Anybody know how to open the zip files on the MacBook sucessfully?

Macs have had the ability to open ZIP files since around 10.3. They can also open the more popular Unix archives, like TAR and GZ.

If you are downloading ZIP files from limewire, there may be more to it. File sharers often split large files into smaller pieces, and you need to know what to do with the pieces. The files may be infected. You may have downloaded junk. There are many "dummy" files on P2P networks that are simply garbage...

Steve

To check whether or not the computer's zip functions are working correctly, take any file, right click it (ctrl-click), and select the "compress " option. When and if it zips up into an archive, then try uncompressing the archive. If it all works then the problem lies with the specific files you've downloaded, rather than OS X's abilities to handle zip files.

I've tried opening with BOMArchivehelper; It just keeps copying the file to the desktop. I tried "take any file, right click it (ctrl-click), and select the "compress <item>" option" with a different file and there is no option of "compress" when I ctrl-click.

Clearly I'm doing something wrong. I can't figure this out. Any other suggestions for opening a ZIP file that was sent to me via email? It opens as a pptx file and then pptx2.cpgz. BTW, before the above I downloaded a new version of Stuffit Expander and tried that to no avail. I also tried opening the file with Power point. No go.

That file was probably an attachment that was scrambled by your ISP. Just copy the file to your desktop and re-name it to what it is supposed to be. Try giving it a ".zip" extension. If that doesn't work try giving it a ".ppt" extension.

If the OS isn't decompressing the .zip file properly you try using Stuffit Expander, its free from their site, I usually find It works if the Archive Utility doesn't.

I hope that solves your problem