# Software compatibility

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/software-compatibility/6334>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [February 5, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/software-compatibility/6334 "2025-02-05T16:32:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Michael\_Hall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@Michael\_Hall](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Michael_Hall)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/software-compatibility/6334/1 "2025-02-05T16:32:50Z")

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First time with IPUMS. Downloaded files to my computer. Opened the zip files. Files will not open. Computer suggests downloading an app. What program do I need to open the data? Thanks

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**Author:** ![KariWilliams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@KariWilliams](https://forum.ipums.org/u/KariWilliams)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 10:33pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/software-compatibility/6334/2 "2025-02-05T22:33:51Z")

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By default, IPUMS microdata files are delivered as fixed-width files that are compressed (\*.dat.gz). I recommend [7zip](http://7zip.org/) as a free decompression software for Windows and [The Unarchiver](https://theunarchiver.com/) for Macs. This [blog post](https://blog.popdata.org/open-ipums-data-in-stats-pkg/) has a bit more information on decompressing the files as well as opportunities requesting data files that are formatted for specific statistical software packages.