Overview
WinZip has been the name attached to archives on Windows for longer than most of the operating system has existed, and the current release is a great deal more than a compressor. It reads and writes the full range of archive formats, converts between them in place, and wraps the whole thing in a file manager with a ribbon that exposes far more than compression.
The Pro configuration is where the extra tooling lives. Backup jobs run on a schedule and write incremental archives to a local drive, a network share or a connected cloud account. Files can be converted as they are added: images resampled and watermarked, documents turned into PDF, and audio transcoded, all as part of the zip operation rather than a separate pass beforehand.
Encryption is properly implemented with strong ciphers and optional filename hiding, and the split archive support handles delivery over size limited channels. There is a duplicate file finder, a large file locator, a cleaner for temporary folders, and integration with the common cloud storage providers so an archive can be built and dropped into a shared folder in one action. None of the archives distributed here use encryption of any kind.
What it does well
Read and write everything
Full support for zip and zipx along with reading the rest of the common formats, plus in place conversion between them.
Convert while zipping
Resample and watermark images, convert documents to PDF and transcode audio as part of the same operation that builds the archive.
Scheduled backup jobs
Incremental backup sets on a schedule to a local drive, a network share or a connected cloud account, with retention rules.
Strong encryption
Modern ciphers with optional filename hiding on archives you create yourself, and a password manager for your own sets.
File management tooling
Duplicate finder, large file locator, temporary folder cleaner and cloud provider integration inside the same window.
Changes in this build
- Backup job engine reworked with faster incremental comparison on large sets.
- Image conversion updated with better quality at aggressive resampling ratios.
- Cloud connectors refreshed for the current provider interfaces.
- Ribbon simplified with a compact mode for smaller displays.
- Fixed slow extraction on archives containing very large numbers of tiny files.
What is in the package
- WinZip Pro installer, 32-bit and 64-bit
- Shell integration and context menu module
- Backup job scheduler
- Conversion tooling for images, documents and audio
- Multilingual interface files, 18 languages
System requirements
| Processor | 1 GHz or faster |
| Memory | 2 GB minimum, 8 GB for large backup jobs |
| Graphics | Any GPU with a current driver |
| Storage | 400 MB free plus space for archives and backup sets |
| Display | 1280 x 768 minimum |
| System | Windows 10 or Windows 11 |
Installation
- Extract the archive to a local folder.
- Remove any previous WinZip installation first.
- Run setup and choose which file associations to take.
- Apply the included configuration step before first launch.
- Open the options panel and disable the update check and the background service.
Before you start
The background service exists for cloud sync and scheduled jobs, disable it if you use neither.
File associations are worth reviewing, the default set claims more formats than most people want.
Backup jobs write to the destination without warning if it is full, check free space before scheduling.
Questions about this title
Does it open 7z and rar?
Yes, it reads both along with the rest of the common formats.
What does Pro add?
Backup jobs, the conversion tooling, the file management utilities and the full cloud connector set.
Can it convert an old archive to zipx?
Yes, conversion happens in place from the file manager.
Is there a 32-bit build?
Yes, both architectures ship in the package.
About this listing
This entry was checked on a clean install of Windows 10 / 11 (32-bit and 64-bit) before it was published, and it is rechecked whenever the package is rebuilt. The figures on this page come from the site index rather than from the publisher, so the download count is what people here have actually pulled.
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