Editorial Review:

Amazon.com Review:
Having a compression program is essential in these days of bandwidth conservation--e-mailing a 100 KB compressed file instead of a full 1 MB version over a dial-up connection preserves sanity as well as throughput. Since its debut, ZipMagic has been known as one of the easiest-to-use compression applications.

What sets ZipMagic apart is the 'magic' inside: ZipMagic's neatest trick is allowing compressed--or zipped--files to act like normal folders within Windows. Double-clicking a file compressed with ZipMagic opens it like any other Windows folder, allowing you to browse the contents without unzipping it. You can rename individual files, open zipped files from within applications, and even run zipped programs without uncompressing them first. Of course, you'll see some slowdown when running larger program files compared to their uncompressed versions, but it's definitely a handy feature.

ZipMagic also compresses any folder on your hard drive if you add a .zip extension to its name, an excellent feature for storage. While this can save a lot of space, you'll want to be careful which folders you compress. Compressing everything on your hard drive can slow performance substantially, and some folders, such as the Windows or system folder, won't work properly when compressed.

The latest 4.0 version of ZipMagic also offers e-mail attachment enhancements, automatically compressing files attached to Outlook (but not Express) messages if you choose. In addition, the ZipMagic plug-in for Outlook, as well as for Microsoft Exchange, Eudora Light, and Eudora Pro, allows you to manually compress attached files from within your e-mail client.

ZipMagic 4.0 also offers 56-bit encryption--more than strong enough for the average user--but you'll need to register for this level of encryption as it's only available to users in the U.S. and Canada.

For basic handling of zipped files, ZipMagic works as well as any compression application out there. The compression ratios of different types of files, such as .doc and .bmp, are as high or higher than Niko Mak's WinZip or PKWARE's PKZIP. Like these other zip programs, ZipMagic allows the spanning of zipped files across multiple floppy diskettes, it can create self-extracting compressed files, and it integrates with your currently installed virus program to scan compressed files for viruses before you open them.

ZipMagic features an intuitive interface for file compression and manipulation, but the features you'll most enjoy are the ones working in the background that you never even see. --J. Curtis

Amazon.com Item Description:
ZipMagic 4.0 is a compression utility program that can shrink files up to 95 percent, thereby freeing up space on your hard drive and dramatically reducing the time spent sending large e-mail attachments. Easy to use and navigate, ZipMagic allows you to zip, unzip, e-mail, back up, and repair zip files, and more, with the wave of a wand. ZipMagic's patented technology makes your compressed zip files look and act like regular Windows folders, so instead of launching a separate utility to see what's inside a zip file, just open it like any other Windows folder. You can open, modify, and save documents within zip files as if they were regular files, since ZipMagic unzips and zips invisibly in the background. You can even run many programs from inside a zip file.

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Rating: - * Used to be great ... I used to swear by (never at) this product when it was version 1, on Windows 95. I happily paid the registration fee. But all sorts of nasty things (filesystem crashes, lockups) happened after I upgraded to V4 so I could run it on Windows 2000. The then-owners (Ontrack I think) admitted there were issues, but other than suggesting reinstallation (which didn't work) they had nothing. It was a shocker. I couldn't find anything mentioning this on the web, and now the product seems to have faded into obscurity. Maybe it's ok under SP4, I don't know, I can't afford to risk it. Shame. Rating: - * Great for ZIPs, use caution with other archive file types ... ZipMagic is extremely convenient, and reliable for ZIP files. I've been using it for years. But WARNING, I just found out the hard way that it can produce CORRUPT files when extracting from LZH/LHA files! I contacted customer support and we went back an forth several times. Here's their latest "answer" > Response (Ontrack Technical Support) - 09/20/2002 09:59 AM > The Compression Plus library files that are used in ZipMagic only > have the ability to view the contents of LHA/LZH files. The library > files cannot extract the LHA/LZH files, it can only view them. > This is a limitation of the library files that ZipMagic uses and will > not be corrected until the library files are updated by Compression > Plus. Sorry for the inconvenience. This is B.S. because their own manual, two years old now, says how to extract files from LZH/LHA archives. I'll be happy to provide a sample LZH file to prove my claim, to them or anyone else. It extracts just fine with lha255.exe. Mike p.s. I've heard that ZipMagic 7.0 is out now... I don't know if this problem as been corrected... Rating: - * Very good ... Zipmagic difently gives winzip a run for its money! You can view zipped files with ease without decompressing them and extract just one or many files and not the whole archive. It does do a great job of compressing, better than many others, but if you want to really compress your files you have to use winace Winace can support ALL compression types including their own .ace which is more than half the size of any zip archive. It has any feature that you could ever want in a compression program. You can also create self-extracting files. I use it to create self extracting files that i e-mail and they are SO MUCH SMALLER than the zip or any compression type making all those people with 56k connections a lot happier!! ... Rating: - * The best zip utility around ... ZipMagic is by far the best zip utility available as has been true since version 1.0. The unique feature that sets this zip utility apart from the others is that it lets you view and use the files in zipped files without decompressing them just as if they were regular folders. That's a huge time saver. Also, if you install software and add ".zip" to the end of the installation folder, the files will install on the hard drive compressed thus saving hard drive space. This version can be integrated with Outlook and other e-mail programs to allow for compression of files before e-mailing. It also allowws you to integrate your antivirus program to allow for instantanious scanning of compressed downloaded files. Also, ZipMagic handles virtually every compression format that you'll ever see. Highly recommended. Rating: - * Make some improvements and this software would be great. ... If you have a great number of files that you need to get from one place to another most people use some sort of compression utility. Zip Magic is one of those applications and for the money I found it to useful and easy to use. The installation of the application was without error for Windows 95 & 98. Under NT and 2000 I found that I had to disable the virus program before the install would even begin. Under Windows ME I was able to install the application but the virus scanner didn't work. The utility does compress file smaller than either WinZip or PKZip32, but the time to compress took longer. I was impressed by the user interface and the on-line help files were also very good. The application comes with the ability to make self-extracting files and this part of the application out performed any other compression utility I tested. As for the virus scanner, I found that it didn't pick up some macro viruses so I am sticking with my current scanner. Overall, OnTrack has created a compression utility that does rival the others. To push it over the top it needs a few minor tweaks and adjustments.