WinZip : Java Glossary

The current version is 22 Last revised/verified: 2017-10-25 and the current version of the command line interface is 5.0 Last revised/verified: 2018-03-15.

Version 16 adds a hook to the commercial ZipSend aka WinZip Courier aka YouSendIt service for indirectly sending large email attachments and the ZipShare service for sharing files on Facebook, a 64-bit version, new compression algorithms for images and wiping of intermediate files for security. It also has a preview feature that runs in the background, chewing up CPU (Central Processing Unit) cycles so greedily everything else grinds to a halt. I have not yet discovered any benefit coming from this.

WinZip used to always have free upgrades. Now they sell upgrade assurance when you purchase your copy. Oddly when an upgrade comes out, you just download and use it. You don’t have to apply for a new product key. I presume the installer checks with their database to see if you are entitled to use the update without further payment.

How do you tell if you will need to buy a whole new version, an upgrade, or just install the new version without payment? Ask the magic 8-ball or visit their upgrade page. Be wary. One sort of upgrade automatically authorises automatic purchases of all future upgrades. The check-new-versions option on the help menu does not work. It only tells you about new micro versions. You can keep track of the latest version with Vercheck.

Now that the command line tool comes with the standard version, most users will find WinZip standard adequate at  If you create zips, you will want the command line WZZIP add-on for the standard or pro package. The pro package is  . This Feature Matrix will help you decide which version best suits your needs. Oddly though the command line features are bundled as part of the WinZip package\, you must download and install them separately. I gather the authors are still thinking in terms of saving every last byte transferred over dial-up access. You can try both before you buy. There is also a peculiar offer to give you WinZip free if you buy something unrelated to WinZip from one of their partners.

WinZip cannot compress with mp3 files, it just packs them as-is in the archive. It is not able to compress png files. It does almost no compression on Java-created zip files. It is very good at compressing html, about 90%, even when the HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) has been precompressed to remove excess white space. Icon files compress an astounding 98%. It can compress jpgs about 25%.

The main new feature of 12.1 is that files with proprietary WinZip compression algorithms are given the *.zipx extension to help you avoid sending them to people who do not have WinZip. It also handles files larger than 2 Gig.

The main new feature in WinZip 12.0 is JPG (Joint Photographic experts Group) compression. This is a proprietary WinZip extension. By default, WinZip uses a proprietary compression algorithm best for each extension type. Unfortunately, this means others without WinZip can’t unpack your zip files. It can’t handle all JPG files. I normalise ones it can’t compress by using PaintShop Pro to load the file and do a save as.

The main new feature of WinZip 11.2 is Unicode filenames. Unfortunately, this is not part of the PKZip format, but a proprietary WinZip extension. Normally WinZip just stores in the local 8-bit code page encoding.

Other than stronger compression the advantage of WinZip over Java is the proprietary AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption. Pretty well only the government should be able to crack it.

WinZip is a standalone utility. The compression engine is not available to use in your own programs, though the WinZip people are thinking of offering it.

Using WinZip GUI (Graphic User Interface) to Unzip a *.zip

1. Click File.
2. Click Open Achive.
3. Select the zip file you want to unpack.
4. Click Open .
5. You will now be able to see the files inside the zip and their directory names on the far right. Let’s assume you want to unpack them all into a directory tree.
6. Click Extract.
7. Select the directory where you want the tree of unpacked files to grow off of.
8. Select All files/folders in archive.
9. Uncheck Open Explorer Window.
10. Check/uncheck Overwrite existing files. If in doubt, check yes.
11. Uncheck Skip older files.
12. Check use folder names.
13. Click Extract.
14. Click File.
15. Click Exit.

Using WinZip GUI to Zip a directory tree

1. Click File.
2. click New Achive.
3. Select the name of the zip file you want create and the directory where you want to create it.
4. Check Add Dialog.
5. Click OK.
6. Check Include subfolders.
7. Check/uncheck Include full path info. If in doubt, check yes.
8. Select Action : add (and replace) files.
9. Select Compression : normal.
10. Uncheck Encrypt Added Files.
11. Uncheck Store files in 8.3 format.
12. Uncheck Include only if attribute bit is set.
13. Uncheck Reset archive attribute.
14. Check Include System and hidden files.
15. Click Add with wildcards.
16. Examine the files to make sure you got the ones you wanted and they have the correct directory names.
17. Click File.
18. Click Exit.

Command Line Use

The switches are similar to PKZIP. The trickiest one is -P which includes more qualification of names inside the zip file. It includes the directory levels mentioned on the command line. If you use fully qualified names on the command line, you will get fully qualified names inside the zip. In contrast -p gives less qualification. It excludes the directory levels mentioned on the command line. Do a little experiment and try both and difference will become clear.

Starting with version 10.0 the command line utilities are an extra cost option. You need the professional edition.

Include Lists

rem Here is a generic way to use WinZip, with auxiliary include list file.
rem -P will but all directory names mentioned in the list file in the zip,
rem but not the higher order stuff. Every directory and wildcard must
rem be explicitly mentioned in the list file.
rem -u means update.

WZZIP -Pu - E:\mindprod\zips\cmp1.zip \somedir @C:\env\forzip.list

Exclude Lists

Formats

• TAR (Tape Archive) (.tar)
• GZIP (.gz, .taz, .tgz)
• Compress (.tz, .z)
• Uuencode (.uu, .uue)
• XXencode (.xxe)
• MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) (.b64, .mim)
• BinHex (.bhx, .hqx)
• Most other compressed files

Tips

• Specifications in include and exclude lists are relative to the current working directory, not relative to the directory specified on the command line.
• The unzip command is cleverly hidden. In fact most of the commonly used commands are camouflaged or hidden away. If you click the text unzip, you will not be permitted to select an arbitrary unzip directory. You will have to select from one of a set of directories that WinZip considers plausible. The trick is to click the clamp icon above the word unzip. If you want to unzip to a new directory, click new folder in the upper left corner of the directory tree display it will show you. The new menu system was designed to look sexy, but it requires the skills and memory of a ten year old adventure game player to find anything.
• Although not configurable as a column, there is an option to display the archive comment when opening a zip file. Click options ⇒ configuration ⇒ miscellaneous ⇒ show comments when opening zip files.
• By default WinZip will not show all caps filenames correctly. It will show ANAME.TXT as Aname.txt. To see the file name displayed exactly as it is recorded click options ⇒ configuration ⇒ View ⇒ Allow all upper case file names..
• Though WinZip does not have an explicit find command, you can click Actions ⇒ select files ⇒ enter a wildcard. It will then pull matches to the top and select them.
• WinZip timestamps are not kept is UTC (Coordinated Universal Time/Temps Universel Coordonné), but in local time. This means that DST (Daylight Saving Time) changes will trigger WinZip archived files to be updated, since their local timestamps change, even when the absolute UTC timestamp does not.

User Interface