WinZip : Java Glossary

WinZip used to always have free upgrades. Now they sell upgrade assurance when you purchase your copy. To get an upgrade you must apply giving details of your original purchase.

WinZip is now at version 12.1 Last revised/verified: 2009-05-13 Now the command line tool comes with the standard version, must users will find WinZip standard adequate at $30.00 USD If you create zips, you will want the command line WZZIP add-on for the standard or pro package. The pro package is $60.00 USD . 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 has been precompressed to remove excess white space. Icon files compress an astounding 98%. It can compress jpgs about 25%.

The main new feauture 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.

The main new feature in WinZip 12.0 is JPG 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 Paint Shop Pro to load the file and do a save as.

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.

Other than stronger compression the advantage of WinZip over Java is the proprietry AES encryption. Pretty well only the government should be able to crack it.

Using WinZip GUI 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

rem Here is a generic way to use WinZip, with exclude and include list files.
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 -x@C:\env\exclude.list E:\mindprod\zips\cmp1.zip @C:\env\cmp1.list

Tips

• Specifications in include and exclude lists are relative to the current working directory, not relative to the directory specified on the command line.
• 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, but in local time. This means that DST changes will trigger WinZip archived files to be updated, since their local timestamps change, even when the absolute UTC timestamp does not.

 WinZip Courier