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Windows 7 is scheduled to be launched in less than a month, and in anticipation of this important date, many developers have been working hard on new versions of their programs that take full advantage of all the enhancements included in Microsoft’s new operating system. One of them is WinZip, which announced the release of WinZip 14. The popular archiving and compression tool is now available for downloading as a pre-release beta version that lets you have a sneak peak at all its new features and check how well it works with Windows 7. And you know, I just couldn’t resist the temptation!

WinZip does look great on Windows 7. But it’s not only about visual appearance: it also takes advantage of all Windows 7 special features. You can, for example, access the most frequently used tasks in WinZip from the Jump lists in the Start menu, or the taskbar.

Another great feature is the Preview in Windows Explorer. Hover your mouse over any compressed archive and you’ll get a tooltip with a list of all the files it contains.

WinZip 14 makes extensive use of Libraries. You’ll see them in most dialog windows (Open, Add, Extract, etc.), together with some other Windows 7 goodies – like different layouts to browse files.

As previous versions, WinZip 14 is seamlessly integrated with the system and lets you access the program’s main functions via the context menu. Also, you can select which commands appear on this menu in the program’s options.

Besides all these usability enhancements, the new version of WinZip also boasts improved AES encryption, faster and more secure… but those features always remain a bit under the hood. In the end, the image that will stick with you after testing WinZip 14 is one of perfect integration with the operating system – which makes both easier to use. Now, this is how everyone should develop software. Good job, WinZip!