WinZip
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | April 1991 |
| Founder | Nico Mak Computing |
| Fate | Acquired by Corel Corporation in 2006 |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Products | WinZip |
| Owner | Alludo |
WinZip is a trialware file archiver and compression application available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Created by WinZip Computing (initially known as Nico Mak Computing) and currently owned by Alludo, it primarily generates archives in the Zip format, can extract numerous other archive types, and provides integration features for operating systems.
History
Introduced in April 1991, WinZip initially served as a graphical user interface (GUI) front-end for PKZIP. The ZIP format itself was developed in 1989 by Phil Katz specifically for MS-DOS.
Starting with WinZip 5.0, the software incorporated its own PKZIP compression routines, removing the dependency on the external PKZIP executable. Between versions 6.0 and 9.0, registered users were able to obtain free updates by inputting their original registration details; this upgrade policy was discontinued with version 10.0.
On May 2, 2006, following its initial public offering, WinZip Computing was purchased by Corel Corporation.
To broaden its platform availability, WinZip released a Mac OS X edition in November 2010 compatible with Intel-based Macs running version 10.5 'Leopard.' Subsequently, the iOS version launched on February 17, 2012, with an Android release following on June 19, 2012, thus extending support to mobile operating systems.
Supported .ZIP archive features
- Encryption options include both 128- and 256-bit key AES encryption alongside the legacy PKZIP 2.0 encryption found in earlier editions. The AES implementation utilizes Brian Gladman’s code and achieved FIPS-197 certification on March 27, 2003. It should be noted that Central Directory Encryption is not supported.
Release history
| Chart: WinZip Windows release timeline |
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<timeline> Define $dx = 25 # horizontal text offset Define $dy = -3 # vertical text offset Define $now = 09/11/2019 Define $start = 04/03/1991 ImageSize = width:160 height:575 PlotArea = width:50 height:555 left:50 bottom:10 DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:$start till:$now TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1992 PlotData= bar:Leaders color:blue width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S from:04/03/1991 till:$now from:04/03/1991 till:04/03/1991 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_1.0 from:07/30/1991 till:07/30/1991 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_2.0 from:04/06/1992 till:04/06/1992 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_3.1 from:10/03/1992 till:10/03/1992 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_3.2 from:01/16/1993 till:01/16/1993 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_4.0 from:06/26/1993 till:06/26/1993 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_4.1 from:11/08/1993 till:11/08/1993 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_5.0 from:08/15/1994 till:08/15/1994 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_5.5a from:01/24/1995 till:01/24/1995 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_5.6 from:08/14/1995 till:08/14/1995 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_6.0 from:10/01/1996 till:10/01/1996 shift:($dx,-6) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_6.1 from:10/18/1996 till:10/18/1996 shift:($dx,0) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_6.2 from:09/20/1997 till:09/20/1997 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_6.3 from:10/05/1998 till:10/05/1998 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_7.0 from:04/25/2000 till:04/25/2000 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_8.0 from:12/10/2001 till:12/10/2001 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_8.1 from:02/24/2004 till:02/24/2004 shift:($dx,$dy) fontsize:XS text:WinZip_9.0 from:11/01/2005 till:11/01/2005 shift:( $dx,$dy ) fontsize:S text:"WinZip_10.0" from:"11"/15/"2006" till:"11"/15/"2006" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_11.0" from:"04"/17/"2007" till:"04"/17/"2007" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_11.1" from:"04"/09/"2008" till:"04"/09/"2008" shift:"$dx",-8 fontsize:S text:"WinZip_11.2" from:"09"/10/"2008" till:"09"/10/"2008" shift:"$dx",2 fontsize:S text:"WinZip_12.0" from:"05"/13/"2009" till:"05"/13/"2009" shift:"$dx",-6 fontsize:S text:"WinZip_12.1" from:"10"/14/"2009" till:"10"/14/"2009" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_14.0" from:"04"/14/"2010" till:"04"/14/"2010" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_14.5" from:"11"/05/"2010" till:"11"/05/"2010" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_15" from:"04"/19/"2011" till:"04"/19/"2011" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_15.5" from:"10"/25/"2011" till:"10"/25/"2011" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_16.0" from:"10"/16/"2012" till:"10"/16/"2012" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_17.0" from:"05"/09/"2013" till:"05"/09/"2013" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_17.5" from:"10"/31/"2013" till:"10"/31/"2013" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_18.0" from:"05"/12/"2014" till:"05"/12/"2014" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_18.5" from:"10"/28/"2014" till:"10"/28/"2014" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_19.0" from:"05"/07/"2015" till:"05"/07/"2015" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_19.5" from:"10"/20/"2015" till:"10"/20/"2015" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_20.0" from:"10"/25/"2016" till:"10"/25/"2016" shift:"$dx","$dy" fontsize:S text:"WinZip_21.0" from:"04"/27/"2017" till:"04"/27/"2017" shift:$dx,$dy fontsize:S text:'WinZip_21.5' from:'10'/25/'2017' till:'10'/25/'2017' shift:$dx,$dy fontsize:S text:'WinZip_22.0' from:'11'/01/'2018' till:'11'/01/'2018' shift:$dx,$dy fontsize:S text:'WinZip_23.0' from:'09'/11/'2019' till:'09'/11/'2019' shift:$dx,$dy fontsize:S text:'WinZip_24.0' </timeline> |
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