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With version 14 of this venerable archiving tool, WinZip aims specifically at Windows 7 compliance and enhancements, and adds a few other new features, too. WinZip in Windows 7 gets extensive support for libraries, tools, and recent archives in the jumplist, previews in Windows Explorer for certain file types, and basic touch-screen support. Multitouch support is limited to rotating pictures previewed from WinZip archives.

WinZip 14 also includes minor security enhancements. New automatic wiping keeps confidential data secret by "shredding" the temporary file that WinZip creates by default whenever it opens an archive. The shredding uses U.S. … Read more

ActMask Document Converter X is an easy-to-use program that lets users quickly convert files into different formats. It's nothing fancy, but it's a good choice for users find themselves needing to convert documents regularly.

The program's interface is basic and intuitive, and users can either open the program by itself or select it from the list of printers when printing a document. Users then simply select the format that they want to use, including PDF, TXT, and a variety of image file types. The program quickly converts the document to the desired file type. Many of the … Read more

Digital camera owners typically use image-editing software to rotate their JPEGs for proper display. Unfortunately, many image editors are "lossy," which means they decode and recode JPEG files as they are rotated, with a slight but inevitable loss of image quality. JPEG Lossless Rotator is a small, simple, yet effective bit of freeware that will rotate your JPEGs without decoding them, preserving the image quality, or, if the image can't be rotated without losing some pixels, it will ask you if you still want to rotate the image and tell you what it costs in pixels. JPEG … Read more

Image Compressor 2008 Pro Edition is a full-featured digital image editor. Although it won't replace Photoshop or other top-of-the line editing software, it's a great choice for users seeking a fairly lightweight program that still delivers plenty of options.

The program's interface is quite sleek and intuitive, although we were dismayed that the Quick Start Guide, which seems to invite users to click on it for information about different topics, couldn't actually be clicked on at all. This was the only hiccup we encountered, though. The interface is fully configurable, allowing users to customize the layout … Read more

Photo Rotator is a very basic program that allows users to flip and rotate JPEGs. Although the program works fine, we suspect that most users already have a way to do this that doesn't require a whole separate program.

Photo Rotator's interface is basic and fairly intuitive. We don't especially like the fact that users have to drag and drop images into the program; although this is handy sometimes, we'd also like to have the option to go to a File menu and open images that way. Users can drag and drop multiple photos into the … Read more

There is a problem some people are noticing with how their Snow Leopard installations handle some JPEG images. When these images are viewed using built-in image rendering technologies, the application presenting them will crash. This includes the Finder, which will quit and relaunch when a folder containing the files is opened and previews are rendered.… Read more

Photo Cropper is a basic image-cropping utility. We're not sure how a program could take a function as simple as cropping and make it so complicated, but Photo Cropper has succeeded in doing this.

The program's interface is composed of three large boxes and makes no sense. We were immediately annoyed by the fact that dragging and dropping is the only way for users to get images into the program; there's no File menu. Once we opened an image, it was not immediately obvious how we were to go about cropping it. It turns out that clicking … Read more

AZImage is a basic image converter that lets users quickly resize and convert images. The program's ease of use and a few cool extra features make this a good choice for conversion jobs of all sizes.

The program's interface is fairly intuitive and attractive, with three tabs that represent the steps in the conversion process. In the first, users select the images they want to convert; images can be selected individually, or users can select entire folds of images for batch conversions. In the next tab, users select the format, size, and destination for the new images. The … Read more

Cool PDF Reader provides users with a fast and easy way of viewing PDF files. With simple controls and some added benefits, this program is a fine alternative to more popular programs like Acrobat.

The program's interface shouldn't take too much work to understand, since its tightly packed command icons all come with descriptions when the mouse rolls over them. This is fortunate, since the program's online Help file is a confusing maze that we could never sort out. The program begins with users selecting a PDF by using a standard file tree search method. The document … Read more