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One of the essential tools that every computer user must have is a file compression utility. These tools let you uncompress or compress files as needed. Most people associate ZIP files with file compression, as this is the most common type. There are dozens more though. Some operating systems have support built-in, but this is usually very basic, and so the need arises for a third-party utility that will handle file compression/decompression (or archive files). This is where CuteZIP comes in.

CuteZIP is a product by GlobalSCAPE (the makers of CuteFTP). It handles ZIP files, as well as many others. It has full support for ZIP, CAB, GZIP, TAR, PAK and PK3 files and decompression support for ACE, ARJ, and RAR files. It has all of the standard features that you would expect:

  • Multiple levels of compression
  • Self-extracting files
  • Encryption
  • Windows shell integration
  • Disk spanning

This is how it works... when you download a file from your favourite download site, the file is often in a ZIP file. If you have CuteZIP installed, you would see an icon for the file similar to this:

CuteZIP File Icon

You have 2 choices: double-click on the icon to open the file in the CuteZIP program, or right-click on it to use some of the integrated features. I prefer to right-click on the file. When you do so, you will see a menu similar to this:

CuteZIP Right-Click Context Sensitive Menu

I had saved this file to my desktop, and so was given the option to extract the contents of the file to my desktop, to a folder on my desktop with the same name as the ZIP file, or I could specify the name of a folder to extract to. There is also an option to convert the file to a different file format. I usually use the middle option and extract the file to a folder with the same name as the original ZIP file. Once that is complete, the files are available to use as needed.

As I stated previously, CuteZIP also has an option to open up the ZIP file in the CuteZIP program. When I double-clicked on the purge404.zip file, the CuteZIP interface appeared as follows:

CuteZIP Program Interface Screenshot

There are more options available from this screen, then from the right-click menu:

  • Add files to the archive
  • View details of the files that are in the archive
  • Install the archived program. In my example above, I extracted the files to a folder. I would then need to run the setup program in the folder to install the program that I had downloaded. This works well, but in essence I end up with 2 copies of the files on my computer (one in the zip file, another in the folder). This is a waste of space. The Install option here lets you run the setup program from within the ZIP file without making a permanent copy of the install files.

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