This article was written by Darlene Antonelli, MA. Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities.
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Do you want to share some files from your computer, but get a "File size too large" error? You're in luck! This wikiHow article will show you how to compress files by zipping them. If you right-click on a file or folder, then select Properties, you can see its sizes before and after compressing.
Steps
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1
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2Right-click the folder or file. A menu will pop up next to your cursor.
- If you want to compress multiple files, hold Ctrl down while you click to select multiple items.
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3Hover your mouse over Send to. It's near the bottom of the menu, and hovering over that will prompt another window to appear.
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4Click Compressed (zipped) folder. It's next to an icon of a folder with a zipper.
- A new zipped folder with what you right-clicked will be created in the same location of File Explorer.
- The cursor is active within the compressed folder name, so you can rename it.[1]
- To extract anything inside the zipped folder, click to select it, then click Extractand Extract All at the top of your File Explorer window.
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Community Q&A
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QuestionHow do I determine size of the file to be compressed?
Community AnswerTypically, if you right click the file and go to properties, it will show details about the file, including the size.
References
About This Article
1. Navigate to the folder or file that you want to compress in File Explorer.
2. Right-click the folder or file.
3. Hover your mouse over Send to.
4. Click Compressed (zipped) folder.
