Raising Linux . com

Since I do a decent amount of work with Linux, I often find that I need to work with various types of compressed files, such as TAR and RPM, on Windows computers. 7-Zip is a great free Open Source program that can easily zip/unzip almost any type of compressed file with a simple right-click of the mouse and is also a very good add-on for Windows. The more you begin to work with Linux, the greater this need becomes as almost everyone is using a Windows computer somewhere in the mix. For example, if you were using a Windows machine with Putty (a free Open Source SSH client) to administer a Linux server, you could easily work with Linux compressed files for back and forth transfer.

Downloading, installing, and using 7-Zip is very simple as the software package is only 1MB in size. Here are the steps:

1. Visit the 7-Zip download page here and download the installer in .exe format and save it to your Desktop.
2. Once the installer has been downloaded, double-click the file to start the install and click Install accepting the default Install Location. (pic below)
3. Click Finish and you are ready to begin using 7-Zip for all your zip/unzip needs.

From this point on, simply right-click on a compressed file and choose 7 Zip from the right-click menu and choose an action. For example, find the 7-Zip install file on your Desktop that we used above, right-click the file, choose 7-Zip, and Open Archive to display the contents of the exe file. Also, from the right-click menu, you can choose other options such as extracting the compressed file to the current location etc. (pic below)
 

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