What is archive utility

A system utility called Archive Utility leaps into action automatically. Archive Utility can work with many types of archives—others you might encounter include. You can tell if it will work when the file is labeled with the standard zip icon. Double-click its icon, and it appears in your Dock. By default, these files expand into their current folder or directory.

To change the default destination click on the Save Expanded Files menu and choose Into. In the sheet that appears, select a new folder. For example, if you often download files and would like to expand archives into a folder other than your Downloads folder, you can create a separate folder for these archives. If you want to tell Archive Utility where to save the archives you create, from the Save archive popup menu, choose Into, then select a location.

Otherwise, they are created in the same folder as the original items. When you compress items in the Finder, Archive Utility always creates a Zip archive. However, you can use Archive Utility to create compressed archives in other formats; you might want to do this to such archives to people for use on other operating systems. You can use one of three archive formats in this manner: Compressed archive, regular archive, and Zip archive.

After archiving , Archive Utility can leave files alone do nothing to them , move them to the Trash, or delete them without moving them to the Trash. You can always recover them from the Trash if you need to keep them. You may want to change other settings, especially if you need to keep your.

Archive Utility is an essential tool. The procedures and screenshots described here apply to macOS Search for "Archive Utility" in the Finder's search bar to find it quickly. Archive Utility opens without presenting a window; instead, there's just a set of menus along the top of the screen. The Preferences window is broken into two sections: one for expanding files, and the other, for compressing them. The options for expanding files are:. Save expanded files : Select where you want to store expanded files on your Mac.

The default location is the same folder that holds the archived file you're expanding. To change the destination for all file expansions, click the arrows to the right and navigate to the desired destination folder. After expanding : This specifies what happens to the original file after it's expanded. The default action is to leave the archive file in its current location leave archive alone , or you can choose from the drop-down menu to instead move the archive file to the trash, delete the archive, or move the archive file to specific folder.

If you choose the last option, you are directed to navigate to the target folder. Remember, this folder will be used as the target location for all archived files that you expand. You can change your selections at any time, but it's usually simpler to select one location and stick to it. Reveal expanded item s in Finder : When checked, this option causes the Finder to highlight the files you expanded.

This can be handy when the files in an archive have different names than what you were expecting. Keep expanding if possible : This box is checked by default and tells the Archive Utility to keep expanding items it finds within the archive. This is helpful when an archive contains other archives.

For files with zip content, an Extract The Package Explorer for example shows an Extract In the Project Explorer view, zip files can be expanded just like folders to reveal their content. Each file within the archive can be viewed in an editor.