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Is there anybody going to listen to my story? The one about the most popular Zip file utility for Windows?! Version 10.0 makes me belong to the 10th generation of WinZip reviewers. Well, not to seem completely useless, I will assume there still exists somebody who might not use it. So, come on: WinZip 10.0 compresses and decompresses files, folders, entire folder trees, and so efficiently archives documents. It has long set the standard for file compression utilities.

WinZip has two separate interfaces: Classical and Wizard ones. Of course, Wizard will guide you throw all stages of the process, no doubts. But more or less, it's a tribute to the days when users just started accumulating computing experience. Now, when intuitive interface is an integral part of every good program, don't make a short story longer and use Classical interface. It's how it looks.

WinZip compresses and decompresses data, lets us create archives (New), organize (Favorites), manage, e-mail, print them, add and delete files from archives, view their contents (View), encrypt archive data (Encrypt), check if archives have been created without mistakes (Actions -Test), scan files for viruses (Actions – Virus Test or Checkout),etc.

Along with the standard dialog windows, the Windows drag-and-drop interface is fully supported. To extract files from an archive to a desired folder in Windows Explorer or to the desktop, just drag them there. It would also hold for the files used by applications. The target application will treat the files as if they had been dropped from My Computer or Windows Explorer. So, drag and drop to zip and unzip, create new archives, open existing zip files or add files to open archives.

We can view the contents of most documents in an archive: documents of Microsoft applications, pdf, mp3, etc. run by double-clicking them.

The Favorites Zip folders helps to browse all Zip files organized into one convenient list, regardless of their actual location. Zip files can be sorted by date.

E-mailing archives, we drastically reduce transmission time. Compression up to 90 % for Microsoft Office documents plus we send 1 file (archive), instead of…20. WinZip allows doing it from inside the program.

Some more quite standard, but useful features.

Split option splits an archive into multiple smaller parts of a customer specified size. It's especially useful under the circumstances of corporate mail limits.

Install option helps to install software from archives that contain Setup or Install programs.

Make .Exe File option converts an archive into a self-extracting archive. A receiver, in the case, doesn't have to have WinZip installed. It's an obvious plus. Some points of curiosity are why it is sender's task to define receiver's folder to extract files into, and why we are offered the option of an old spanning method which seems to be unsafe and inconvenient (consult Help to learn why and don't use it).

As an every easy to comprehend and use program, WinZip has a clear, well-structured, context-sensitive Help. All dialog windows contain a Help key. Pressing it we get right to the corresponding Help section.

WinZip features built-in support for many popular Internet file formats and so, with its help, we can access almost all compressed and encoded files downloaded from the Internet.

Now about some objective inconveniences you may face. WinZip uses our external virus scanner to check files in the archive for viruses. The list of supported anti-viruses is on winzip.com/xvirus90.htm That's it, the rest will not work. In this situation, configure your anti-virus program to scan all files that you work with in real time: God helps those who help.

Do not forget, WinZip doesn't compress files of the formats which presuppose compression: jpg, mpeg, gif, mp3, etc. Actually, it does, but by 1-4%. Adding such file to your archive, we get the opportunity to send them as a whole, but without additional benefits in size.

In 3 French words, WinZip is "Comme il faut" meaning, "as it should be": easy-to-use and perfectly fulfilling regular user's needs.

WinZip keywords: winzip, compression, zip, unzip, archive, extract, extraction, split, splitting, span, spanning, pack, unpack, encrypt, decrypt, aes, backup, data backup, ftp, ppmd