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WinZip - the Archive Utility for Windows
WHAT
IS A ZIP FILE, ANYHOW?
Zip files are "archives"
used for distributing and storing files. Zip files contain one or more
files. Usually the files "archived" in a Zip are compressed
to save space. Zip files make it easy to group files and make transporting
and copying these files faster.
WHAT ABOUT ARJ, LZH, GZIP, TAR, & CAB FILES?
These files provide
most of the benefits of Zip files, but use different file formats. WinZip
can handle Zip, TAR, gzip, and CAB files by itself. External programs
are required for the less frequently used ARJ, ARC, and LZH formats.
WHY DO PEOPLE USE ZIP FILES?
Zip files save time
and space, and make downloading software and transferring e-mail attachments
faster. Typical uses for
Zip files include:
- Most files available
on ftp sites, bulletin boards and electronic services like CompuServe
are distributed as archives. Two benefits of using archives for electronic
file distribution are that only one file transfer operation ("download")
is required to obtain all related files, and file transfer time is
minimized because the files in an archive are compressed.
- It is often
useful to send a group of related files to an associate. Rather than
distributing individual files it is often easier to distribute the
files as an archive to benefit from the file grouping and compression.
- Some files are
important but used infrequently. To save disk space simply compress
these files into an archive when they are not used, and decompress
them only when needed.
WHERE DOES WINZIP FIT IN?
WinZip makes it
easy for Windows users to work with archives. WinZip features an intuitive
point-and-click drag-and-drop interface for viewing, running, extracting,
adding, deleting, and testing files in archives with a standard Windows
interface. WinZip provides the same "friendly face" for all
the aforementioned archive formats.
You can download
a fully functional evaluation version from the WinZip Download Page
at:
http://www.winzip.com/download.cgi
Alternatively, you
can place an order for the registered version from the WinZip Ordering
Information Page at: http://www.winzip.com/order.htm
CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT ARCHIVE FORMATS?
- Zip files are
the most common archive format. WinZip does not require external programs
for basic archive operations.
- ARJ files are
another popular archive format. ARJ files are manipulated by the ARJ
program from Robert Jung, 2606 Village Road West, Norwood, Massachusetts
02062.
- LZH files are
manipulated by the LHA program from Haruyasu Yoshizaki. LHA won the
October 1991 PC Magazine Editor's Choice award as the best data compression
utility.
- ARC is an older
format. ARC files can be manipulated by several programs, including
the original ARC, ARCE (also known as ARC-E), PKXARC, and PKUNPAK.
Since almost all new archives are created in other formats and there
is no single widely available program to manipulate ARC files, WinZip
does not provide facilities to add to ARC files (however, all other
WinZip functions are supported).
- The CAB format
is used by Microsoft and some other vendors to distribute software.
WinZip does not need external programs to view or extract the contents
of CAB files.
- TAR, Z, GZ,
TAZ, and TGZ files are often found on Unix-based Internet sites. The
relationship between these file types is less straight forward than
the aforementioned file formats. The important thing to remember is
that WinZip handles all these formats the same way as Zip files, so
you don't need to know the details. Here is more information on these
formats: TAR stands for "Tape ARchive". This is an old file
format and does not provide compression; it is used only to group
files. Z files are compressed with the gzip program. GZ files are
gzip files. Z and GZ files cannot contain multiple files. TAZ and
TGZ files are TAR files compressed in "Z" or "GZ"
format. Since almost all new archives are created in Zip format, WinZip
does not provide facilities to add to or create files in these formats
(however, all other WinZip functions are supported).
- WinZip does
not require external programs when working with files in these formats.
See the section
titled System Requirements for more information on version numbers and
availability of the external programs supported by WinZip. Pinpoint
URL is:
http://www.winzip.com/sysreq.htm
For a list of Frequently
Asked Questions about WinZip, please visit the WinZip F.A.Q. page at
this pinpoint URL:
http://www.winzip.com/faq.htm
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