I have created a few little programs that export data to a text file using StreamWriter and then I read them back in using StreamReader. This works great and does what I nee
You can use the Ionic zip libraries to zip those text files. If necessary you could also use features of Ionic zip like password protection and encryption. And you'll still be able to open the file (with zipping applications like, for example, 7zip) manually yourself using the same settings you used to create it in the first place.