How to zip an ISO file (or other archive file) with WinZip using a right click

The options in the WinZip submenu of the Context Menu (the menu that displays when you right-click a file or folder) change depending on what you right-click. For example, right-clicking on a text file (.txt) or a folder will cause Add to entries to be available. Alternately, if you right-click one archive file, such as a Zip file, WinZip will not show Add to entries but will show Extract to ones.

The behavior above is true for any file types that WinZip will open. Some of these file types, such as ISO files, may be ones that you would like to zip from a right click, since they often can be compressed further in a Zip file. If you select multiple archive files, multiple mixed files, or a folder, you will find Add to options in the WinZip context menu. If you want to zip just one archive file using a right click, you can create your own Send To command. To do this, you would need to:

1. Download and install the WinZip Command Line Support Add-On (with older WinZip versions, you may need to download a different add-on version from either Alternative Download Links or from Legacy Download Links)
2. On the keyboard, press the Windows key+R to open Run
3. In the Run dialog type: %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo and click OK
4. In the SendTo folder that opens, right-click and create a NewText Document
5. Rename "New Text Document.txt" to something meaningful to you
6. Change the .txt extension to .bat (example: Zip_Archive.bat)
7. Right-click your .bat file and choose Edit
8. Type and then save the following two lines in your .bat file:

You should now be able to right click an ISO file (or any other archive) and choose to Send To > Zip_Archive.bat (assuming the name) and WZZIP will zip the ISO file, use its current name for the Zip file name, and place the Zip file in the same folder as the original ISO file.

You can place your .bat file in a different folder, create a shortcut to the .bat file, rename the shortcut, and place the shortcut in the SendTo folder. In this way, you could name the shortcut without the extension and change the icon. For example, after creating Zip_Archive.bat in the folder of your choice (or moving it to the folder of your choice), you could:

1. Right-click the .bat file and choose Create Shortcut
2. Rename the resulting shortcut to Zip Archive
3. Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties
4. In the Shortcut tab of Properties, click Change Icon
5. In the Change Icon dialog, click Browse
6. Browse to and open the WinZip folder (C:\Program Files\WinZip)
7. Click winzip64.exe (or winzip32.exe) to select it and click Open
8. Select the icon in the upper left and click OK
9. Click OK in the Properties dialog
10. Move your shortcut to the Send To folder (see the steps above)

If you are not experienced with using a command line interface but would like to learn more, you may want to read some of the information in Command Line Basics.