Zip Files

Zip Files is a lightweight software application whose purpose is to help you archive all files found in a user-defined folder and save the compressed items to ZIP file format. It can be deployed on all Windows versions out there.

This is a portable program. You can store it on USB flash drives or other portable devices to have it with you all the time. You may run it without administrative privileges.

Gaining access to its features requires only opening the executable file because there’s no setup included in the process. It does not write entries to your Windows registry and leave other configuration files on the target PC. It actually saves the settings data on the storage device. Getting rid of it implies a simple deletion task of the files that you have downloaded from the Internet.

Zip Files reveals a clean layout that embeds only a few configuration settings. Directories can be imported in the working environment using the built-in browse button (the drag-and-drop support is not implemented).

On the downside, not all of the application’s features are translated into English. Some of them are displayed in German, making a bit difficult to guess their exact meaning.

Zip Files gives you the possibility to select the folder with the files that you want to archive. On the downside, the program is not able to create a ZIP archive with all the items included in the target folder. It actually creates an archive for each file.

Other important configuration settings worth being mentioned enable you to delete the original items at the end of the process and filter the files that you want to compress based on file extension (e.g. JPG, GIF, PNG, TXT, DBF).

The bottom line is that Zip Files has to offer nothing more than basic functionality and poor support for advanced ZIP archiving features. It needs enhancements until it can compete with other powerful ZIP managers like WinRAR.