how to open downloaded zip file What Is a ZIP File? A file with the ZIP file extension is a ZIP Compressed file and is the most widely used archive format you'll run into. A ZIP file, like other archive file formats, is simply a collection of one or more files and/or folders but is compressed into a single file for easy transportation and compression. ZIP File Uses. The most common use for ZIP files is for software downloads. Zipping a software program saves storage space on the server, decreases the time it takes for you to download it to your computer, and keeps the hundreds or thousands of files nicely organized in the single ZIP file. Another example can be seen when downloading or sharing dozens of photos. Instead of sending each image individually over email or saving each image one by one from a website, the sender can put the files in a ZIP archive so that only one file needs to be transferred. How to Open a ZIP File. The easiest way to open a ZIP file is to double-click on it and let your computer show you the folders and files contained inside. In most operating systems, including Windows and macOS, ZIP files are handled internally, without the need for any extra software. Other Tools and Capabilities. However, there are many compression/decompression tools that can be used to open (and create!) ZIP files. There's a reason they're commonly referred to as zip/unzip tools! Including Windows, just about all programs that unzip ZIP files also have the ability to zip them; in other words, they can compress one or more files into the ZIP format. Some can also encrypt and password protect them. If we had to recommend one or two, it'd be PeaZip or 7-Zip, both excellent and completely free programs that support the ZIP format. Online and Mobile Options. If you'd rather not use a program to open a ZIP file, lots of online services support the format, too. Online services like Files2Zip.com, B1 Online Archiver, and ezyZip let you simply upload your ZIP file to see all the files inside, and then download one or more of them individually. I recommend using an online ZIP opener only if the ZIP file is on the small side. Uploading a large ZIP file and managing it online will probably take you more time and energy than just downloading and installing an offline tool like 7-Zip. You can also open a ZIP file on most mobile devices. iOS users can install iZip for free, and Android users should be able to work with ZIP files via B1 Archiver or 7Zipper. Opening Other Kinds of ZIP Files. ZIPX files are Extended Zip files that are created by and opened with WinZip version 12.1 and newer, as well as PeaZip and some other similar archive software. If you need help opening a .ZIP.CPGZ file, see What Is a CPGZ File?. How to Convert a ZIP File. Files can only be converted to something of a similar format. For example, you can't convert an image file like JPG into an MP4 video file, anymore than you can convert a ZIP file to PDF or MP3. If this is confusing, remember that ZIP files are just containers that hold compressed versions of the actual file(s) you're after. So if there are files inside a ZIP file that you want to convert—like for a PDF to DOCX or MP3 to AC3—you must first extract the files using one of the methods described in the section above, and then convert those extracted files with a file converter. Recommended Converters. Since ZIP is an archive format, you can easily convert ZIP to RAR, 7Z, ISO, TGZ, TAR, or any other compressed file, in two ways, depending on size: If the ZIP file is small, we highly recommend using the Convert.Files or Online-Convert.com free online ZIP converter. These work just like the online ZIP openers already described, which means you'll need to upload the whole ZIP to the website before it can be converted. To convert larger ZIP files that would take much longer to upload to a website, you can use Zip2ISO to convert ZIP to ISO or IZarc to convert ZIP to lots of different archive formats. If none of those methods work, try one of these Free File Converters for Occasionally Used Formats to convert the ZIP file to another file format. The one I particularly like is Zamzar, which can convert ZIP to 7Z, TAR.BZ2, YZ1, and other archive formats. More Information on ZIP Files. Password Recovery for ZIP Files. If you've password protected a ZIP file but then forgot the password, you can use a password cracker to remove it to regain access to your files. One free program that uses brute force to remove a ZIP password is ZIP Password Cracker Pro. ZIP Files Have ZIP Extensions. Some ZIP files may have a file name with a different file extension before the final "zip" extension. Just keep in mind, like with any type of file, it's always the very last extension that defines what the file is. For example, Photos.jpg.zip is still a ZIP file because JPG comes before ZIP. In this example, the archive is probably named this way so it's quick and easy to identify that there are JPG images inside the archive. Backups. Some backup software tools will create file backups in the ZIP format so that they're compressed to save space, collected together for easier retrieval, and contained in a common format so that the backup can be opened even without the original backup software. One such program that does this is COMODO Backup. Creating a ZIP File. To make a ZIP file in Windows, right-click the files and/or folders that should be in the archive and then choose Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder . To zip up files/folders in macOS, right-click them and select Compress Items from the menu to make an Archive.zip file. Size Limitation. A ZIP file can be as small as 22 bytes and as large as around 4 GB. This 4 GB limit applies to both the compressed and uncompressed size of any file inside the archive, as well as to the total size of the ZIP file. ZIP's creator Phil Katz' PKWARE Inc. has introduced a new ZIP format called ZIP64 that raises the size limitation to 16 EiB (around 18 million TB). See the ZIP File Format Specification for more details. Need to open a Zip file? The Zip archive format makes it easier to send—and back up—large files or groups of files. A Zip file is a single file containing one or more compressed files, offering an ideal way to make large files smaller and keep related files together. The most popular compression format for Windows, Zip is commonly used for emailing and sharing files over the Internet. When you receive or download a Zip file, you need a way to extract or unpack it so you can access these files. WinZip, the world's most popular zip file opener, it is the fast and easy way to open your Zip