--- title: "How to Zip and Unzip Files on Windows 11 and Windows 10" description: "Windows 11 and Windows 10 both create and open ZIP files with no extra software, though the menus moved. This guide covers zipping a file or folder in either version, extracting an archive you..." url: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/website/zip-unzip-files-windows/ date: 2026-07-28 modified: 2026-07-28 author: "Carrie Smaha" categories: ["Website"] type: post lang: en --- # How to Zip and Unzip Files on Windows 11 and Windows 10 Windows 11 and Windows 10 both create and open ZIP files with no extra software, though the menus moved. This guide covers zipping a file or folder in either version, extracting an archive you received, opening RAR and 7z files natively in Windows 11, and deciding when to compress files on your server instead of your desktop. ## Why Zip a File Before You Upload It to Your Site? A ZIP file does two things: it bundles many files into one, and it shrinks them. For website work, the bundling matters more than the shrinking. Uploading a WordPress theme folder with 4,000 small files over FTP means 4,000 separate transfers, each with its own request and response. That overhead is usually what makes an upload crawl, not the total file size. One 30 MB archive uploads once, then extracts on the server in a few seconds. Zipping also keeps a set of files intact when you send it. Log bundles for a support ticket, a site backup before a redesign, and design assets for a client all travel better as a single archive. ## What You Need Before You Start - Windows 11 or Windows 10. Both include ZIP support, so no download is required. - Free disk space roughly equal to the files you are compressing. Windows creates the archive next to the originals and leaves the originals in place. - A third-party tool such as [7-Zip](https://www.7-zip.org/) only if you need password protection or split archives. More on that below. ## How Do You Zip a File or Folder in Windows 11? 1. Open File Explorer with **Win + E** and select the file, folder, or group of items you want to compress. 2. Right-click the selection, then choose **Compress to > ZIP file**. 3. Windows creates the archive in the same folder using the same name. Type a new name if you want one, then press **Enter**. On Windows 11 version 24H2 and later, the same submenu offers 7z and TAR, plus an **Additional options** entry that [opens a Create Archive wizard](https://pureinfotech.com/windows-11-create-7-zip-tar-archive-files/) where you can set the archive format, compression level, and save location. Stick with ZIP unless someone specifically asked for another format. ## How Do You Zip a File or Folder in Windows 10? 1. Select the file or folder in File Explorer. 2. Right-click it and choose **Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder**. 3. Rename the new archive if needed, then press **Enter**. That older path still exists in Windows 11 under **Show more options** (or **Shift + F10**), which is [the route Microsoft documents](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/zip-and-unzip-files-8d28fa72-f2f9-712f-67df-f80cf89fd4e5). Worth noting: Windows 10 reached end of mainstream support in October 2025, so if you manage a business machine that still runs it, plan the upgrade path before your next security audit. ## How Do You Unzip a File in Windows? To extract everything: 1. Right-click the ZIP file and select **Extract All**. 2. Confirm or change the destination folder. 3. Click **Extract**. To pull out one or two items instead, double-click the ZIP to browse it like a normal folder, then drag the files you need somewhere else. Editing a file inside the archive without extracting it first will not save your changes, and installers will not run from inside a ZIP. One quirk that catches people: selecting several ZIP files at once and choosing **Extract All** processes only the first archive. Windows handles them one at a time. ## Can Windows Open RAR, 7z, and TAR.GZ Files? Windows 11 can, without any add-on. Native read support covers RAR, 7z, TAR, tar.gz, and several related formats, so a `.tar.gz` backup pulled off a Linux server opens the same way a ZIP does. Creating archives is narrower. Windows 11 makes ZIP, 7z, and TAR files. It does not create RAR, which remains a proprietary format. Windows 10 reads and writes ZIP only, so anything else needs 7-Zip or a similar tool. ## Can You Password Protect a ZIP File in Windows? No. The built-in tools do not encrypt archives, and Microsoft warns that adding an already-encrypted file to a zipped folder can strip that encryption when the file is extracted. This matters more than it sounds. A database export with customer records, an invoice archive, or a client credentials file should not travel as a plain ZIP through email. Use 7-Zip with AES-256 encryption, or move the file through SFTP instead. ## What to Check When a ZIP File Will Not Extract - **Long file paths.** Deeply nested folders can exceed the classic 260-character path limit. Extract to a short path such as `C:\temp` and the error usually disappears. - **Incomplete downloads.** A ZIP that reports as corrupt is often a partial transfer. Compare the file size against the source before assuming the archive is bad. - **Access denied.** The destination folder may be write-protected, or a file inside is open in another program. - **Very large archives.** Multi-gigabyte ZIPs with tens of thousands of files extract slowly in File Explorer. 7-Zip handles them faster. - **Antivirus scanning.** Real-time scanning can stall extraction of archives containing many executables. ## When Should You Compress Files on the Server Instead? If the files already live on your hosting account, do the work there. Downloading a 2 GB site folder just to re-zip it and upload it again wastes hours. In cPanel File Manager, select the files and click **Compress**, or select an archive and click **Extract**. Both support ZIP, TAR, GZ, and BZ2. On a [VPS](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/vps-hosting) or [dedicated server](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/dedicated-servers) with SSH access, `zip -r archive.zip foldername` and `tar -czf archive.tar.gz foldername` do the same job faster on large directories. Use `tar.gz` rather than ZIP when Linux file permissions and ownership need to survive the round trip, which is the usual reason a restored site comes back with broken uploads or 403 errors. One caution on shared plans: extracting a very large archive is CPU and I/O intensive, and heavy restores can trip resource limits mid-process. If site restores are a regular part of your work, that workload belongs on a plan with dedicated resources. ## Next Steps Once your archive is ready, follow our guide on [uploading files to your server](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/website/how-to-upload-files-server/) to move it into place, then extract it in cPanel File Manager. Running into resource limits during large uploads or restores? [Contact our support team](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/contact) and we will look at what your account is actually using before you change plans.