12 Days of Techmas, Day 3: Unzipping Your Files

Zipping computer files is great for shrinking the size of a large bunch of data. Back in the old days, we used to zip files a lot to make sure they fit on floppy disks or diskettes. Nowadays, zipping is useful because it reduces upload/download time. That's why a lot of downloads from places like TeachersPayTeachers are zipped. The smaller the file, the faster the download. 


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Extra credit if you still have one of these (but minus points if you still use it).


Working with zipped files is one of those "good news, bad news" kind of things. (BTW, I'm strictly talking about computer files here; any thoughts of other kinds of unzipping are entirely your own fault.)


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Keep it clean here, people!




The good news is that zipping keeps download sizes small. The bad news is that, on the other end, you have to unzip the files to use them. Unzipping used to be a pain (running WinZip or similar), then became easy (built into Windows 7 devices), and then became annoying again with Chromebooks.


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It's tough being a file-compression enthusiast.

Why annoying on Chromebooks? Because there's a good way to unzip files and lots and lots of bad ways. Unzipping with third-party apps can introduce a host of issues, including potential viruses, adware, privacy concerns, and incontinence [citation needed].

So below, I'm providing the best way to unzip your files, depending on whether you primarily use a Chromebook or Windows device.

Unzipping on a Chromebook
Google was super helpful by providing a great unzipping tool for Chromebooks....and then they hid it where no one would look for it. <Sigh>.

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C'mon Google, get it together

To unzip files in your Google Drive, you need to open the "Files" app in your Chromebook app drawer, not in Google Drive in a browser tab. [If you ever get a pop-up asking you to "install" or "allow"  or "connect" an unzipping app, don't do it.]
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1. At the bottom of your Chromebook screen, click the circle icon, click the up arrow, and choose Files.

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2. In the explorer, find your file. (If you have trouble finding it, look in either the Google Drive section or in My files > Downloads*.) 
 *Remember that anything stored in Downloads is not backed up to the cloud. It's much safer to store things in your Google Drive than in Downloads.

3. Double-click your file to see the compressed files inside. This creates a little faux-flash-drive in the explorer.
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4. Select whichever compressed files you want. Right-click (or Alt-click) and choose Copy.

5. Navigate to a good place in your Google Drive. Right-click (or Alt-click) and choose Paste. This will both unzip the files and put them where you need them.

6. When done, click the little "eject" icon to close the faux-flash-drive.


Unzipping on a Windows device

Unzipping is built into Windows 7  and Windows 10. 


1. Open the file explorer and navigate to your zipped file (probably in Downloads*) and double-click it.  *Remember that anything stored in Downloads is not backed up to the cloud. It's much safer to store things in your Google Drive or networked Document folder than in Downloads.
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2. At the top of the window, you'll see a new menu called Extract > Compressed Folder Tools. In that menu, click the Extract all button.
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3. In the pop-up choose where to save the unzipped files (I also like to check "Show extracted files when complete") then click Extract.
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4. In a few moments, a new folder will appear with all of your extracted files.