I guess I'm stupid - I really don't get Winzip.

Factual Questions
1

I go to sites that have screensavers, etc. and they’ve got things like Winamp skins zipped up. I understand wanting to compress the files, but when I extract them, they’re a bunch of unrelated files that aren’t made into a single skin file. What the heck am I supposed to do with that?

2

OK, sorry, there were instructions on the site saying that you don’t need to extract the files.

I guess my question is, aren’t there many times when the files come in individually when you really need them compiled in some way (I’m aware that compile has a very specific meaning in coding, but I don’t know what else to use).

3

Sounds like those files are of the self-extracting variety, or maybe the program that uses the skins extracts them only when you change the skins.

4

I don’t get it either, really. For specifically the same reason.

Ginger

5

Most often, the extracted files include an installer, usually called ‘setup.exe’ or ‘install.exe’. If you don’t see the extension in Explorer, change the setting so extensions are not hidden. (Damn you, Bill!)

Unpack them to a temp directory, and double-click the setup program. That will move files to the right places and hook things into Windows. This is always a little hazardous - Windows encourages installation programs to replace system files and hack the registry, which can break Windows and make it very hard to get rid of software you don’t want. (Damn you again, Bill!)

6

So your question is more why it takes multiple files to accomplish a single purpose, than why WinZip exists, right? One reason is that a single application may consist of many types of information: executable instructions, sounds, pictures, alphanumeric data. Sometimes it makes more sense to organize these into separate files. Another reason is that multiple applications may share some files. In theory, this means you only have to donwload and store these shared files once, and each application can access them. Windows has used this idea to great success, but it’s a double-edged sword. As mentioned before, it’s one of the main reasons Windows is a bit … er, quirky.