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You've jumped into the online world with both feet. You have the latest browser, e-mail package, and even an FTP application. So why can't you open that file you just downloaded? Odds are it's zipped--squeezed and compressed to a smaller size. To open it, you need a tool for decompressing files that are downloaded from the Internet. Don't have one? Don't worry. We're about to hook you up with a great one, and it won't cost you a dime.

Download PowerArchiver from FileWorld.

Zip files have been around since 1986. Back in those days, even a state-of-the-art modem could move only 2400 bits of data per second--about 23 times slower than today's 56-kbps modems--so it was essential to compress files as much as possible prior to transfer.

Compression shrinks a file by replacing duplicate patterns in data with shorter descriptions of those patterns. For instance, 100 consecutive zeros might be replaced with the number 100, then a 0.

The .zip format, invented by Phil Katz and placed in the public domain, became the most popular solution on the PC platform. It remains so to this day. Zip files are useful not just because they shrink files down, but also because one .zip file can contain numerous compressed files. If you need to send a dozen images to a friend, it's easier to put them in one .zip and then e-mail that one file, rather than sending all twelve separately.

Numerous commercial and shareware tools are available to handle .zip files, which Windows 9x can't read on its own. Niko Mak Computing's WinZip is the most well-known of these tools. After you download WinZip, it will nag you to cough up $29 for registration. Before 21 days pass, you must either make a payment or live in violation of WinZip's license agreement (and put up with the nagging).

But cost-free alternatives exist, including the one we're presenting here: PowerArchiver 2000. This gem is one of the Net's best-kept secrets.

• PowerArchiver very closely mimics the familiar WinZip Classic interface.
  
  
• It supports numerous archive formats besides .zip. (In this context, an "archive" simply refers to a file--like a .zip--that contains other, compressed files.) It can create .cab, .lha, and .tar files, among others. It can also read and extract from .arj, GZIP, BZIP2, and RAR files.
  
  
• An internal file viewer lets you open text and graphics files without extracting them from the archive.
  
  
• Integration with Windows Explorer lets you create, expand, and manage archives from your desktop without launching the PowerArchiver program itself.
  
  
• And best of all, it's free.