Samar Haddad / The Verge
The ability to compress a file or a group of files so that they take up less space is something that has been available for practically as long as consumer computers have been available. The most popular method is called ZIP, which was first introduced back in 1989 and is still being used (although there are others just as, or more, efficient, such as RAR and TAR).
Once upon a time, you would have had to use a third-party app in order to zip or unzip files. However, that ability is now built into most, if not all, operating systems.
Zipped files are very easily identified — just look for the .zip at the end of the file name. If you want a slightly more complete explanation of the method for zipping a file (and this is still actually a…
