Frequently Asked Questions About Downloading

©2006 --- Eric's home page --- A86/D86 --- ZIPKEY --- E-mail Eric
  • What do I do with a .ZIP file? How do I run it?
  • What if I am told that the viewer cannot display a .ZIP file?

  • What do I do with a .ZIP file? How do I run it?

    Each one of my software products (A86, D86, and ZIPKEY) can be downloaded as a single file whose name ends with ".ZIP". "Zipping" is a method for compressing a number of different files into a single file. To use my software, you must "unzip" the file into the original group of files that comprise my product.

    "Zipping" was invented by PKWare, Inc., and the most popular program for unzipping is called PKUNZIP. You can click here to go to PKWare's home page, and download the latest complete PKZIP and PKUNZIP programs.

    Note that "Zipping" and the .ZIP extension have nothing to do with zip codes. (PKWare changed the name from ARChiving to ZIPping about the same time I was writing ZIPKEY -- I groaned when I saw that, because I knew people would confuse my product with theirs!)

    After you have downloaded one of my packages, you should create a new subdirectory on your hard drive, move the .ZIP file there, make the directory the current directory, and invoke PKUNZIP or PCUNZIP to unpack the files. Here is a sequence of commands you can type to your DOS command prompt, to do this for ZIPKEY, assuming you have PKUNZIP, you have figured out where the ZIPKEY.ZIP file is on your hard drive, and you made that the current directory with the CHDIR command:

      mkdir \ZIPKEY
      copy zipkey.zip \zipkey
      del zipkey.zip
      chdir \zipkey
      pkunzip zipkey.zip 
    

    What if I am told that the viewer cannot display a .ZIP file?

    If you click on one of my files to download, you might get a message saying your viewer cannot display the file, and inviting you to save the file to your disk. You should say Yes to that invitation, since that is exactly what you want.

    If you wish to avoid that extra message in the future, you might want to explore the configuration options of your Web Browser software. Most browsers allow you to specify that files with the extension .ZIP are to be automatically saved to disk, and are not intended to generate any kind of screen display.


    Eric's home page --- A86/D86 --- ZIPKEY --- E-mail Eric