Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)NOTE: look at prices for various WinZip versions on Amazon. At the time of this writing, a Plus version of WinZip 15 was available at a lower price than this standard edition.
PROS:
* an essential tool for most Windows users
* allows you to create a complete set of related files in one file, while retaining the original directory structure, if any
* makes it easy for sharing files by keeping them all together, and by compressing them so they can be transferred faster
* includes an encryption capability to set a password to retrieve files you want to keep confidential
* includes a very useful shell extension for extract, add, or create a new archive
* a Mac edition of WinZip allows you to exchange files with a Mac user who has this program
* extracts from most common archive formats besides zip, including RAR, 7z, TAR, ISO, CAB, and several others
* single-user license agreement allows you to install on a second machine (for non-simultaneous use only), handy for users who have a laptop and a desktop
* can open and view a file in a zip archive without extracting it, by right-clicking on the file and selecting Open.
* works correctly with files made from my older WinZip 9 (standard zip file format), as I expected it would
* the enhanced zip file format - which cannot be read by older versions of WinZip - has a new extension, zipx, to avoid confusion
CONS:
* a couple of very minor inconveniences, described below
UPDATE: I am biased by my habit of using pkzip and WinZip for decades. Some of my friends prefer to use WinRAR and 7zip, so I have added a section describing Alternatives near the end.
WINZIP IS NEARLY ESSENTIAL...
WinZip is one of those tools that I think most PC and Mac users would find essential. The Pros above sum up the reasons. Though disk space is relatively inexpensive these days, and though Windows allows you to compress parts of your file system, it is incredibly useful to be able to create an archive of any number of related or inter-dependent files, including complete directory structures of files, for backup purposes, etc. While compressed media files (jpg, mp3, etc) do not always become smaller in an archive, it is still great to be able to keep a set of files together.
If you want to exchange files, it is convenient to have one file that contains all of the ones you want to share, and compressing it makes the transfer time (via Internet, or a thumb drive) faster. The ability to password-protect an archive makes it safe and convenient to exchange confidential files - for example, getting reports from a financial adviser using a mutually-known password.
Although the zip archive format is essentially a standard on Windows, WinZip extracts files from several other archive standards, including some that are common on Linux. And for Mac users, there is a Mac edition, so you can exchange files with either Windows or Mac users.
For people who need the features I have described, and don't have a program to do it at present, WinZip is a five-star utility.
...BUT IS IT WORTH UPGRADING TO THIS VERSION?
I have been using a licensed copy of WinZip 9.0 for several years. It does everything I need, and I consider WinZip an essential tool. So why would I need to upgrade? I decided to find out when I was offered a chance to review WinZip 15.
First and most important, the newest version still supports the original zip file format, which means that you can still provide archives to others who have an older version of WinZip. However, you need to make sure you select the option to do that, as the newest zip format is not backwards compatible.
Media files such as jpg and mp3 are already in a compressed form, and with my older WinZip 9 (and most other compression programs), it is not possible to compress them further. It is convenient to put several files into one archive, and doing that can make disk storage more efficient and use less space, even without compression. But the newest zip format claims to compress jpg files by 20-25%. I tested it with 714 pictures from India, totalling about 690 MB, and it saved 21% space, but took about twice as long (I did not time it). This only works with the zipx format. The original zip format does not compress jpgs, but it stores them more efficiently than separate files, so it saves 1% compared to separate.
MP3 files are compressed about 1% with either zip or zipx compression. For mp3, zipx takes longer to archive than zip with no obvious benefit.
A folder with 145 MS Office (XLS, PPT) and PDF files totalling 383 MB was compressed by 17% in 73 seconds to the original zip file format. The same folder was compressed by 20% in 143 seconds (almost twice as long) to the new zipx file format.
Actual performance will vary depending on files, but these results represent typical files for me. I ran my tests on a laptop with duocore processor on WinXP. I don't have the previous version of WinZip, so I cannot comment on whether the new zip engine in this version "creates Zipx files 30% to 50% faster than the previous version". Since installing this version also uninstalls previous version, it is not convenient to compare performance with older versions, and I did not. Subjectively, WinZip 15 to zip (standard) format about as WinZip 9, and somewhat slower (with somewhat more compression) for the new zipx format.
The package claims that WinZip has a streamlined interface with more intuitive menus and icons. Except for newer icons, the interface is similar to what I was used to. I don't think it is easier to use, but it was good before, and is still good.
For people who need the features I have described, and don't have a program to do it at present, WinZip is a three-star upgrade, considering benefits to price. WinZip 9 would still be good enough for me, but now that I have WinZip 15, I'll use it instead.
MINOR ISSUES
Windows allows you to select a custom directory to be used for "My Documents", for example when you want to have your home directory on a different drive from the system directory. Most programs correctly locate the new "My Documents" directory if you change it, but WinZip 15.0 does not. But this is never a problem for me, as I normally start WinZip by right-clicking on an archive or a file I want to compress, then selecting WinZip from the popup menu. It always finds the correct directory in this case.
WinZip 15 installed from the CD, and next time I used it, it offered an update for a better compression engine. When it downloaded, it also offered me an unwanted download: Kaspersky Security. Because this is enabled by default, you could get it downloaded and installed by mistake, potentially causing problems for an existing anti-virus program. If you are alert, you can easily decline. Personally, when I'm installing a program, I don't want to be offered a different program, especially when it is a trial version that will nag you to buy an upgrade later. If I wanted that program, I'd go to the Web and download it. This is effectively a paid ad, and I don't want it. But I won't encounter this often, so who cares.
ALTERNATIVE ARCHIVE PROGRAMS
Zip has been a standard archive format for PC since the DOS days and PKZIP. It is a defacto standard that many people use. However, there are two others worth considering, and they also support the Zip format.
WINRAR is shareware available online. It is compatible with the Zip file format, and offers a few more features over WinZip that will be of use to some power users - advanced self-extracting archive features, additional security features, and support for more human languages. It costs about the same as WinZip Standard.
7zip is a free, open source archive program also available online. It can pack many archive formats (including its native 7z, Zip, and Linux formats) and unpack many others. It claims to offer better compression in Zip format than WinZip. It is localized into even more human languages, self-extracting archive capability, and has most of the other features of WinZip.
Both WinRAR and 7zip have at least some support on Mac and Linux, which is helpful if you need to move files between these platforms and/or Windows.
If I did not already have WinZip, I would be looking at 7zip, and you might want to as well.
BOTTOM LINE: I consider WinZip to be nearly essential for most users, and all power users. But if you are already happy with an older version of WinZip (such as version 9), it may not be an essential upgrade, unless you need to compress jpg files.
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