winzip (version 6.2)

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When I use winzip to zip a file I find that the file is not smaller in size. I was under the impression that Winzip would compress the file and this way I could attach it to an Email. Does it have anything to do with my version? Can anyone suggest a free download for a newer version?

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It may depend on the original file you are trying to compress. If it is already efficiently compiled, you may get no improvement whatever software you use.

See: Why don’t some files compress very much?.

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The result of zipping a file depends heavily on the file format. Some file formats are already compressed, so zipping will have no or little effect. The .jpg picture format is an example, the .mp3 music format is another one. Some other formats can be compressed to a tiny fraction of the original size.
WinZip is not free. You can download a free evaluation copy of version 10 from WinZip.
There are free zip utilities. Alan Miller recently pointed out 7-Zip 4.37, and TUGZip – The Free Archiving Utility has also been mentioned favorably.

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Franny,
Winzip is now up to Version 10.0, build 6680, but I don’t think it’s free anymore except for a 30 day trial download.

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At the extreme, a file that is completely random will very likely be LARGER after you try to compress it no matter what program you use since there are no patterns to compress but the compression program still needs to store decompression information. Compression programs like winzip take advantage of patterns in the data – no patterns, no compression. As one example, JPEGs don’t compress well (because the JPEG format is already a compressed format).

What type of data are you trying to compress?

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Hi, it was a PowerPoint file I was trying to compress to send through Email but I gave up and put it on a CD instead and will hand it out. Thanks for your help.

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