WinZip

WinZip Computing Inc. logo

WinZip is a trialware file archiver and compressor for Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS and Android. It is developed by WinZip Computing (formerly Nico Mak Computing), which is owned by Alludo. The program can create archives in Zip file format, unpack some other archive file formats and it also has various tools for system integration.

WinZip 1.0 was released in April 1991 as a graphical user interface (GUI) front-end for PKZIP.

From version 6.0 until version 9.0, registered users could download the newest versions of the software, enter their original registration information or install over the top of their existing registered version, and thereby obtain a free upgrade. This upgrade scheme was discontinued as of version 10.0.

On May 2, 2006, WinZip Computing was acquired by Corel Corporation using the proceeds from its initial public offering.

• 128- and 256-bit key AES encryption in addition to the less secure PKZIP 2.0 encryption method used in earlier versions. The AES implementation, using Brian Gladman's code, was FIPS-197 certified, on March 27, 2003. However, Central Directory Encryption feature is not supported.

The ZIP file archive format (ZIP) was originally invented for MS-DOS in 1989 by Phil Katz.

Chart: WinZip Windows release timeline

Table: History of WinZip Windows releases

WinZip 1.0 for Mac OS X (November 16, 2010): Initial release is compatible with Intel Macs and can be run on v10.5 'Leopard.'

The iOS version was first released on February 17, 2012.

WinZip Android was first released on June 19, 2012.

• Comparison of archive formats
• Comparison of file archivers
• List of archive formats
• WinRAR – File archiver

• Official website