WinZip Pro
Version: 12.0
Downloads Count: 5,801
License Type: Trial
Price: $50
Date Added: Sep 10, 2008
Operating Systems: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
File Size: 14322 KB
Author: WinZip Computing
- WinRAR 1,758,257
- WinZip Standard 707,106
- Advanced ZIP Password Recovery 90,767
- ZipCentral 86,680
- PKZIP 65,078
Editorial Review of WinZip Pro
It's been a long time since you had to own a special program to simply compress and decompress .zip archives. If you buy one now, it's because it does things that Windows' own .zip support can't handle, such as zip-to-mail, true encryption, and automated backup. With WinZip 12, photo handling and sharing become part of the package--but only with partial success.
I looked at the $50 WinZip Pro for this review. The $30 version lacks several of the features discussed below. Upgrades are half the full licensing fee, which seems a bit steep for a product that once offered free upgrades to all registered users.
WinZip Pro 12 should appeal to people who want to zip photos for storage or mailing purposes. Since .jpgs are already compressed, zipping them pre-WinZip 12 doesn't shrink them much more than one or two percent. The new version, by contrast, claims to compress them by 20 to 25 percent. That's not much compared to the 50-percent compression we're used to when zipping .txt or .doc files, but if you have gigabytes of photos, a 25-percent reduction could mean something.
My casual tests didn't show compression levels quite that good, but they were close, ranging from 16- to 20-percent. That's about 200MB saved for every gigabyte of photos. Just be careful you select the "Optimize for best compression "option when you compress the photos. (In my original version of this review, I listed much worse compression ratios. This was the result of faulty testing on my part and I apologize.
WinZip Pro 12 can also import photos directly from your camera into a .zip file. (I wasn't able to get this to work, but this may have been because of my cameras, not the software.) It can rotate the photos as it imports them, and organize them for you into folders. But it can't do the versatile, tag-based photo organizing that Photoshop and Windows Live Photo Gallery users have come to expect.
That said, it lets you easily view zipped photos, both as thumbnails and in a viewer that looks and behaves much like the one that comes with Windows XP and Vista. It even has a slideshow.
Not all the enhancements are photo-specific. For instance, WinZip has enhanced its already versatile zip-and-mail features, letting you zip and mail a few select files from within a .zip archive. Other additional features include the ability to access files within an .iso image, and customizable password policies that can ensure that no one will create an easy-to-guess password.
If you have a lot of pictures and need to free up some hard drive space, or if you need to make those giant, photo-laden emails smaller, WinZip 12 makes a tempting solution. If you don't, it's still a handy program to have around.
Note: WinZip Standard and WinZip Pro use the same installation file. The trial starts with a 30-day WinZip Pro trial, which then downgrades to a 15-day WinZip Standard trial.
--Lincoln Spector
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