Windows operating system to specify what kind of information is stored in the file. Every file in Windows OS needs to have file extension and file extensions are used by Windows to determine which application it should use to open the file. Every application installed on Windows OS places information about which extensions it could open into the Windows registry and Windows uses this information to determine which application it should launch when user double-clicks on the file. If application which can open ZIP file is not installed, then Windows will show ‘Windows can’t open ZIP file’ message and buttons to either select an application on the computer which can open the file or to search the web for the application which can open ZIP file.