14 DAY TRIAL // The best way to start this new week is by reviewing a program belonging to one of my favorite software families, and today my choice is an archiver. Most of the archivers that I found lately are ZIP tools, more or less advanced, and now it's pretty much the same - I have a ZIP tool here, but it's an advanced one, so prepare yourselves: UltimateZip is here!
This program's last version is 3.1, and if you are going to use it for personal purposes only, you can enjoy it for as long as you want, but for using it for commercial purposes, you must register after 30 days. Anyway, the price of a license is 16$, and that's not much, especially considering the features that we'll discover right away. The installation kit of the program has 3.4MB in size and the setup process is as easy as one-two-three, so no problems here.
I must say that most of the archivers that I have seen lately didn't impress me at all with their interfaces, and this time, the situation is different yet the same. Now, let me explain this...
UltimateZip's interface is inspired by WinZip, I don't have any doubt about that, but I can't claim that this is a copy either. The main window is simple yet effective, containing a menu bar, a toolbar and a work area. Even better, the toolbar buttons can be changed using skins, and there are some nice ones already included, and the interface looks can be also changed. Beginners will find this program easy to use, especially because of the well done documentation and the wizards that have been included.
The first bad thing that I found out about this program while using it is that UltimateZip can't open more than one archive at a time, but here comes the good part - there are a lot of file formats supported, with built in support for reading and extracting for ACE, ARC, ARJ, PAK, ZOO and RAR archives. The list of archives that can be saved by this program includes ZIP, 7Z, JAR, LHA or GZIP files, which is nothing less than excellent.
Creating new archives and extracting files from the existing ones are features that you'll find with any program that can be called "archiver", and I think that's not what we should check here, so let's move on to the advanced features instead.
If you want to sign your ZIP files, there's nothing easier than that! Just go to the Actions menu and choose the Add Signature option from the Zip Signature submenu, add your data and it's done! Moving on to secure your information, you can encrypt your archives, using the strong AES-256 encryption algorithm. Another excellent feature for your safety is the one that blocks execution of unsafe file types from the opened archives, protecting you from potentially dangerous files.
Since I mentioned the wizards, let's see what we have here...First of all, there's an excellent Backup Wizard that lets you backup your data fast and easy. If you think that the standard interface is too much for you, you can just click the Wizard button from the toolbar and the program's main window will turn into the UltimateZip Wizard that automates most common tasks that involve archive files, featuring pack, update and extract operations, as well as support for UUE and XXE encoding and decoding. When you want to change back to the standard interface, just click the UltimateZip Standard button. Easy, isn't it?
The features list also includes favorite archive folders, batch compression and extraction, a ZIP repair tool, all being very easy to use, even for beginners, but I have to remind you that if you run into any problem...the documentation is waiting for you, and believe me that you will find more than you need inside it!
The Good
UltimateZip is easy to use, fast, reliable and has a versatile interface. The features it offers are way above average, and the documentation that comes with it can give a hand in clearing out all problems that may appear. At last, its price is excellent, and the fact that you can use it for personal purposes for free adds another white ball to the pot.
The Bad
I have 7-Zip already and I don't feel the need for another archiver, and UltimateZip looks too much like WinZip...until you change its looks, of course! I don't like the nag screen that I have to see each time I start the program, and that's all...
The Truth
I am impressed by this program's performance and its price. Although I am not into commercial archivers at all, this is one of the best deals that I have seen lately, and I strongly suggest that you take a look and enjoy yourselves!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
