Review by Admiralu

WinZip 18 is the latest version of the popular zip and compression software from Corel. While there are many free and shareware options available, they aren’t always compatible with many systems. 7-Zip, a popular option was used by my company. I had to stop using it because everyone I sent zip files to could not open or read anything compressed with 7-Zip even though many had the program installed on their computers. We never had this problem using WinZip. It is a standard that does work well with virtually any program. I didn’t see a large amount of difference between version 17 as opposed to version 18. It is still fast and efficient. I do love the integration with the cloud services. WinZip will zip to Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive (formerly Skydrive from Microsoft), Box, SugarSync and CloudMe. It will also zip to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It also will encrypt your files for protection. The Cloud navigation has been improved, though it was always easy for me to access my Cloud zips before. You can also send links to you zip files in the Cloud if you need to share them. I also love the fact that you can create PDF files from WinZip and add watermarks. That is a great option if you don’t have a PDF creator available. You can also create self-extracting zip files for those who don’t have a zip program. It handles the usual RAR, 7-Zip, BZ2 and many others. When extracting encrypted files WinZip does auto wipe the temporary files for protection One new feature are the WinZip Express Add-Ons. The new Add-Ons are available for Windows Explorer (in Windows Vista and Windows 7, Windows 8 has replaced Explorer with OneDrive), photos, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft SharePoint (Enterprise option for work) and photos. As is normal for Corel, only the Add-On for Explorer is free to registered users of WinZip 18. The other options are $12.95 with a discount for registered users of $9.95 at the time of this writing. Although I find WinZip to be the best service for zipping, compressing and encrypting files that I have used, Corel charges for everything now, upgrades to Pro, extra charges for the Add-Ons. I am certain these were separated because inclusion would have made the program more costly and everyone does not need as many features. WinZip has also ballooned to include a wide variety of services besides the base product and you will hear about those after you register your email address (required). It is still the best overall for regular consumers and the easiest to use that works with nearly everything. I still highly recommend it since I have tried several other compressions that are too complicated to use and/or others were not able to read the compressed files. Zipping, compressing and encryption do word much faster and easier with WinZip.