Page 48 - Computeractive - January 2, 2018 UK

Secre t T i ps F o r …

Zip p i n g and u nzip p i n g file s

Hide ZIP fi les w ithin photos, password-protect s ensitive fi les, automatically

extract t hem to specific folders a nd more

Automatically name
a Z IP file a fter a s pecific file
When you u se Windows’ built-in
compression tool to unzip a g roup of
files, y ou often seem to end u p w ith a
ZIP file t hat’s n amed after a r andom file
in your group. Th ere i s, in fact, a h idden
way to control h ow Windows n ames your
ZIP fi les. O pen F ile E xplorer, l ocate y our
files and d rag ( or Ctrl+click) t o s elect
those y ou want to zip. Now , when you Name your compressed file after a s pecific file PeaZip’s bookmarks let y ou use s hortcut keys
right-click y our s election to access the by using the ‘ Send to’ o ption to unzip your files i nto s pecific folders
‘Send t o’ option, m ake s ure y ou click t he
specific file y ou want to name your ZIP Now c lick Start, type cmd a nd Unzip files to specific folders
after. S elect ‘Send t o’, t hen ‘ Compressed press E nter. A t t he command p rompt, Our f avourite free archive t ool, PeaZip
(zipped) f older)’ (see screenshot above type cd desktop and p ress Enter. Then (www.peazip.org) h as some g reat hidden
right) and y our Z IP file w ill be named type copy / B M yimage.png+Myzipfile.zip features, i ncluding s hortcuts that let y ou
after the fi le you r ight-clicked. Newimage.png M yimage.png (cut and unzip fi les to your favourite f olders. O pen
paste this from www.pastebin.com/ PeaZip and n avigate t o a f older y ou want
Hide a Z IP file w ithin an image J3RGJR9r), where M yimage.png and to add a s a f avourite. R ight-click t he
Y o u c an use command p rompt to Myzipfile.zip are t he names o f y our i mage folder a nd select Navigation, t hen ‘ Add t o
disguise a Z IP file a s a n i nnocent-looking and Z IP files, a nd Newimage.png i s t he bookmarks’ ( see s creenshot above). Y o u’ll
picture fi le. F irst, fi nd an image fi le – name of the fi le you’re creating. see y our f older l isted u nder Bookmarks.
any JPEG, PNG or GIF will do – a nd place Press E nter and N ewimage.png Note where t he folder a ppears in the l ist.
it on your desktop. N ow find a Z IP file will appear on your desktop. Th e fi le If it’s the s ixth bookmark f rom t he top,
and p ut this on the d esktop, t oo. R ename works l ike a n ormal image fi le, s o y ou for e xample, y ou can use t he keyboard
the fi les so there a re no spaces i n t he can view i t i n a n i mage-editing program. shortcut Ctrl+6 to extract t he contents
names. If your image fi le is called ‘My To reveal the h idden fi les, o pen P eaZip of any fi le directly i nto t hat f older.
image.png’, f or example, right-click (see next tip), navigate to the i mage
it, s elect Rename and c hange i t t o file, then right-click i t a nd select ‘Open Password-protect y our fi les
Myimage.png. as archive’. To hide a fi le from prying eyes, y ou
can add i t t o a n e ncrypted a rchive. I n
Con v ert from one f ormat t o a nother PeaZip, b rowse t o t he file y ou want to
t he
encrypt, click
i t, then click
A dd. I n
box t hat o pens, s elect a f ormat from the
PeaZip support l ots of different a rchive you h aving t o e xtract the c ontents fi rst. dropdown menu, t hen c lick ‘Enter
file t ypes and i ncludes the u seful a bility For e xample, i f y ou have a RAR or 7z password/keyfile’. T ype a nd confirm your
to convert from one t o a nother w ithout file t hat y ou want to share w ith a f riend password (see screenshot below), and
but you’re not sure whether t hey’ll click O K t wice. Now , only p eople w ith
have a t ool t o e xtract its contents, y ou the p assword c an unzip t he file.
could convert it to a Z IP file ( which
Windows c an extract w ithout any e xtra
tools). Locate your file i n F ile E xplorer,
right-click i t a nd select PeaZip, t hen
Convert. I n t he bottom pane of the
window that opens, select the f ormat
you w ant t o c onvert to – Z IP, f or
example – f rom t he top d ropdown
menu, t hen c lick OK. Use PeaZip to password-protect y our f iles and
hide their c ontents f rom p rying e yes

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