Creating a zip file

[B.W.]

If I want to send an exe file to someone and it's too big. When I follow
the instructions on creating a zipped file, I seem to end up with both the
zipped and unzipped files the same size. What am I missing here?

Many thanks

B.W.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

If I want to send an exe file to someone and it's too big. When I
follow the instructions on creating a zipped file, I seem to end up
with both the zipped and unzipped files the same size. What am I
missing here?

Zipping compresses some files a little, some files a lot, and some files not
at all. What kind of file is it? For example, a jpg file is already
compressed and zipping normally does nothing to make it smaller.

 

[Richard Urban]

Exe files are already compressed to the max. Zipping them gives you no
further compression to speak of.

The only reason to zip it is to allow it to be sent/read by some programs
that will not allow an .exe file to be transmitted or read at the receiving
end.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[B.W.]

So exe and jpg cannot be zipped so does that mean everything other file
format can?

TIA

B.W.

 

[Richard Urban]

Take the file format extension you are interested in and search for it in
Google. Find out if it is already compressed. Dozens of types are and it is
not possible for me to go down the list and tell you about every file
extension that exists.

http://www.file-ext.com/

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[B.W.]

Thank you, will do.

B.W.

Take the file format extension you are interested in and search for it in
Google. Find out if it is already compressed. Dozens of types are and it
is not possible for me to go down the list and tell you about every file
extension that exists.

http://www.file-ext.com/

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Jonny]

Richard never said a exe or jpg could not be zipped. He inferred that an
executable could not be compressed to any appreciable extent. Which, I
agree with.
He's talking compressibility. Routines and subroutines created then altered
to pure machine language as executables are compressed by that very process.
Files as zip and tar have compression as part of their programming on other
files, not themselves during that process. And, there is an extent of
compressibility option as part of zipping.
To answer your question bluntly, yes and no. If appreciable compression is
understood on your part as part of zipping, no to all file formats other
than the 2 you mentioned. If not, yes.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

So exe and jpg cannot be zipped so does that mean everything other
file format can?

No, nobody said that exe and jpg files can't be zipped. *Any* file can be
zipped. The question is whether zipping compresses files. In general zipping
exe and jpg files (and some other types) provides litle, if any, compression

Richard mentioned one reason why you might zip a file that can't be
compressed. I'll mention a couple of others:

1. A zipped file can be password-protected.

2. A zipped file can contain more than one individual file. If you have
several files you want to treat as a single package (for example, the
component files of a an application), it can be very convenient to package
them as a single entity. That makes it easy, for example, to E-mail it to
someone, or to put it on a web site where it can be downloaded by others as
a single file.

 

[Vanguard]

If I want to send an exe file to someone and it's too big. When I
follow the instructions on creating a zipped file, I seem to end up
with both the zipped and unzipped files the same size. What am I
missing here?

That the .exe is not compressible. Alternates to sending large files
(that exceed the per-message size quota of your e-mail provider):

http://www.dropload.com/
http://www.sendover.com/
http://www.yousendit.com/

You will probably want to change the extension from .exe to, say, .exx
so the recipient's e-mail security won't block access to executable
attachments. Tell the recipient in the body of your post to rename the
file after they save it to disk.

 

[rootj4m13]

All file formats, can be compressed weather it be .ZIP .RAR .TZ
I find winRAR an must have program for day to day mass ZIPin an
unZIPing. I use it daily and have little errors with it
http://rarlabs.com When using an program rather than the windows shel
to zip files most likley you will have an option for zipping up file
and compression methods. If this fails try a free file hosting service
There are many about now

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

All file formats, can be compressed weather it be .ZIP .RAR .TZ

You can run a compression algorithm on any kind of file, but whether it
actually compresses any is another matter. Some files don't compress at all.
In fact in some cases, compressing a file can actually make it slightly
larger, since you end up with the overhead of the compression, but no
actual compression takes place.