NOTE: this help topic documents the WinZip® Install/Try/Uninstall Add-on. A test version of this add-on was available from our web site at one time. Due to low demand for the feature, we are no longer planning to make this add-on officially available.
Here are answers to the three most frequently asked technical questions about WinZip's Install/Try/Uninstall feature:
Question: Why shouldn't I run unrelated programs during an install?
Answer: All configuration changes made between an install and uninstall are considered to have been made by the install process. For example, if you switch to your word processor and save a document during the installation process, the document is considered to have been created as part of the install process. If you subsequently uninstall, WinZip lists the document you created in the Uninstall dialog box along with files created during the install procedure. Therefore it is strongly suggested that you do not run any programs other than those related to the program you are installing until you have decided whether to uninstall.
Question: What does WinZip do if a SETUP program replaces an existing DLL or VBX file?
Answer: WinZip's uninstall feature will never suggest you delete files that are used by other programs. WinZip "watches" the setup process, and notices whether any existing files were replaced. If you later choose to uninstall a program WinZip will list changes to pre-existing files in the Cautions dialog box, and will not list them in the Uninstall dialog box, so these files cannot be accidentally deleted. Since no well-behaved SETUP or INSTALL program will replace existing files with older versions of the same file, and since all well-behaved DLLs and VBXs are designed so that new versions don't break programs relying on old versions, there should be no negative effects on your system.
Note that WinZip does not backup all files on your system before running an install, so it is possible for an ill-behaved SETUP or INSTALL program to "break" other applications. However, in no case will you be worse off running WinZip with the Install/Try/Uninstall feature than if you run the SETUP or INSTALL program without WinZip.
Question: Can I use WinZip to install a program, try the program for a week, and later use WinZip to uninstall it?
Answer: No. WinZip's Install/Try/Uninstall feature was designed for the highest possible reliability. You must decide whether to uninstall in the same session that you install. The advantage to this approach is that WinZip has a very high uninstall success rate with a very easy to use interface. It is almost impossible to guarantee a safe uninstall if you've had a chance to install other programs, make arbitrary changes to your system configuration, etc. However, you can use the Report button in the WinZip Uninstall dialog box to generate a disk file listing files that were changed, and use this file to manually uninstall the program. In this case it is up to you to determine whether any programs you've since installed depend on files that are part of the original install.