Does Windows have a built-in ZIP command for the command line?

It's not built into Windows, but it's in the Resource Kit Tools as COMPRESS,

C:\>compress /?

Syntax:

COMPRESS [-R] [-D] [-S] [ -Z | -ZX ] Source Destination
COMPRESS -R [-D] [-S] [ -Z | -ZX ] Source [Destination]

Description:
Compresses one or more files.

Parameter List:
-R Rename compressed files.

-D Update compressed files only if out of date.

-S Suppress copyright information.

-ZX LZX compression. This is default compression.

-Z MS-ZIP compression.

Source Source file specification. Wildcards may be
used.

Destination Destination file | path specification.
Destination may be a directory. If Source is
multiple files and -r is not specified,
Destination must be a directory.

Examples:

COMPRESS temp.txt compressed.txt
COMPRESS -R *.*
COMPRESS -R *.exe *.dll compressed_dir

Not that I'm aware of. As far as third party tools goes, 7zip has a pretty nice command line interface and the binary can be distributed with your app in the app's directory, so you don't have to rely on it being installed ahead of time.

Powershell does. See:

Compress Files with Windows PowerShell then package a Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget

.Net 4.5 has this functionality built in, and it can be leveraged by PowerShell. You'll need to be on Server 2012, Windows 8, or have .Net 4.5 installed manually.

[Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.IO.Compression.FileSystem")
$Compression = [System.IO.Compression.CompressionLevel]::Optimal
$IncludeBaseDirectory = $false

$Source = "C:\Path\To\Source"
$Destination = "C:\CoolPowerShellZipFile.zip"

[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::CreateFromDirectory($Source,$Destination,$Compression,$IncludeBaseDirectory)

Update - Build 1803 (March 2018)

Per What's new for the Command Line in Windows 10 version 1803, windows now ships with tar.exe built-in, which you can use like this:

C:\temp> tar.exe -xf files.zip

Further Reading

• Create .zip folder from the command line
• Compress (zip) and uncompress (unzip) files and folders with batch file
• Tar and Curl Come to Windows!
• tar manpage

Another solution found on superuser site use windows native com object in .bat file:

Can you zip a file from the command prompt using ONLY Windows' built-in capability to zip files?

There is a single, simple PowerShell command for this. (PowerShell v5.0+)

To zip:

Compress-Archive -LiteralPath 'C:\mypath\testfile.txt' -DestinationPath "C:\mypath\Test.zip"

To unzip:

Expand-Archive -LiteralPath "C:\mypath\Test.Zip" -DestinationPath "C:\mypath" -Force

Sources:

• Compress-Archive

• Expand-Archive

Special thanks to @Ramhound