Zip Preview for Windows

This specialized compression tool works only with Internet-based zipped files, and its promise to save time didn't always hold up. Zip Preview's interface presents a file menu and toolbar over a preview pane for compressed files. Tooltips and a good online Help file make it a snap to start and operate the program.

The program won't open local zipped files, but you can use a couple of settings to help you open or save zipped files found online. One automatically monitors pages to open all found ZIP files. The other adds control by displaying a pop-up containing a link to the file to allow you to view ZIP file contents. Unfortunately, many zipped files are hidden behind links without the .zip extension. The publisher's test ZIP was corrupt; which proved the app also fails when accessing faulty ZIP files.

We tested a page containing a link to a zipped file. Zip Preview didn't recognize the link until we right-clicked and viewed the link's properties. The prompt then appeared and the files in the archive instantly appeared in Zip Preview's viewing pane. There are button commands to download, extract, or close the ZIP file. To extract a particular file from the archive, you must select it and open the app's context menu. We found it wasn't quicker than saving the archive, opening it with Windows' built-in compression tool, and finally just deleting the unwanted files.

Zip Preview does exactly what it says it will do, but it didn't reduce our time spent handling zipped files. If you feel the urge to try this app for yourself, the 15-day demo is plenty of time for a thorough test.