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Unzipping Compressed Files

Compressed files are files that have been reduced in size to allow for faster downloading. There are several formats of compressed files each named for the program used to compress it. For example (.zip) files are in the zip format and can be uncompressed with pkunzip or Winzip. Other formats range from (.arj) to (.rar) and can be uncommpressed using either arj or rar utilities.

    Unzipping (.zip) Files Using Winzip

  1. Windows 95/3.XX users can:
    1. Double click on the ".zip" file. (This should open Winzip)
    2. Select the "Install" button from the menu at the top of Winzip. If there is no Install button select the "Extract" button. (This should bring up the Extract window)
    3. Type the destination directory (The location of the folder you wish to extract / install the files to) in the "Extract To" field (example c:/temp) or browse to the folder in the "Folders/Drives" field. If you have not yet created a folder to extract the file to dont worry Winzip will create one for you... Just type the name of the folder that you wish to create. If this is confusing, just type c:\temp.
    4. Select the "Extract" button on the right hand side of the window. (Congratulations the files should have been successfully extracted)
    5. You may now close Winzip by selecting "File" then "Close".

    Unzipping (.zip) Files Using Pkunzip

  2. Windows 95 users can:
    1. Click the Start button and goto Programs / MSDOS promt
    2. Change to the directory where the (.zip) file is located. (example: cd\temp)
    3. type dir .zip and hit enter. [You should see the (.zip) file listed]
    4. Type "pkunzip -d filename.zip"(replacing filename with the name of the zip file and excluding the " "). This should extract the files into the current directory. If you want to choose another directory to extract the files to just enter the location at the end of the command line. (example: "pkunzip -d tictactoe.zip c:\games\tictactoe")
    5. To exit from MSDOS type exit and hit enter.

  3. Windows 3.1 users can:
    1. Goto your Main program group by clicking the "Main" icon in the Program Manager.
    2. Click on the MSDOS icon in the Main program group window.
    3. Change to the directory where the (.zip) file is located. (example: cd\temp)
    4. type dir .zip and hit enter. [You should see the (.zip) file listed]
    5. Type "pkunzip -d filename.zip" (replacing filename with the name of the zip file and excluding the " "). This should extract the files into the current directory. If you want to choose another directory to extract the files to just enter the location at the end of the command line.
      (example: "pkunzip -d tictactoe.zip c:\games\tictactoe")
    6. To exit from MSDOS type exit and hit enter.

    Executing Self-extracting (.exe) Files

    Basically you need to put the file in a directory by itself and double click it. It will either extract the install files or start the install process.

  4. Windows 95 users can:
    1. Browse to the folder that the (.exe) file is in, to do this click the Start button and goto Programs / Windows Explorer.
    2. Click on the appropriate drive letter on the left hand side of the window.(example: c:)
    3. Double click on the folder that the self extracting (.exe) file is located in.
    4. Make sure that it is in a directory by itself. If not then create a directory for it. To do this simply select your c: drive on the left hand side of the screen as seen in the image here and the contents of c: will appear in the window on the right. Then goto File / New / Folder and type the name of the new folder and hit the Enter key.
    5. Right click on the (.exe) file that you wish to run, and select Cut.
    6. Right click on the folder you created and select Paste.
    7. Left click on the folder to view its contents in the window on the right.
    8. Double click on the (.exe) file and it should extract the files or start the install process.

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