WinZip is available in standard and professional versions. This upgrade scheme was discontinued as of version 10.0. Starting from version 5.0 in 1993, the creators of WinZip incorporated compression code from the Info-ZIP project, thus eliminating the need for the PKZIP executable to be present.įrom version 6.0 until version 9.0, registered users could download the newest versions of the software, enter their original registration information or install over the top of their existing registered version, and thereby obtain a free upgrade. By 1994, WinZip had become the official and required compression tool used by system operators on CompuServe for forum file libraries.

The freely downloadable WinZip soon found itself included in best-selling Windows computing titles as part of companion disks, including the all-time best-selling Windows 3.0 book, Windows Secrets, by Brian Livingston. In 1993, WinZip announced the launch of its official support for customers on the Windows Utility Forum, serving over 100,000 members, providing updates and related information. Originally released on CompuServe, availability of WinZip expanded across major online services, including GEnie, Prodigy and other online services. It used the OS/2 versions of the PKWARE, Inc. Earlier in January 1991 Nico Mak Computing had released a GUI front-end for OS/2 Presentation Manager called PMZIP. WinZip 1.0 was released in April 1991 as a Graphical User Interface (GUI) front-end for PKZIP.

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Winzip systems utilities suite