Ways to determine the version of WinZip and the registration status of users

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This information may be helpful to determine what versions of WinZip are currently installed on various workstations and whether or not these versions have been registered.

Note: 64-bit versions of WinZip first became available with WinZip 16.0. The file to be checked for 32-bit versions is winzip32.exe and the file to be checked for 64-bit versions is winzip64.exe.

Version Numbers

The version number of the WinZip executable file, winzip32.exe or winzip64.exe, is unique to the different WinZip versions but is not equal to the version number you will see displayed in the About WinZip dialog. A unique first number in the executable file version became less important when the mode of installation changed so that Windows Installer (MSI files) is responsible, rather than the WinZip executable file itself.

Starting with WinZip 14 in the table below, you will see build numbers listed as part of the version to help differentiate. Please note that other build numbers may apply for minor updates. You can assume, for example, that if you were to find an executable file version number higher than 25.0.9029.0, but lower than 25.0.9095.0, you have located a build of WinZip 14.0 released prior to 14.5.

Registration Information

The license code for WinZip had the same structure from WinZip 6.3 through WinZip 9.0 SR-1. With version 6.3, WinZip registration information was stored in the computer's WIN.INI file. In versions 7.0-9.0 SR-1 this same information was moved to the registry and stored as string values in the HKCU\Software\Nico Mak Computing\WinZip\WinIni key. In either case, if this is a fully licensed copy of WinZip (site license installation) there will be a win32_version value that begins with R6.3. If it is unregistered or is a single-user registration the value will begin without the "R". For WinZip versions 7.0-9.0 there will be a dash ( - ) and the actual WinZip version number after the "R6.3" or "6.3". For example, if the user has WinZip 9.0 SR-1 installed the win32_version value will be 6.3-9.0 (with or without the beginning "R").

For single-user registrations with any of these versions there will also be entries (or string values) called 'Name' and 'SN'. The 'Name' entry will have a value equal to whatever the user supplied for his/her name and the 'SN' entry will have an 8-digit number for a value (with the earliest versions this might be a combination of 8 numbers and letters).

Starting with WinZip 10.0, major WinZip upgrades make use of a new registration scheme, eliminating the possibility to upgrade without purchasing a license upgrade. You should still find a win32_version entry in the WinIni key of the registry, and it should have the same type of value (i.e. 6.3-10.0). However, in order to differentiate in name and registration code, 10.0 and later do not use the Name and SN entries, but now use a Name1 and an SN1 entry for single-user licenses. Again, "Name1" should have a value of the user's name and the "SN1" entry should have a 30 character code set up as 6 groups of 5 (letters and numbers) with dashes ( - ) in between. If the user has upgraded from a licensed copy of WinZip 9.0 or earlier, the registry will still contain the "Name" and "SN" entries as well as the "Name1" and "SN1" entries. This was maintained so that users could try the newer version and, if they didn't like it, would be able to reinstall the older one without losing their information.

Also starting with WinZip 10.0, a fully licensed multi-user version of WinZip is no longer distributed. Instead, the user is provided a file that will register WinZip and is linked in our database with the pertinent information. With WinZip 10.0, placing this WinZip.wzmul file in the WinZip program folder would cause WinZip to be registered. This does not change the win32_version value (an "R" is not added). With WinZip 11.0 and later, the location for the WinZip.wzmul file was changed in order to be consistent with Windows certification requirements. It is now placed in a WinZip subfolder in the Windows CommonAppData folder. This folder contains application data for all users.

A typical path for the WinZip.wzmul file is

C:\ProgramData\WinZip

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