The WinZip Wizard makes it easy for beginners to install programs distributed in Zip format. You can specify your favourite Zip folders and the Wizard will present a list of all the Zip files it finds, sorted by date: if they contain a SETUP or INSTALL program, the Wizard can unzip the selected file, run the installation program and clean up any temporary files.

More experienced users will prefer the full interface, which can be highly customised: it lists full details of archived files, including compressed/uncompressed sizes, compression ratios and CRC values. The toolbar can be configured to access virtually all functions: you can create or open archives and add, extract, view and delete files: you can also e-mail archives, create self-extracting archives (which can span multiple floppy disks), test their integrity, UUencode them, run a virus checker and call up the Wizard's easy install routine.

WinZip is closely integrated with the Windows shell, with full support for drag and drop and access to the main zip/unzip operations from the Explorer's contextual menu.

You can create UUencoded files and open CAB, TAR, Z, GZ, TAZ and TGZ archives, and files encoded in XXencode, BinHex and MIME formats. There's support for ARJ, ARC and LZH archives if you have the necessary programs. You can also create self-extracting EXE archives in 16- or 32-bit Windows format, with optional disk spanning for large archives.

Paquet Builder includes a Package Express wizard, which is a fast way to get started but doesn't use many of the program's fancier features. These include information messages, start/finish prompts, ReadMe texts, a file manager for archive contents, extraction options plus the ability to execute/display files afterwards.

More advanced features include a simple wizard for setting up Windows INF installations: once you've provided the INF file, the wizard can locate all the necessary files and include them in the package. You can also set compression levels, create a Windows shortcut, add password protection and specify a custom icon.

You can open and extract ZIP, CAB, ARJ, and LZH archives, self-extracting Zips and the standard Unix archives, as well as the encoded BinHex, UUencode and MIME formats. Zip files, self-extracting Zips and UUencoded files can be created, plus ARJ and LZH archives if you have the necessary programs.

While TurboZIP can be used from the context menu in Explorer, you'll need the TurboZIP window to access all features. This window has three panes, giving you an Explorer-style view of files and file sets, a list of files in the current set or archive and a preview for any file you select.

TurboZip has fast internal viewers for most common formats, and can make use of your system's ActiveX and ActiveMovie resources. You can also use associated external programs if necessary, without leaving the archive.

It's simple to locate both files and text strings within Zip files or sets: the search tool has several filters to narrow the search, and comprehensive text search options which include fuzzy matching.

You can set up automatic backup with an Auto Backup script, created by selecting the relevant tool and assembling a Zip archive in the usual way -- file locations, preferences and other details are recorded automatically. Scripts are easy to edit and can be executed manually or scheduled to run unattended, using TurboZip's command line options. I recommend a careful reading of the Help files before trying this.

Archiver Shell's interface sports Explorer-style windows on top of controls for setting the characteristics and location of the target archive. It doesn't support normal drag and drop to create archives (although it allows internal drag and drop). A more annoying limitation is the omission of right-click access to functions within Explorer.

The interface makes it easy to choose the archive format you want and specify the characteristics of a multi-volume archive. You can open or create numerous file formats including TIF, RAR, LZH, TAR, GZ and self-extracting (EXE) files, plus ARJ files using ARJ.EXE. The program also supports decompression of ZOO and ARC files, adding up to a comprehensive coverage of archive formats.