WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.560 If you've ever downloaded, well, anything through your web browser, 00:00:03.560 --> 00:00:10.600 you're probably familiar with the zip file, a compressed folder that often contains lots of other files in it. 00:00:10.600 --> 00:00:14.760 In Windows, a zip file will appear very similarly to any other folder. 00:00:14.760 --> 00:00:18.560 It'll just have a little zipper on the icon. Very cute. 00:00:18.560 --> 00:00:23.960 But have you ever noticed that if you try to open up a program directly from that zip folder, 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:28.960 you'll get an error message which goes away only if you unzip the file first, 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:35.160 but only sometimes. And then other times, you can just open up a zipped file without any extra baloney. 00:00:35.160 --> 00:00:43.480 Is there a method to this madness? To answer, it helps to understand why exactly the zip format is so common in the first place. 00:00:43.480 --> 00:00:50.000 Not only is it just fewer clicks to download one zip file instead of a bunch of individual ones, 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:54.440 it also compresses the files so they take up less room on the server, 00:00:54.440 --> 00:00:59.160 use less network bandwidth, and take less time to download. 00:00:59.160 --> 00:01:02.200 Although these advantages have made the zip format popular, 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:07.240 Windows can't directly interact with the data contained inside a zipped folder. 00:01:07.240 --> 00:01:12.200 And at first, this might seem confusing because you can just double-click a zip folder to open it, 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:18.120 and there's the files, just like any other folder. But that functionality had to be added to Windows, 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:23.760 and the operating system didn't even natively support extracting zip files in Windows Explorer 00:01:23.800 --> 00:01:27.400 until Windows ME came out in the year 2000. 00:01:27.400 --> 00:01:34.480 This is a major part of the reason that programs such as Winzip and Winrar were so popular during the 90s. 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:41.960 They were necessary unless the compressed files that you needed to open came in something called a self-extracting archive. 00:01:41.960 --> 00:01:46.480 These had the decompression program built in so you would just download and run them, 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:49.720 and they would spit out the uncompressed files automatically. 00:01:49.720 --> 00:01:58.400 But simply being able to open up and view a zip folder in File Explorer isn't the same thing as working with the files within. 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:02.880 Whenever you double-click a file, like an EXE that's inside a zip folder, 00:02:02.880 --> 00:02:07.360 Windows actually unzips that file in the background without telling you. 00:02:07.360 --> 00:02:12.800 The whole process is invisible. Windows can't run the compressed version of the EXE, 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:17.760 so the program is instead unzipped to a temporary folder and then it's run normally. 00:02:17.760 --> 00:02:21.600 But there's a way that you can actually see this happen for yourself. 00:02:21.600 --> 00:02:25.000 Next time you try to run an EXE directly from a zip folder, 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:28.880 first open up a Run command using the Windows key and R, 00:02:28.880 --> 00:02:33.160 then type in this command to bring up your personal temporary folder. 00:02:33.160 --> 00:02:38.080 If you run the EXE now, you might be able to spot it in one of those subfolders. 00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:45.280 Now, the program might work fine if there aren't other files inside the zip that the program depends upon, 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:48.560 but if there are, such as DLLs, you'll get an error message 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:54.800 because the program can't access those files that it needs while they're still compressed inside the zip folder. 00:02:54.800 --> 00:03:00.480 That's why it's usually important to unzip or extract the entire contents of a folder 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:08.720 before trying to do something like run an installer. And it's also why standalone files like images or text documents will typically work just fine 00:03:08.720 --> 00:03:15.360 without unzipping the entire folder first. An exception would be something like a text document that had images embedded in it 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:21.120 that were also zipped in the folder. But not everyone likes waiting around for their zip folders to fully unzip, 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:26.800 so if you're impatient like me, third-party tools like 7zip or Winrar do still exist 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:30.640 and tend to be a little faster than Windows' built-in solution. 00:03:30.640 --> 00:03:35.760 Third-party solutions also usually offer better features than Windows' built-in compression support, 00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:39.040 especially if you're looking to create a compressed folder. 00:03:39.040 --> 00:03:44.720 They'll offer more efficient compression algorithms and stronger encryption for sensitive files. 00:03:44.720 --> 00:03:50.160 And don't worry, we won't tell on you if you never end up actually paying for Winrar. 00:03:50.160 --> 00:03:53.200 If you guys enjoyed this video, you can like or dislike depending on how you feel. 00:03:53.200 --> 00:03:57.760 If you really liked it, you can check out our video on how data compression works more generally 00:03:57.760 --> 00:04:03.360 and you can leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a future video. Just don't forget to subscribe so that you catch it.