Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
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ZDNET's key takeaways
Zipping files enables users to organize their files more efficiently and expedite sharing.
Windows 11's native tools enable users to compress multiple files and folders without additional software.
There are also third-party options with unique and useful features.
Compressing files into a ZIP folder is a great way to bring order to your digital life. By bundling everything together into a small archive, you free up storage while keeping related content together. You can even safely delete the original, since a copy is preserved.
ZIP folders also make sharing large files much faster. Instead of waiting minutes for multi-gig downloads or uploads, compression cuts down on those transfer times to a fraction of what they'd be otherwise.
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Learning how to zip and unzip files is a basic skill every Windows 11 user should know. In the past, you would've had to install WinRAR or WinZip onto your computer, but those days are gone. Windows 11 has a built-in compression and extraction tool that handles everything for you.
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