Unfortunately, though, this support can be described as basic at best. OK, so ZIP files are great for convenience and saving on storage space, but how exactly do you open them, especially when they’re encrypted? If you know the password to an encrypted ZIP file, opening it, or “unzipping” it, is easy.īoth Windows and Mac come with built-in support for creating and opening ZIP files. They work especially well when sending files via email because you don’t need to attach every file individually, and the reduced size of the ZIP file makes it so you can send more/larger files before reaching the attachment size limit. ZIP files work great when you need to send someone a collection of files because you can compress them all together. There’s nothing complicated about it - a ZIP file is nothing more than a file containing one or more compressed files. Well, ZIP files use ZIP - the most widely used archive file format - to compress files and reduce the storage space they take up. You’ve almost certainly come across a ZIP file or two, but you might never have considered how they work.

Whatever the case, if you want to learn how to open it up and access the files within, you’re in the right place! How ZIP Files Work Got your hands on a password-protected ZIP file and you’re not sure how to open it? Maybe you downloaded it from the internet, or a colleague sent it to you via email.

Password protect zipped file windows 10