WinZip Pro 11 review

WinZip is the oldest file compression tool for Windows.

Using mathematical compression algorithms, WinZip can squeeze files into a single archive, so they take up less space on your PC and take less time to transfer over the internet. It's also a handy way of packaging together related files to send to someone.

The level of compression depends to a large extent on the type of file you're zipping. Many of today's common file types, such as MP3 music files and JPG image files, are already highly compressed, so WinZip, like other compression applications, achieves little overall reduction in file size. Office documents and other types of image file are more responsive, though, and can be compressed significantly.

Our tests reflected this fact, and neither WinZip or WinRAR managed to compress our photo or music folder significantly. While WinRAR achieved a slightly better compression ratio on our mixed document test, it took about four times longer to process the job.

WinZip Pro 11 has some significant new features, including pre-extraction thumbnails for images, support for RAR and BZ2 files and archive scheduling, but it's not as easy to use or as comprehensive in its file support as WinRAR.

WinZip's main competition comes from Windows, which has built-in support for creating and opening Zip archives. Windows may not be able to create password-protected or self-extracting files, but how often do you use those features? With today's large hard disks and fast internet connections, the need for dedicated compression applications such as WinZip isn't as great as it used to be.

WinZip is fast and has all the features you'll need if you do a lot of work with Zip files, but it doesn't provide enough new features to warrant an upgrade from the old version. WinRAR has wider file support for those who deal with a lot of different archives, and Windows' own Zip support is good enough for simple use.