Winzip or something else?

[Jo-Anne]

WinZip was apparently installed on my computer ages ago. I don't use it to
zip files, but I do occasionally get a file that needs to be unzipped. I've
never had a problem before, but today when I went to unzip a file, I was
told that my trial period had expired and I would need to buy the program.

I'd be grateful if someone could recommend a free program that reliably
unzips files.

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[John Inzer]

WinZip was apparently installed on my computer ages ago. I don't use
it to zip files, but I do occasionally get a file that needs to be
unzipped. I've never had a problem before, but today when I went to
unzip a file, I was told that my trial period had expired and I would
need to buy the program.
I'd be grateful if someone could recommend a free program that
reliably unzips files.

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

==================================
XP has its own version of zip/unzip built in.
Have a look at the following article:

(306531) HOW TO: Use Compressed
(Zipped) Folders in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=306531

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[JS]

7-Zip
http://www.7-zip.org/

 

[Stubbo of Oz]

WinZip was apparently installed on my computer ages ago. I don't use it to
zip files, but I do occasionally get a file that needs to be unzipped. I've
never had a problem before, but today when I went to unzip a file, I was
told that my trial period had expired and I would need to buy the program.

I'd be grateful if someone could recommend a free program that reliably
unzips files.

I use PowerArchiver - the current version is no longer free but the
last freeware version can be downloaded here:-

http://www.mediafire.com/?e2tzjvxm0ay

Click on the link:-

powerarc611.exe

 

[Jo-Anne]

==================================
XP has its own version of zip/unzip built in.
Have a look at the following article:

(306531) HOW TO: Use Compressed
(Zipped) Folders in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=306531

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

Thank you, John! I had to right-click on the file rather than
double-clicking it (as Microsoft had said to do), but it worked perfectly. I
suspect I need to remove WinZip from the menu, since the zipped files
default to being opened with WinZip.

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

Thank you, JS! I've bookmarked it.

Jo-Anne

7-Zip
http://www.7-zip.org/

 

[John Inzer]

Thank you, John! I had to right-click on the file rather than
double-clicking it (as Microsoft had said to do), but it worked
perfectly. I suspect I need to remove WinZip from the menu, since the
zipped files default to being opened with WinZip.

Jo-Anne

==============================
You're welcome.

Thanks for the update.

I suspect that I would uninstall WinZip.

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Jo-Anne]

I did uninstall it, John, and now the Microsoft extractor comes up as the
default.

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

 

[Anteaus]

I would certainly avoid winzip as the latest version now creates nonstandard
..zip files with AES encryption, which standard clients report as being
corrupted.

One such example sent to us resulted in huge amounts of time being wasted in
researching why we couldn't open it. Initially we thought it was an
email-attachment (mime) problem. When the sender finally mentioned 'winzip'
I became suspicious, and tracked-down the cause on their website. If the damn
thing creates files which are not .zip-compatible, why the hell not use a
different extension instead of causing confusion and aggro?

7-zip is good. A simple but effective alternative is ZipCentral, which you
can find on most freeware sites.

 

[Jim]

WinZip was apparently installed on my computer ages ago. I don't use it to
zip files, but I do occasionally get a file that needs to be unzipped. I've
never had a problem before, but today when I went to unzip a file, I was
told that my trial period had expired and I would need to buy the program.

I'd be grateful if someone could recommend a free program that reliably
unzips files.

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

Good free one 7zip

 

[John Inzer]

I did uninstall it, John, and now the Microsoft extractor comes up as
the default.

Thank you again!

========================
Excellent!

Thanks for the update.

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Jo-Anne]

Thank you, Anteaus! Even though I don't zip files myself, I'm glad I deleted
WinZip. I'll check out ZipCentral (I've already bookmarked 7-Zip). Do you
think the Microsoft extractor is sufficient if all one does is extract the
occasional file?

Jo-Anne

 

[Tim Meddick]

I have WinZip and WinRAR (another file compression program) installed on
my computer, and have never had any problems with either of them.

I haven't heard of problems relating to the DES algorithm, but then I
don't use it with encryption anyway.

The main reason I have it on an XP machine is to open .exe
(self-extracting) archives which won't open with XP's inbuilt (ZIP
Folder) shell extension.

You don't have to 'uninstall' Winzip to get the functionality of XP's
"Compressed (Zipped) Folders" shell extension back again - you simply
'uncheck' the box marked '.zip' in the 'Associations' dialogue under
the 'system' tab in WinZip's configuration settings.

Likewise for .cab (cabinet) files which are also catered for in Windows
since Win'98 (extract only).

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Jo-Anne]

Hi, Tim,

I uninstalled WinZip because all I was getting when I tried to extract files
was a notice that my trial had expired and I would have to pay for the
program. I've since read that some of the older versions can continue to be
used without this problem. My version, I think, was 11.2.

Jo-Anne

 

[JS]

Same reasons:
1) Older version of WinZip so I deleted it although it worked fine.
2) Use 7-Zip to extract files from .exe archives.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Sorry, I didn't know that - I've been using ver 8.1 for quite a long
time now.

It does give you a warning message when a certain number of [.zip] files
have been opened using it after the 21 day period has expired.

The warning message (irritatingly) requires you to wait until it has
displayed a counter that counts 'up' to the number of files opened so
far. So the more files opened - the longer you have to wait.

I had no idea that they had changed that.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[VanguardLH]

WinZip was apparently installed on my computer ages ago. I don't use it to
zip files, but I do occasionally get a file that needs to be unzipped. I've
never had a problem before, but today when I went to unzip a file, I was
told that my trial period had expired and I would need to buy the program.

I'd be grateful if someone could recommend a free program that reliably
unzips files.

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

The trial period for WinZip, a *commercial* program, is only 45 days.
No one construes 1-1/2 months as "ages ago". More likely that WinZip
that was installed ages ago also expired ages ago and it has been a long
time since you needed to manipulate a .zip file.

http://www.winzip.com/elicense.htm
"Use of WinZip after the expiration of the 45-day evaluation period
without acquiring such a license from WinZip Computing is outside the
scope of this License and a violation of U.S. and international
copyright laws."

There are many free file archival tools (compress and create .zip and
other archive filetypes). How much time did you actually expend on
researching the choices yourself? Softpedia.com is a good download
site, especially since they will tag adware (which Cnet's download.com
too often miscategorizes).

7-zip is free.
www.7zip.com

Rudimentary .zip support is already included in Windows. See
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306531. You can also use the "Start ->
Help and Support" menu and search on "zip" to read the help already
included in Windows XP. This is only rudimentary support. You cannot
open other archive filetypes nor can you password-protect .zip files.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was Sunday, June 28, 2009 2:24:12 PM, and on a whim,
Tim Meddick pounded out on the keyboard:

Sorry, I didn't know that - I've been using ver 8.1 for quite a long
time now.

It does give you a warning message when a certain number of [.zip] files
have been opened using it after the 21 day period has expired.

The warning message (irritatingly) requires you to wait until it has
displayed a counter that counts 'up' to the number of files opened so
far. So the more files opened - the longer you have to wait.

I had no idea that they had changed that.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Hi Tim,

I have been using WinZip for a LONG time also. My last version is 9.
When WinZip was sold years back, the new owners dropped the free updates
forever policy (I called and read the agreement in the original package
to them), but it didn't matter. They said to continue getting any
further updates, it would have to be purchased.



Terry R.