ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression.

A-ZIP file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed.

The.ZIP file format permits a number of compression algorithms, though DEFLATE is the most common.

This format was originally created in 1989 by Phil Katz, and was first implemented in PKWARE, Inc.'s PKZIP utility, as a replacement for the previous ARC compression format by Thom Henderson.

The.ZIP format is now supported by many software utilities other than PKZIP.

Microsoft has included built-in.ZIP support (under the name "compressed folders") in versions of Microsoft Windows since 1998.

Apple has included built-in.ZIP support in Mac OS X 10.3 (via BOMArchiveHelper, now Archive Utility) and later.

Most have built in support for.ZIP in similar manners to Windows and Mac OS X.

RAR is a proprietary archive file format that supports data compression, error recovery and file spanning.

It was developed by a Russian software engineer, Eugene Roshal (the name RAR stands for Roshal Archive) and the RAR software is licensed by win.rar GmbH.

An Apple Disk Image is a disk image commonly used by the Mac OS X operating system.

When opened, an Apple disk image is "mounted" as a volume within the Finder.

An Apple disk image can be structured according to one of several proprietary disk image formats, including the Universal Disk Image Format (UDIF) and the New Disk Image Format (NDIF).

An Apple disk image file's name usually has ".dmg" as its extension.

In computing, tar is a computer software utility for collecting many files into one archive file, often referred to as a tarball, for distribution or backup purposes.

The name is derived from (t)ape (ar)chive, as it was originally developed to write data to sequential I/O devices with no file system of their own.

The archive data sets created by tar contain various file system parameters, such as name, time stamps, ownership, file access permissions, and directory organization.

The command line utility was first introduced in the seventh edition of unix (v7) in January 1979, replacing the tp program.

The file structure to store this information was later standardized in POSIX.1-1988 and later POSIX.1-2001.

and became a format supported by most modern file archiving systems.

exe is a common filename extension denoting an executable file (the main execution point of a computer program) for DOS, OpenVMS, Microsoft Windows, Symbian or OS/2 Besides the executable program, manyexe files contain other components called resources, such as bitmap graphics and icons which the executable program may use for its graphical user interface.