How to Zip or Unzip Files on Windows 11 Using Native Compression?

Zip is to compress files to save space or share files over the internet. This is a very useful feature on all versions of Windows including the new Windows version Windows 11. The native compression feature is still available on Windows 11. If you don’t want to use a third-party files compression tool to zip or unzip your files, you can directly use the Windows 11 built-in zip tool to do the same job.

In this guide, we will show you how to zip and unzip files using this native compression support on your Windows 11 device. You can create a .zip folder and manage the contents in the zipped folder via the ribbon bar in Windows 11’s new File Explorer.

How to Zip Files on Windows 11?

You can use these steps to zip files on Windows 11:

Step 1: Press Win + E to open File Explorer.

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

Step 3: Click the New button from the top ribbon bar. Then, select Compressed (zipped) Folder from the expanded menu.

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

Step 5: Select the files and folders you want to zip. If there are more than one file and folder, you can multi-select all the target files and folders by pressing the Ctrl key while you select the items one by one.

Step 6: Right-click the selection of files and folders, then 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 these steps, a .zip folder is created to contain all your needed files and folders. Remember that, files and folders could be saved to the same .zip folder. A .zip folder can take up less space on your device. Besides, it is quite easy to share a .zip folder that contains many files and folders with other people.

How to Share a Zipped Folder?

You can share a zipped folder with a nearby device or by using email. Here is how to share a zipped folder with others.

Step 1: Open File Explorer.

Step 2: Open the folder that contains the zipped folder.

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

Step 4: Select the device that you want to share the zip file with Nearby sharing.

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

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

How to Unzip Files on Windows 11?

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

How to Extract All Files?

Step 1: Open File Explorer.

Step 2: Access the folder that saves the zipped folder.

Step 3: Choose the .zip folder and select Extract from the top ribbon bar in File Explorer.

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

Step 5: Check Show extracted files when complete.

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

When the process ends, the folder that contains the extracted files and folders will be automatically open.

How to Extract Files Individually?

Step 1: Open File Explorer.

Step 2: Access the folder that saves the zipped folder.

Step 3: Open the zipped folder.

Step 4: Select the files and folders you want to extract.

Step 5: Click Cut from the top ribbon bar.

Step 6: Go to the path you want to save the extracted contents, then click Paste from the top ribbon bar.

How to Recover Your Lost or Deleted Zipped Files on Windows 11?

If your zipped folder gets lost or deleted by mistake, do you know how to get it back? You can use MiniTool Power Data Recovery, a free file recovery tool, to rescue them.

How to Recover Lost and Deleted Files in Windows 11? [6 Ways]

This post shows you how to recover deleted files in Windows 11 using different methods under various data loss situations.

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This data recovery software is specially designed to recover 100+ types of files from different kinds of data storage devices. It has a trial edition, with which you can scan the drive you want to recover data from. Then, you can check if it can find your needed zipped files.

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After installing this software, you can open it and select the drive that previously saves the lost or deleted files to scan, if the trial edition can find your needed files, you can use a full edition to recover them without limits.