OK maybe I’m the last person in the world to know how easy it is to zip a file or folder using XP. In case I’m not the last I thought I’d share what I learned today:

How To Zip a file or folder
1. Select the file or folder you want to compress.
2. Right click and choose Send To
3. Slide Right and choose Compressed (zipped) folder
4. Allow the file or folder to compress.
5. You should now see an icon with the same name plus a Zip
o It may even have a zipper on the folder.
6. This is the compressed file that you may put on the server or send via email.

If you want to send a large file or a whole folder to someone via email is often makes sense to zip it first to compress the size. It makes it easier to send but more importantly easier to receive as a smaller file. To unzip you can generally just open the file and files should automatically expand. One word of caution, you shouldn’t unzip files from people you don’t know or even from people you know but aren’t expecting to send you anything. It is very easy to send a virus in a zipped file.