files. How to open Zip files. Save the .zip file extension to the desktop. If your compressed file was downloaded from a website, it may be saved in the Downloads folder in your Documents or user directory. Launch WinZip from your start menu or Desktop shortcut. Open the compressed file by clicking File > Open. If your system has the compressed file extension associated with WinZip program, just double-click on the file. Select all the files and folders inside the compressed file. Or multi-select only the files or folders you want to open by holding the CTRL key and left-clicking on them. Click 1-click Unzip and choose Unzip to PC or Cloud in the WinZip toolbar under the Unzip/Share tab. Choose the destination folder to place the extracting files and click "Unzip" button. Find your extracted files in the destination folder. Open Zip files on Windows or Mac. WinZip 25. Windows 10 Windows 8 Windows 7 Windows Vista Windows XP Internet Explorer 8 or later. WinZip Mac 9. Mac OS X 10.8, 10.9, or 10.10 Intel 64-bit processor Supports Apple Retina Displays. WinZip opens and extracts Zip Compressed Archive Files—and many more formats. We designed WinZip to open and extract from the widest range of file formats, including all of the following: and IMG , TAZ , GZIP, and TGZ TZ and Z UUencoded. XXencoded MIME BinHex. Get WinZip now to open your RAR file(s), then enjoy all that the world's most popular compression utility has to offer, including the easiest and most practical file compression, encryption, packaging, and data backup capabilities. Also visit our partner site www.openthefile.net for more options to open RAR files. Copyright © Corel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. WinZip is a Registered Trademark of Corel Corporation. How to Open a Zip File. This article was written by Jack Lloyd. Jack Lloyd is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. He has over two years of experience writing and editing technology-related articles. He is technology enthusiast and an English teacher. The wikiHow Tech Team also followed the article's instructions and verified that they work. This article has been viewed 179,306 times. This wikiHow teaches you how to open and extract a ZIP folder on your computer, smartphone, or tablet. ZIP folders are used to compress files into smaller versions, making them easier to store and transport. In order to view and use a ZIP folder's files in the proper format, you'll need to extract (or "unzip") the ZIP folder to a regular folder. Unable to Open ZIP File in Windows 10! How to Fix? Summary: Unable to open ZIP file in Windows 10. You may get various error messages or the program may not be able to open the file. Having trouble opening an important ZIP file? I downloaded a ZIP file, but can’t open it? When you try to access it, do you receive an error message “Header is corrupted”? Or, when you try to compress an Office document to open a ZIP archive, you may get the error message “This file is corrupted, can’t you open it?” etc. Then there are clear signs that the ZIP file is corrupted. However, to save the contents of the corrupted ZIP file, you must repair the file. Before discussing the repair first, let us know the reasons behind ZIP file corruption. Why Unable to Open ZIP File in Windows 10 OS? State the following some errors that affect ZIP files: Header Corruption: The headers section of the ZIP file contains information such as name, size and date of creation. This information is required to access the file content. If this header is corrupted, you will not be able to open the ZIP file. Changing File Extension: Converting a file extension to a particular file to another unsupported file format can seriously damage and make your ZIP file accessible. Incomplete Download: When downloading the ZIP file, if there is an internet connection error or network discrepancy etc., the download will remain incomplete and the ZIP file will be affected and the ZIP file will open. Sudden Power Failure: If the system crashes due to a power failure, the ZIP file is corrupted when removing or accessing the files from the ZIP archive. Virus Threats: When a ZIP archive is infected with external threats such as viruses and malware, the contents of files are replicated and contaminated. How to Fix Cannot Open ZIP File in Windows 10 Error? To verify that the zip file is opened correctly, do the following: Go to the Location of the folder where the ZIP file was saved Right Click on the ZIP file and select Open With. Select File Explorer If File Explorer is not an option, select Default Program , then select File Explorer and click OK. Click Extract All Files at the top of the window or sidebar. This is a slightly different word, depending on which version of Windows you are using Select an Extraction Location or leave the Location by Default and Extract to the same folder where the ZIP file was saved You should now be able to open the file. BKF Viewer to Open Damaged ZIP File. BKF Viewer is a famous tool for repairing corrupted ZIP files. The simple user interface acts as a guide to open and recover corrupt ZIP files. BKF Viewer tool repairs and extract the contents of the ZIP file without damaging the source files. The software supports ZIP file recovery on any Windows OS such as Windows 10, 8.1, 7, etc. Concluding Remarks. Now you can easily fix unable to open ZIP file in Windows 10 problem with a manual and automatic solution. Your data is important, so choose the solution wisely. How to open downloaded zip file. as above . I downloaded a file off the net via a link and its an ebook in ZIP format. The android version of Firefox refuses to allow me to do anything with it. Chosen solution. In order to open ZIP files, you have to download an app to enable the opening of the ZIP. Here's one you can use: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.winzip.android. Next, when you install that, open it and go to your Download directory. It should either be in sdcard0, sdcard, or sdcard1, then go to Download. Once you find it, touch and hold the file, then click Unzip here and it will extract the files in the ZIP folder. Let me know if this works! All Replies (2) Moderator. Chosen Solution. In order to open ZIP files, you have to download an app to enable the opening of the ZIP. Here's one you can use: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.winzip.android. Next, when you install that, open it and go to your Download directory. It should either be in sdcard0, sdcard, or sdcard1, then go to Download. Once you find it, touch and hold the file, then click Unzip here and it will extract the files in the ZIP folder.