I recently bought a Macbook (I normally use Windows), and was surprised to find that the default Mac ZIP utility includes all of the invisible files from the Mac file system. All of these files are useful to the Finder and Spotlight, but they will create a BIG mess on your web server or create a lot of confusing and useless files for Windows users. What’s more, even if you use the Mac UNIX command-line ZIP, TAR, or GZIP utilities to zip files, the same thing happens: you get the invisible Mac system files.

Luckily, there is an inexpensive/free zip tool that fixes this problem: Yemu Zip. Yemu Zip creates clean Linux- or Windows-compatible zip files, and it’s free to try or $4.95 to buy it. I decided to pay the $4.95; if you consider the amount of time it would take to create such a tool, $4.95 is a real deal.

When you create a Zip file with Yemu Zip, it asks if you want to create a Windows- or Mac-compatible zip. Creating a zip is simple: just drag a folder or files onto the Yemu Zip icon on the dock and presto: you have a clean zip file.