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WinZip 8.1
WinZip gets zippier with the latest release.
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Info |
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Product: |
WinZip 8.1 |
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From: |
WinZip Computing
Inc. |
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Web: |
www.winzip.com |
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Price: |
Shareware
$29 to register. Free to upgrade from
v8.0 |
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Rating: |
10/10 |
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We like: |
You need this!
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We don’t like: |
No – we can’t think
of anything we don’t like |
Anyone familiar with WinZip will know how essential
it is and can safely skip this paragraph. If you are not sure what
WinZip can do for you, and judging by your emails, there are plenty
of people in this category, the simple answer is that WinZip
compresses and expands files to make them quicker to send and
receive via email or the Internet. Let’s face it, time is money and
anything that saves time on the Internet has to be a winner. Most of
the files you download from our download libraries
or elsewhere on the Internet will be compressed. You can tell this
from the suffix. Any file with a .zip suffix needs WinZip to expand
it.
WinZip will also let you break a large file or
directory down into smaller chunks so you can ‘span’ across several
floppy disks or other removable media. You can even password protect
your archives but watch out - the password can be cracked relatively
easily.
You can find out more about how to use WinZip in our
computing guide: Squeeze
those files.
So
what’s new in 8.1?
The latest version is a gradual evolution of a
mature but excellent product. There are dozens of minor enhancements
but here are some of the headline-grabbers.
Better support for XP
WinZip 8.1 has been optimised for Windows XP. Not
only does it operate as native Windows XP program but the menus,
buttons and controls now match the appearance of the current Windows
theme.
Better integration
WinZip 8.1 is better integrated with Windows
Explorer. For example you can now select and extract multiple Zip
files in a single operation from the Explorer window. A particularly
useful feature is the new Explorer context menu that allows you to
print a list of files in a Zip file.
File splitting overcomes email limitations
Thanks to the new Split function, WinZip now lets
you split an archive into several Zip files. They can later be
recombined when required. This is very useful to overcome limits on
the size of e-mail attachments and as an alternative to disk
spanning. When splitting archives, you can select from a range of
sizes or specify your own. Winzip then creates a number of files,
the last of which has the .zip suffix.
New taskbar tray icon
for faster use
A
new Quick Pick taskbar tray icon lets you start WinZip and access
your zip files quickly. Just left click the icon to open WinZip, or
right click it to instantly reopen recently used Zip files or access
your Favorite Zip Folders.
…and the final word
To sum up, WinZip 8.1 adds better support for XP, better integration
with Windows Explorer and a neat file splitting function. It’s a
superb shareware tool and excellent value for money at USD29 with
free upgrades for registered users of earlier versions.
You can download the evaluation version of WinZip
8.1 from our libraries It requires Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows
NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows Me, or Windows XP.
Kai Chandler
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