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Up until now, you had to pay for a good ZIP program.
   technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Easy Zip: Great for handling ZIP files, and it's free


Jan. 30, 2000

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Anybody who downloads files and has a Windows PC needs a ZIP manager. Windows doesn't come with one, so you have to find one yourself. This week I'll tell you how to get a good one without paying a cent. And I'll share a few secrets on how to use that free ZIP software.
   A ZIP manager is just my term for a program that can make sense out of ZIP files. ZIPs, as you probably already know, are the files that hold programs and other things you download. ZIP files are compressed to make them download faster. There are other ways to store files you download, but ZIP is the most popular.
    By itself, Windows does not know what a ZIP file is. This is odd since ZIPs are so common, but it apparently reflects Microsoft's attitude toward software formats that are NIH -- Not Invented Here. Nevertheless, Windows users have no choice. They have to be able to open ZIPs and extract the files inside.
   Up until now, you had to pay for a good ZIP program. But one of the best ones currently available is also free for non-commercial users. It's Easy Zip 99, from http://www.angelfire.com/ms/easyzip/.
   Easy Zip installs easily and provides nearly all the functions of WinZip. When you right-click on a ZIP file, you'll have a chance to extract the contents to a folder with the same name as the ZIP file (this is what you should nearly always do) or extract to a folder with another name. You'll also be able to create a self-extracting ZIP file.
   Right clicking on a folder shows two compression choices. You can add the contents of the folder to a ZIP file with the same name as the folder (the right choice in most cases) or add the contents to a ZIP file of your choice.
   (Don't let the "Add" function confuse you. "Add" means to put new files into an already existing ZIP file -- to add them, of course -- but it also means to create a new ZIP file if one doesn't already exist. So "Add" is how you create a new ZIP file.)
   Easy Zip was created by Deepu Chandy Thomas, a teen-age programmer from India. He says on his Web site that he'll accept money for Easy Zip but does not expect private users to pay. Companies that install Easy Zip are asked to submit a small fee.
   Easy Zip works under Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows NT. In all operations it seems as fast as WinZip. It is better behaved than WinZip in the way it continues to work in the background without driving you batty with odd messages.
   Working with ZIP files can be confusing, so I'll share three tips with you.
   Use Easy Zip (or any other good ZIP manager) to create backup copies of entire folders. Don't bother zipping files; zip up folders instead. This is a great way to make a compressed backup of your "My Documents" folder, for example. First clean out the junk from the "My Documents" folder, then back out of it and right click on it. Tell Easy Zip to create a Zip file with the same name as the folder.
   Make sure your C: drive has a lot of free space before you attempt this, because Easy Zip (like all other ZIP managers) will create a temporary file the same size as the ZIP file. (This means you need twice as much free space. If your C: drive has, say, 300 megabytes of space free, and your "My Documents" folder contains 160 megabytes of files -- you can check by right clicking and choosing Properties -- you won't be able to create the ZIP version of "My Documents" because the temporary ZIP file plus the permanent one will add up to 320 megabytes.
   Now comes the best part. Leave the ZIP file called "My Documents.zip" right where it was created (it will be in the main directory, or "root," of the C: drive). Each week, repeat the same procedure, creating a ZIP file based on the folder. Easy Zip (or your own ZIP manager) will add any new files in "My Documents" while leaving the others already in the ZIP file alone. You'll have a full backup of that all-important documents folder, compressed to the smallest possible size. It will even hold files and folders you deleted -- and that means it's a perfect way to do backups of personal data.
   Of course, you can do the same thing with any other folder. Just right click on the folder and make a ZIP file the same name as the folder. The ZIP file will show up in the parent directory - in the same directory the folder is in, in other words -- and can be updated at any time.