Compressing files is easy if you know how: compressing files in Windows

The number of independent files is getting so long that it wouldn't hurt to gather them in the same container in which to transport them: that's where the file compressors enter the sceneWindows comes standard with a great built-in compressor to make it easier for you to transport and organize your documents, but in the Windows Store you will also find other very interesting alternatives to the standard compressor.

Compressed folders in Windows

Windows has had Compressed Folders for several versions. These types of folders are actually ZIP format files. The ZIP format was created in the late 1980s by Phil Katz.

The ZIP format, internally, allows to store and compress files independently in a joint archive, so they can be retrieved later one by one without having to read them all at once.

Files can be compressed, to reduce the overall size of the ZIP file, or stored without compression, depending on the method used at the time to create the initial ZIP file.

In Windows we can create Compressed Folders very easily :

To begin, we must select an empty place on our desktop and press the right mouse button to bring up the contextual menu that allows us to create a New file
Once inside the New menu, select Compressed Folder (in zip)
It will appear empty ZIP Compressed Folder on our desktop that we can rename
Now we just have to add the files we want to compress by dragging them inside.

As you can see, it is totally intuitive, just like the method to extract said files in another directory or another Windows computer:

Open the compressed folder with a double click on it

We select the files contained in it and we drag them out, towards the folder where we want to unzip them.

We can also use the wizard integrated into Windows Explorer, which allows us to extract all the files in the folder that we indicate

Most Popular Alternatives

In addition to the built-in Windows compressor, there are other popular applications with different features to make the most of the potential of compressed files, both in the Windows App Storeas in the official pages of each of them.

WinZip

WinZip is precisely the application that popularized the ZIP format in the mid-90s. There wasn't a computer I didn't use WinZip and all its added advantages.

The WinZip application has adapted perfectly over the years, and now comes as a application for Windows 8 with Modern UI to the Windows 8 Application Store, making use of synchronization between cloud storage services such as OneDrive and admitting up to 22 new formats, among which we find ISO, CAB, gz, bz, LHA files, etc.

WinZipUtilities

Developer: WinZip Computing
Price: Free

You can download it at: Windows App Store

WinRAR

WinRAR is another of the popular compression applications available on Windows. In fact, it has largely succeeded in ousting WinZip in popularity over the years, due in part to WinZip's broad support of compressed files over WinZip.

WinRAR generally uses RAR files to create compressed files, which, despite being slower than ZIP files, have higher compression ratesand have better data redundancy than ZIP.

WinRARUtilities

Developer: RARLab
Price: 29.95 euros

You can download it at: RARLab Store

7-Zip

7-Zip is a free file archiver, unlike WinZip and WinRAR, which have a proprietary license. 7-Zip files are suitable for storing text.

It also features a filter to further compress executable files and improve joint comprehension of small files. It is completely free and is translated into more than 79 languages.

7-ZipUtilities

Developer: Igor Pavlov
Price: Free

You can download it at: 7-Zip

8 Zip

8 Zip is a revision, with a Modern UI interface, of the typical file compressor, and is also available in the App Store Windows 8 and Windows RT. With 8 Zip we can compress and decompress files in multiple formats.

The ZIP and 7-Zip files created with this application will have AES-256 encryption, we can extract the files from an archive and we can add or remove files from that archive comfortably.