Free Zip Reader

You're probably seeing more compressed .zip files ready for download on the internet.

To be able to look inside such files, you'll need a Zip Reader. Fortunately, there's a free software that does exactly that.

Zip Reader by PKWare is a free Windows utility that allows users to open files that have been compressed using any ZIP product. In addition, it can decrypt files that were created using SecureZIP or PKZIP® on any supported hardware platform.

The only thing I dislike about the PKWare download page is that it asks for your email address. Then again, it doesn't seem to matter what email address you put in, because you're immediately brought to the download page after you submit your email address. [http://download.pkzip.com/pub/pkware/products/win/pkreader.exe]

Using it is as simple as running the program, then letting it know which zip file you want to open. ZIP Reader by PKWARE is an application for decrypting and unzipping secured ZIP files created with PKWARE products. This program allows you to receive and read these compressed files, but not send secure zip files.

On the other hand, if you're the one offering downloadable zip files, you can include in your download page a link to PKWare, just in case your customers don't have a program that decompresses zipped files. And if you ever need to create zip files for free, check out FreeZip.

Imagine, instead of sending several files or photos to your friends, simply bundle them all into a single zip file and email that instead. Just be aware, though, that some email systems will reject zipped files if they contain an EXE file. But if it's just jpgs or PDF files, that shouldn't give you too many problems.

[ First posted on 03/25/2007 by Manuel Viloria ]