It seems you are a little foggy on the concept of compressed archiving
programs. ZIP is one of many such formats. When a file, or files are
"zipped" they are compressed, and archived into a single file. This speeds
up the download process, since the compressed file is usually smaller than
the size of the archived files in their native uncompressed format. This is
why Zip files, and other popular archive formats like RAR, and ACE are used
frequently for downloadable content. When you download a Zip file, you need
to "extract" it's contents to make use of it. The various programs like
WinZIP, UltimateZIP, etc have similar means to do this. Usually it merely
involves double-clicking the zip file you downloaded, so it opens in the
associated archive program. Then you either click the "extract" option, or
in most cases, you can simply click and drag the archived file out of the
archive program window, and into another folder, or your desktop so you can
install it, or run it, or do whatever you want with it. Generally, the click
and drag method is the easiest. Think of the zip file as a box that contains
other files, and when you open the zipfile in your archive program you are
opening the box, and seeing what's inside. Then, when you "extract", you are
taking the contents out of the box and putting them on a table so you can
work with them. The only difference being that when you extract something
from a zipfile, you aren't actually *removing* anything from the zipfile,
rather you are copying the compressed contents to a different location, in
the original uncompressed form. Zip files and many other archive formats can
also preserve the information that tells where the archived files were
originally located on the drive before they were archived. This allows one
to recreate the original folder structures that the files were stored in.
For example, if I zipped a folder called "stuff" with 5 files inside, I
could extract those 5 files, and the zip program would create a folder
called "stuff" and put those 5 files in it, just as they were before they
were originally zipped. So you will run into two types of zipfiles. Those
with folder info, and those without. Those without, you have to just extract
the files wherever you like on your drive, whereas those with folder info,
can be extracted at your location of choice, or in the original folder
structure. As a general rule, it is best to always extract files with folder
info with their folder names and paths intact, as the extracted program may
require those files to be in their original locations for it to work. WinME,
and WinXP have built-in zip archive support, and unless another program is
installed that takes over those file associations, WinME or WinXP will
display zip files as folders but with a special folder icon denoting that it
is a compressed archive file, not a true "folder". Windows tries to handle
these files like folders as transparantly as possible, allowing you to drag
the files to and from a compressed archive "folder" to an regular
uncompressed one, or even allow you to execute programs from within the
archive as if it was a normal folder. But once you have installed some 3rd
party archive program such as Winzip, or UltimateZIP you are at the mercy of
it's interface, and the way windows handled the zip archives will no longer
be available. I personally don't care for the way windows blurs the line
between zip file archives and windows folders. I like to easily see when I'm
dealing with a zipfile, and when I'm not, so I use WinZIP.
...
"fredcromer" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi, after downloading some freeware games, they come in the .ZIP
format...so
> out of pure luck I opened one called JSW.ZIP with the zip prog. I'm not
sure
> how i did it but i think i extracted the files within, and it turned the
> main file into an EXE one....I have just d,loaded a game i've been hunting
> for ages, and again it's .ZIP.......HOW DO I USE THE COMMANDS in these zip
> progs to get them running om my WINme, for example...why extract?, there
> are options like open,add,favs,extract,view,.....and could someone please
> tell me why it always wants to ARCHIVE everything.........ALL HELP OR ANY
> INFO SITES WOULD BE WELL APPRECIATED, ALL THE BEST, FRED C
>
>
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