Easily compress and decompress files on Windows 11

Do you know how to compress or decompress files on a Windows 11 computer? The most direct way is to use the compression function that comes with Windows 11. This article will show you the best way to compress and decompress files on Windows 11.

Compress files are to save space or share files over the Internet. This is a very useful feature in all Windows versions, including the latest Windows version Windows 11. Windows 11 can still use its own compression capabilities. If you don't want to use third-party file compression tools to compress or decompress files, you can do the same thing directly using the built-in compression tools in Windows 11.

In this guide, we will show you how to use this native compression feature on your Windows 11 device to compress and decompress files. You can create a .zip folder and manage the contents in the compressed folder through the new Windows 11 File Explorer ribbon.

Tip: The method of compressing and decompressing files on Windows 10 also works for Windows 11.

How to compress files on Windows 11?

You can compress files on Windows 11 by following these steps:

Step 1: Press Win E to open File Explorer.

Step 2: Open the folder containing the files you want to compress.

Step 3: Click the New button in the top ribbon. Then, select the zipped folder from the expanded menu.

Step 4: Type a name for the .zip folder in the pop-up window. Then, press Enter .

Step 5: Select the files and folders to compress. If there are multiple files and folders, you can select multiple target files and folders by holding down the Ctrl key and selecting the target files and folders one by one.

Step 6: Right-click the selected file and folder and select Cut from the context menu.

Step 7: Double-click the newly created .zip folder to open it.

Step 8: Click the Paste button to move the selected files and folders to the .zip folder.

After completing these steps, a .zip folder is created to contain all the required files and folders. Remember that files and folders can be saved to the same .zip folder. The .zip folder can take up less space on the device. Additionally, it is very easy to share .zip folders with others that contain many files and folders.

How to share compressed folders?

You can share compressed folders with nearby devices or use email sharing. Here is how to share a compressed folder with others.

Step 1: Open File Explorer.

Step 2: Open the folder containing the compressed folder.

Step 3: Select the target .zip folder and click the Share button in the top ribbon.

Step 4: Select the device with which you want to share the zip file.

Step 5: Select the contact or email client application to send the compressed folder by email.

Step 6: Follow the on-screen guide to send the compressed folder to the destination location.

How to unzip a file on Windows 11?

You can open a compressed folder to view all files and folders in it. However, if you want to edit the files in it, you need to extract the files from the compressed folder first. Here are two situations:

How to extract all files?

Step 1: Open File Explorer.

Step 2: Access the folder where the compressed folder is saved.

Step 3: Select the .zip folder and select Extract from the top ribbon of File Explorer.

Step 4: By default, the extracted files and folders will be saved to the same location as the compressed folder. If necessary, you can click the Browse button to select another location to save the extracted files and folders.

Step 5: Select the extracted file to display the extracted file after the extraction is completed .

Step 6: Click the Extract button to start extracting files and folders.

After the process is over, the folder containing the extracted files and folders will be automatically opened.

How to extract files separately?

Step 1: Open File Explorer.

Step 2: Access the folder where the compressed folder is saved.

Step 3: Open the compressed folder.

Step 4: Select the files and folders to extract.

Step 5: Click Cut in the top ribbon.

Step 6: Go to the path where you want to save the extracted content and click Paste in the top ribbon.

How to recover lost or deleted compressed files on Windows 11?

If your compressed folder is accidentally lost or deleted, do you know how to retrieve it? You can use MiniTool Power Data Recovery, a free file recovery tool, to recover them.

This data recovery software is specially designed to recover over 100 types of files from a variety of data storage devices. It has a trial version that you can use to scan the drive from which you want to recover data. You can then check if it can find the compressed file you need.

Once this software is installed, you can open it and select the drive that saved the lost or deleted files before to scan, and if the trial version can find the files you need, you can use the full version to recover them without limit.

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