WinZip 8.1 SR-1

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: CNET Staff

The reigning top dog of the utility world gets some nice behind-the-scenes improvements while maintaining the familiar usability and interface that we've come to trust. WinZip is still king at creating ZIP archives, and this new version expands its kingdom on a number of fronts. New features include AES 128- and 256-bit encryption for tighter security, an improved compression algorithm that gives you better compression ratios, and new technologies that remove the size restrictions on ZIP archives. Other handy features include a user-friendly zipping wizard, a split archive function that converts even very large ZIP files into manageable sizes for easier e-mailing, span-disk capability for complete backups, integration with virus-protection software, and the ability to drop whole programs into one self-extracting archive.

Although this is the most compatible version to date, WinZip still relies on ZIP alone to archive your files. We would have liked to see support for RAR, ISO, and ACE archives. Overall, however, WinZip is a fantastic program, and the new features improve on what it does best. Whether you're an old pro or a new user, this is a must-have upgrade. Watch the CNET video review of WinZip:

Publisher's description

From WinZip Computing :

WinZip is a straightforward, fast, and easy-to-use zipping and unzipping utility that includes built-in support for popular Internet file formats such as TAR, ZIP, UUencode, XXencode, BinHex, MIME, and Unix-compressed files. Older ARC, ARJ, and LZH files are supported via external programs.

In version 8.1, enhanced Explorer integration adds more options to the Explorer context menu and allows you to unzip several archives at once; compress several small ZIP files for easy sending via an e-mail attachment or as an alternative to disk spanning; a new Quick Pick taskbar icon gives you instant access to WinZip and recently used ZIP files; WinZip Wizard enhancements allow you to run installation files included in ZIP archives and extract files from split ZIP files and multiple disk ("spanned") ZIP files; and support for Windows XP allows WinZip to run as a native Windows XP program with no need to set the compatibility mode.

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