Many people are using the Shareware version of Winzip to create or open .zip or other archives. As Winzip is also a commercial product, the makers want to convinve the users of the shareware version to upgrade to the paid product. So, when you start Winzip, they show a message telling your to purchase. The longer you use the shareware version, the longer it takes before you can click the message away. This message is called a Nag-Screen, for obvious reasons.

Luckily for those who do not want top be nagged, there are alternatives to Winzip. For example 7Zip.

7Zip zips and unzips .zip archives. It does so faster and smaller than Winzip even. And without a nagging you.

Creating smaller .zip Archives is a good thing. The bigger your archives, the longer it takes to send them around by email and the less space they take on your memory stick.

7-Zip even has its own archive format, called, 7z. It compresses your files even better than the .zip format. Up to 70%! So if you and your friends both have 7-Zip installed, you can exchange .7z files via email that take less than half the time of uploading to your webmail.

Having said that, archiving (big) documents before sending them around can save you a lot of time. Word & Excell documents can become 50 times smaller sometimes. If they are big reports or business plans, that is a big reduction in size. And the smaller the files, the shorter they take to upload for you, and download for your recipients.

So, for all people who like to open their archives without waiting for Winzip to stop nagging them, or for people who like to send around the smallest files possible: you can download 7-Zip from the Mountbatten website (fast) or from the official 7-Zip website.