Zip archives can contain additional content unrelated to the archive, making it self-extracting.įun fact: Unlike RAR, ZIP is not an acronym. In addition, files and folders can be zipped (compressed) using several methods like WavPack, BZIP2, PPMd, DEFLATE, LZMA, and many more. This makes extracting or adding new files easy without zipping the entire archive. Each file in the zipped folder is stored separately so that it can be accessed randomly. Related reading: How to Zip a File or Folder on Windowsīeyond compressing files, ZIP archives can also encrypt files (password protected) and split them with a few clicks. Interestingly, ZIP files are accessible by any program that can create ZIP files.

It is widely supported and used by software companies, including Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. Similar to other file formats, ZIP files are data buckets for one or more files using ZIP compression. ZIP has become a popular file format, developed by Gary Conway and Phil Katz in 1989. ZIP files are standard file formats for compressing files or folders in the computer system. They are synonymous with 'compression' to an average computer user because they are known to support data archiving and compression. PAGE CONTENT: What Is ZIP? What Is RAR? What Is The Difference Between ZIP And RAR? What Is ZIP?

Rar to winzip