Zip

A compressed file format (.zip). Many files available on the Internet are compressed or zipped in order to reduce storage space and transfer times. To uncompress the file, you need a utility like PKZip <http://www.squareonetech.com/glossry2.html> (DOS) or WinZip (Windows).

Files that have been compressed using the PKZIP program have this filename extension.They can be decompressed using the PKUNZIP utility.

Windows users will see this term a lot when looking for files on the Internet. In most cases, it refers to a "zipped" or compressed file. For example, when you download a file, if the filename looks like this: "filename.zip", you are downloading a zipped file. "Zipping" a file is compressing one or more files into a smaller archive so that they take up less space on your hard drive and take less time to transfer to another computer. This is why nearly all Windows files that you find on the Internet are compressed. To use a zipped file, however, you'll need to unzip it first. PKZIP, for DOS, or WinZip for Windows, are some popular programs that can unzip files for ya. Fortunately, they can be downloaded for free off shareware sites on the web. Macintosh files are most often "stuffed" into Stuff-it files (.sit), which can be "unstuffed" using Aladdin's Stuff-it Expander. The term "Zip" also refers to a product from Iomega. The company makes a removable storage device called a Zip Drive. It holds 100 and 250 MB Zip disks. Zip drives are usually used for backup and for transferring large files to different locations. However, they aren't as fast as hard drives, so most people don't run programs off them.