Zip Files and Windows 7 Pro

[BuckSkin]

I have recently noticed something about Zip files and my Windows 7 Pro machine.

Whenever I would download a Zip file to my Windows 7 Home Premium machine, before I could access the contents, I had to first un-Zip the package and extract the contents.

On our two Windows 7 Pro machines, although we still have the whole arsenal of un-Zippers and file extractors, none of that seems to be necessary.

At first, not knowing any different, I was following the usual un-Zip and extract procedure that I had always had to before; then, I got to noticing that I seemed to be gaining two sets of everything from a single download.

I have discovered that these Windows 7 Pro machines treat a Zip folder as if it were a normal folder; I can access the contents without having to do anything special.

The only difference between a Zip folder and a normal folder that I have found is, when I intend to drag/drop move something from the Zip folder, instead of moving it, it copies it instead.

Thanks for reading.

[Tpgettys]

Ah well, where to begin?!   Back in the day, when the size of a file really mattered, compressed files were very important. The major contenders at the time (circa 1990) were ARC, ARJ, and ZIP.  ZIP eventually won what was then a pitched battle, and now is a "standard" of sorts.  Windows 7 and beyond support this format of compression.

The two important attributes of a compressed file are that they (1) are smaller (because they are compressed!) and (2) allow for the bundling of several files together in a single file (even without the compression that is a very cool feature; I can send you all the necessary files in one "package").

It used to be that you needed a third-party program which took a ZIP as input, decompressed it and deposited to contents in a folder of your choosing.  This is no longer necessary (unless you are dealing with files compressed with a different algorithm, such as RAR).

A normal folder and a zip "folder" are very different entities. A file of type ZIP may display as a folder (to communicate that it contains several files), but it is not at all a folder in the same sense as a folder on your hard disk.  The icon on my computer shows a ZIP files as a folder with a zipper on it, suggesting that it has to be "unzipped" to get at its contents.

Perhaps I am rambling, so let me summarize: a ZIP is a single file, but it (usually) contains several files bundled together.  A ZIP file must be processed to extract its contents, which must then be placed somewhere on your hard disk (it sounds like you are accustomed to using 3rd party programs for this step, but Windows 7 has the built-in capability to do this, so it makes it appears as a native entity.  The process you used to use is still necessary, but the extractor program is built into Windows 7 now).  The items in a ZIP file are unusable until they are unzipped.

If your question (what was it again? LOL!) wasn't answered please ask again.