14 DAY TRIAL // Some time has passed since I?ve had an archiver on my hands, and now, those days are back. I have no doubt that most of the archivers in the wild have something to do with the ZIP format, especially their names - just think about it: WinZip, 7-Zip, PKZip, QuickZip, PicoZip, FilZip and many, many more. One of them is today's target, called PowerZip.
This program has reached a respectable version number, 7.07, and its trial version can be used for 45 days, while the price of a license is exactly 20$, no more, no less. The installation package has a size of almost 2MB and the setup process is as easy as it gets. Now let's find out more about PowerZip's looks and tools, shall we?
When you fire up the program for the first time, you can't miss the Welcome Screen. There are four areas inside this window, entitled Common Tasks, Getting Started, Getting Help and Purchase PowerZip. You can use the Common Tasks to start the three main operations - extract, compress and open, and this is what I will tell you about next.
The two operations that every program from this family must be able to perform are packing and unpacking. For each of them, you have a wizard available. Their names are Extraction Wizard and Compression Wizard, while using them is extremely easy - all you have to do is read and follow the instructions on the screen.
Oh, my! Did I forget about the interface? Well, maybe the main reason is that there's not much to say about it - nice, clean and very easy to use, this is PowerZip's interface. Its main window is composed of a menu bar, a toolbar and a browser panel that lets you browse your archives' contents. Now, let's get back to the features...
The next thing I am interested in now is the amount of file formats supported for packing and unpacking operations, and some basic details about this topic. Without any doubt, the ZIP files are on the top of the list. The rest of the list is filled with names like ARJ, RAR, TAR, CAB, ACE , HA, LZH, JAR and UNIX Z/GZ/BZ2. Some of this file types are only supported for extraction, such as RAR, while others require external programs to handle them, like ARJ and LHA.
Opening archives is another trivial operation in PowerZip; all you have to do is browse for your archives and double click them after pressing Ctrl+O or choosing the Open item from the File menu. There's even a third way of doing that, using the toolbar button.
Last interesting topic here is the ability of this program to create macros, one that you don't see every day in an archiver. Why would you create macros? Creating backups could be one of the purposes. You just choose which folders to archive, and each time you're running the macro, the backup archive is refreshed with the new and changed files. Of course, there could be found more uses for this, but I'll leave those for you to discover.
My playtime with PowerZip is about to end, while yours is just about to start, but I have one more thing to do now - to draw the conclusions.
The Good
PowerZip is easy to use, fast, reliable, looks well and its documentation is more than enough to get you started. The built in wizards are a great way to help newbies accommodate with it and save their precious time. The macro feature alone is worth the program's price, and you get a 45-day money-back satisfaction guarantee once you?ve made the purchase.
The Bad
People who are not crazy about macros and automatization won't be crazy about the idea of paying 20$ for a program that could be replaced by a lot of free programs. After all, there's 7-Zip and the entire army of free archivers that awaits...
The Truth
PowerZip is nice to try, but it's one that I won't buy. I have 7-Zip and Total Commander and I am more than happy with them. Anyway, it was a pleasure to check this program, and I advise you to do the same, and even more, try to enjoy it, because I did. Now, it's your turn!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
