Features:  

Quick Zip is the most powerful free file compression program we reviewed. Quick Zip easily creates and extracts dozens of archives. In addition to including password protection, drag and drop support, archive splitting and email integration, Quick Zip has an integrated FTP; it can batch extract and convert archives and supports thumbnail viewing.

Additionally, in the settings menu, you can set directory preferences, configure a virus scanner and more.

However, we were surprised to find that Quick Zip does not integrate with Windows Explorer. There is no right-click functionality.

Additionally, we found that when you convert an archive to another archive, Quick Zip just defaults your new archive to the same folder your old archive was in. We would have preferred the faculty to set a different destination, but at least the converted archive doesn’t go far.

Compression:  

In our ZIP compression test, Quick Zip performed well. Its overall compression is a little bit higher than WinZip’s “Legacy” compression.

Compression Formats:  

Quick Zip supports compression to 10 formats and archives including ZIP, 7z and TAR. Although this isn’t the largest number of formats Quick Zip’s selection covers the most important.

Extraction Formats:  

Quick Zip has broad support for almost 30 file formats and archives. Not only does Quick Zip support common archives like ZIP and RAR, it can also read ARJ, ZOO, CPT, MacBin, Splint, Jam and more.

Ease of Use:  

Quick Zip is not for the casual file archiver. It is a powerhouse program designed for power-users. It does not include a Wizard and although it supports drag and drop functionality, we found that the prompted new archive screen and the drill down file method used in the left navigation can be cumbersome, if not completely intimidating.

Help and Support:  

Quick Zip’s technical support is interesting. The program has a user guide that should answer most of your questions, but if you have to go beyond that, the water gets murky. Links to the online help files and 'submit bugs' function located in Quick Zip take you to a broken webpage.

Additionally, the online forum support is hosted by Google Groups, not an official forum program. We also found that although there is an email address to contact the software’s author, all support questions should be directed to the forum.

Although QuickZip is a powerful and effective file compression program, we found that for the average user, it just might be too complicated to use.

To learn more about file compression software see our top three reviews, WinZip, WinRAR and ALZip.