[pchelpers] free and better alternatives to WinZip

> PKWare created the ZIP format, so files created by PKZIP can be opened
> by any standard ZIP-aware program, by definition.
> 
> WinZIP has pretty much taken the throne away, though.

For all those list members (probably most) who have a bad conscience
about using WinZip longer than the trial period without paying for it,
here are free alternatives, many of which are better too:

(best one first, in my opinion)

7-Zip
http://www.filehippo.com/download_7-zip/
more info: http://www.7-zip.org/

UltimateZip
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/ultimatezip.html
FAQ: http://www.ultimatezip.com/faq.htm
direct download: http://www.flash-systems.de/download/uz30us/uzsetup.exe

FreeZip
(careful, there's a spyware-infested program with the same name!)
If you don't need any of the other compression formats and want a
no-frills decompression/compression program only for zip files, you
might want to use this amazingly small and well-written program:
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,6383,00.asp
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/
But remember to read the directions first so that you don't accidentally
zip your whole root or Windows folder and don't unpack a bunch of files
into the wrong place instead of a separate folder.

Others are listed here:
http://pricelessware.org/thelist/fil.htm#File%20Compression:%20Zip-Unzip

http://www.download.com/WinZip/3640-2250_4-10454671.html?pn=3&sb=0&v=0
The Zip format is old, there are superior compression formats out there
such as RAR and 7z that compress better than Zip. WinZip has hardly
changed throughout the versions and there are other alternatives such as
7-Zip that support the popular file formats and are free so they don't
have nag screens. WinZip's time has come and gone.


Later i added this to some questions by PcCowboy:

I've been using UltimateZip for several years, and i'm very pleased with
the program. I discovered 7-Zip a while ago and have still not had time
to try it out. I would say that the most important thing that probably
makes 7-Zip better is that it's open source software (but UltimateZip is
a very close second). That means that 7-Zip will always be free and will
always get better and that there is very little chance that it will die,
unless a better open source program comes along. In addition, it is more
likely that its developers will listen to users' wishes for additional
or improved features.

You're right that 7-Zip does not advertise the ability to repair file
corruption, so it probably can't do that at least yet. However, it's
compression rate is much higher (30-70%) than UltimateZip's, and the
need to be able to open a corrupted zip file instead of just downloading 
it again or asking the correspondent to resend it is more theoretical 
than real.

For what it's worth, these are the exotic compression formats not
supported by 7-Zip:
ACE, BH, JAR, ARC, UUE

and these are the exotic ones not supported by UltimateZip:
CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM and DEB

Just discovered a new free one that seems to beat both of the above at
least in the number of formats it can handle.
http://www.quickzip.org/quickzip/whatsnew450.php
promises a whopping 30 encode types and 50 archive extensions!



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