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[ Go to July 1997 Table of Contents ]
WinLab Reviews
-- by William M. Frazier
ZipMagic is a good example of a program that actually saves time and increases productivity. Thanks to its transparency, novices avoid having to learn a new program, and zip files look and act like any other folder on the system. With this handy utility, which uses a device driver to accomplish its magic, you'll no longer need to decompress an archive to a temporary directory. You'll also be able to run any program, game or installation program from within a zip file, as well as password-protect zip files. The advantages of working with zip files as folders at the operating-system level are obvious: Without decompressing the entire archive, you can open, close, copy, move and rename individual files nested in a zip file directly within Explorer, My Computer or any other program that accesses the file system. You can also perform virus checks. Open a word processing file contained in a zip file using the normal File/Open command, then edit and save it back to the archive using the usual File/Save command. The ZipMagic Archive Manager (only under Windows 95) provides several extraction options if you need to decompress and relocate a zipped file. But proceed with caution: An overeager user may try to zip the Windows or System directories, thereby preventing Windows from booting. Zipping directories containing complex applications, where an installation program has placed information in the Registry and INI files about the application's location on the hard drive, will prevent the program from running. Our current recommended product, Luckman's Zip, does not provide the speed and ease of use when working with archived files. For productivity gains, ZipMagic is out in front and replaces it on our WinList.
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