Not so much time has passed since disk space needed to be valued and protected. The hard drives were then of small capacity and cost fabulous money, however, like computers in general. Data networks also did not have a large bandwidth, so we had to value almost every kilobyte. Then users ruthlessly deleted unnecessary or outdated data, and to transfer to other people carefully selected files and documents. It was then that for convenience and to save space, archiving programs were developed.
To save disk space, some files have to be compressed.
They immediately became a necessary thing on the computer more or less competent user. With the advent of the graphical environment in the operating systems, they also evolved, acquired interfaces and, again, entered the “gentleman's set”, and not only for the “advanced”, but also for the most ordinary people. Depending on the compression algorithm used, of which there are indeed many in the world, they create an archive of files with the appropriate resolution. In Windows, the default is the ability to, for example, open compressed Zip-folders and create them; However, third-party solutions still have higher efficiency and speed.
Work with archives
To create a ZIP archive, you do not even need to install applications. As we have already mentioned, this functionality is in Windows "out of the box." Right-click on the directory you want to add to the archive and select Compress. A progress bar will appear, and a file with a Zip extension will appear in the current directory. To unzip it back to your computer, right-click again and select the item with the same name. The archive file can be copied, emailed or burned to a CD or USB flash drive. The bottom line is that the compression algorithm with which this archive is packed reduces the space it occupies on the hard disk. But I must say that Zip did not become a de facto standard, since it has a fairly strong competitor. True, for the user it is a bit more difficult, since it will not work to open the Rar archive without a special program, you will have to install additional software. This format is proprietary to the WinRar archiver used by so many around the world. Like Zip, it compresses files and folders, is embedded in the context menu of Windows, except that its interface is a bit more complicated. The point is that to create an archive you will need to specify some parameters, for example, where to save the resulting file on the computer, the compression ratio, the size of the files if you want to receive several archives, and the password, which you will need to enter later when unpacking. I must say that this is a fairly effective protection for your data, because without this password the archive simply will not open.
In general, there are other programs for creating Zip-files and their unzipping, besides the built-in OS. This, for example, WinZip, which is also very popular. But in recent years there are other solutions, they quickly and systematically conquer the market. We mean 7Zip, an open source, cross-platform archiver. It can be downloaded free of charge from the official website for all common operating systems, and it can work with the vast majority of archives. It is also embedded in the context menu, so that for the average user its use is not difficult. Since you can open a Rar or Zip file not only with special programs, but also with 7Zip, as well as create these archives, it quickly became a popular solution for many people. The fact is that it is free, as it is developed under the GNU / GPL license, so it has become an excellent alternative to commercial products. And his ability to work with Linux formats as exotic for an ordinary user as gzip, bzip2 or tar only adds to its advantages. To configure the archiver to work with any type of compressed files, launch its working window as an administrator from the context menu, select Settings, and, after checking the necessary checkboxes, click OK. Now, any object with a resolution bound in this way will open by default in this program.
Thus, unpacking the archive to your computer for the user, as a rule, comes down to right-clicking on it and choosing a line in the menu. The vast majority of such files are simply compressed, without segmentation or password protection, so that you can freely open them. If you select the “Open with the help of a program” item, whatever it is called, there is an “Extract” button in the upper left part of its window. In this window, you can select which files and folders from the archive contents to unpack to a computer, since you may not need it completely. To do this, select them and after that click on "Extract". The program will ask you exactly where to unzip these files. Another option, as we have said, is to select the item “Extract here” in the context menu, then the unpacking will be performed in the current directory, and the program will not show you its working window.
Since you can open a Rar or Zip file with one of the above programs, you can literally a couple of mouse clicks, they are very popular among users. In addition to single files, they are also capable of processing archives divided into a set of folders, extracting objects selectively and locking compressed folders. This is much more convenient than at the dawn of the development of computer technology, when opening such folders was necessary through console commands.
Conclusion
The use of archivers for the modern user does not present any problems due to the thoughtful graphical interfaces. It doesn't matter what program you use, their work is built according to similar principles, and integration with the context menu of the operating system removes the need to learn working windows.