WinZip 6.0 added many Windows 95 features, including tight integration with the Windows 95 shell and Explorer-style dialog boxes. WinZip 5.6 added support for the popular Internet file formats TAR, gzip, and Unix compress. WinZip 5.5 added the ability to install, try, and UNINSTALL software distributed in ZIP files. Added support for international characters in archive names and files in archives. Built-in unzipping is used when running DOS virus scanners. Added built-in Actions/Test operation for ZIP files. Added support for Windows-based virus scanners. Note that two advanced features, disk-spanning and encryption, still require PKZIP. WinZip 5.0 added PKZIP-compatible built-in zipping, so PKZIP is not needed for basic archive management. WinZip 4.0 added support for PKZIP 2.0, including built-in ZIP extraction, support for the ARJ file format, new toolbar with descriptive pictorial buttons, added a 3-D look to all dialog boxes. WinZip always uses PKZIP.EXE to modify ZIP files. WinZip 3.2 added Built-in ZIP Extraction so that PKUNZIP is not needed for most ZIP extract operations. WinZip 3.1 added support for Windows 3.1 Drag and Drop Interface, enhanced Extract dialog box with common dialog directory and drive list, Test action for ZIP and LZH files, added file types ZIP, LZH, and ARC to New and Open dialog boxes.

WinZip 3.0 added full support for LZH files, including self-extracting LZH files, configurable support for most virus scanners, simplified options to add and extract files in a subdirectory tree. WinZip 2.0 added support for ARC files, support for self-extracting ZIP files (ZIP2EXE), optional interface to Virus Scan software, dialog box to specify paths and filenames of external programs.

WinZip 1.0 was initial version for Windows. Seeing the need for an archive application with a Graphical User Interface, Nico Mak (then employed by Mansfield Software Group, Inc) seized the opportunity and developed the WinZip application for Microsoft Windows. The ZIP file archive format (ZIP) was originally invented for MS-DOS in 1989 by Phil Katz.

Winzip pro 21