14 DAY TRIAL // I don't have to worry about running out of archivers to review yet, so today I decided to have another one on the dissection table. I still can't get out of the pattern followed lately, so we'll have another ZIP tool today. Anyway, don't worry, because this is a completely different program when compared to the last ones from this category that I've reviewed, so prepare yourselves for the show!
Muzip doesn't have anything to do with Mu Online (I don't like that game at all, but when I saw this program's name, that's what came up in my mind first...), I tell you that just to make things clear. Its latest version is 3.04, and you can use it as long as you want, because it's completely free. The installation package is a little smaller than 500KB, and it takes just a little time to set up the program and fire it up. As you can see, no problems here, and even dial-up users can download this program easily and have enough time left to explore its interface and features, and this is exactly what we're going to do next.
When I opened the program for the first time, the interface made me think this is yet another extremely boring archiver with nothing special to it, but I was wrong. I can't say that Muzip's interface is really what I expect from a program released in 2006, but it's well organized and easy to use, and this is what really matters, after all. The toolbar icons are small and look old, but the work area is customizable and, most important of all, you can open more than one archive at a time and arrange their windows as you wish.
OK, so we can open more archives at the same time, excellent, but what about the file types supported? There aren't many file types supported, and my greatest disappointment here is the lack for RAR. 7Z and ACE support, but if we look on the bright side, Muzip can work with ZIP, TAR, GZIP archives and UUE,UU and XXE encoded files, as well as self extracting archives (unfortunately, but as I expected, self extracting RAR or ACE archives are not supported).
An excellent feature that I found here is the internal file previewer, and despite the fact that it can't preview at least JPEG images, I was able to see my images saved as BMP inside the archive, and preview of plain text files is also possible.
Muzip supports the creation and saving of scripts for later use, and these scripts can be used for performing batch operations easily. Packing and unpacking of tiles can be done using the shell extension - just select the items you want to pack and use the context menu commands.
The archive contents can be listed and exported as HTML tree, array or list, text or CSV files, helping you manage your archived files. On the management part, I have also found an advanced file filter that can search for files based on text strings contained, extension, date, size and file attributes.
The ZIP repair tool can be found on the toolbar, and while other programs have the same tool accessible from three different places, Muzip is not that way, because some tools can only be found on the toolbar, while others are located only inside the menus.
The Options area of this program has more options than I expected, and this can only be a good thing, despite the fact that you can't control the compression settings the way you can do it when using WinRar, WinAce or 7-Zip.
All these being said, let's see some conclusions now...
The Good
Muzip is fast, reliable and has a good interface. The best thing about it is that you can open more than one archive at a time, but it doesn't end here, and I'll add only the fact that it's completely free to use, that should be enough to make you curious about it and give it a shot.
The Bad
This program was released in 1999, and I think that 7 years should be enough to have at least a basic documentation built into the program, but unfortunately, Muzip lacks even the smallest text file that could help a beginner find its way through, and file support still leaves much to be desired.
The Truth
I know you can't have it all at once, especially when talking about free programs, but Muzip is a good try, despite its limitations, and I can only advise you to download it and give it a chance, it may impress you.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
