BitZipper version history
BitZipper has been actively developed since 1999!
BitZipper 2015, released December 3rd, 2014
New features
RAR5 extraction support added. This is a new RAR compression format introduced in WinRAR 5.
Minor changes and fixes
General RAR extraction support improved.
Support for files larger than 4 gigabyte in ISO files.
7Z extraction support improved for non-standard 7Z files..
DMG extraction support improved.
HFS extraction support improved.
BitZipper 2013, released October 23rd, 2012
New features
Windows 8 compatibility
Minor changes and fixes
DMG extraction support improved.
LZMA decompression speed improved.
Several minor bugfixes.
BitZipper Update, released July 27, 2011
Minor changes and fixes
Installer updated for improved compatibility.
BitZipper 2010, released March 30, 2010
New features
A powerful built-in file viewer has been added so BitZipper no longer needs to rely on external viewers to view text files, images, videos etc. It supports the following file formats: Alias/Wavefront images (*.rla, *.rpf), Autodesk images (*.pic, *.cel), Device independant Windows bitmaps (*.dib), Dr. Halo images (*.cut), Encapsulated Postscript images (*.eps), Graphics Interchange Format (*.gif), GFI fax images (*.fax), JFIF images (*.jfif), JPE images (*.jpe), JPEG images (*.jpg, *.jpeg), Kodak Photo-CD images (*.pcd), Macintosh TIFF images (*.tiff), PC TIF images (*.tif), Paintshop Pro images (*.psp), Photoshop images (*.ppd, *.psd), Portable bitmap images (*.pbm), Portable gray map images (*.pgm), Portable network graphic images (*.png), Portable pixel map images (*.ppm), Run length encoded Windows bitmaps (*.rle), SGI black/white images (*.bw), SGI color images (*.sgi), SGI true color images (*.rgb), SGI true color images with alpha (*.rgba), Tagged image file format images (*.tiff), Truevision images (*.icb, *.tga, *.vda, *.vst, *.win), Windows bitmaps (*.bmp), Windows enhanced meta files (*.emf), Windows icons (*.ico), Windows metafiles (*.wmf), Word 5.x screen capture images (*.scr), ZSoft Paintbrush images (*.pcc, *.pcx), Multimedia Files (all supported by Windows Media Player: *.avi, *.mpg, *.wmv, *.mp3, etc.), Internet Files (all supported by Internet Explorer: *.html, *.xml, *.doc, *.xls, etc.), Rich Text File (*.rtf), Text files (*.txt, *.doc, *.nfo, *.diz, *.inf, etc.)
ZIPX extraction and creation support. Achieve better compression than standard ZIP files using PPMd and BZip2 compression. Often chosing PPMd as the compression method will result in much smaller files.
XZ and TXZ extraction support. XZ is a lossless data compression file format that uses the LZMA2 compression algorithm. An XZ file can contain one compressed file only, like GZip.
Simplified the Extract Files window to make it even easier to use.
You can now buy a time-limited license for a low fee via SMS (mobile phone text message). This is a great pay-as-you-go option if you do not have a debit- or credit card. Simply pay a small activation fee using your mobile phone when you need it - it activates within a minute!
Added support for ISO files larger than 2 GB.
Minor changes and fixes
Added more sensible default folders for Add, Extract, New and Open operations.
Better handling of wrongly entered passwords. If you entered a wrong password when extracting a RAR file, sometimes you would see a message that the archive was damaged. This has been changed to display that a wrong password was entered.
Improved DMG and HFS file compatibility.
Version 2009 introduced a problem with extraction of TAR files containing filenames longer than 100 characters. Corrected.
Better handling of archives containing filenames with invalid Windows characters (archives created on e.g. Mac and Unix computers).
BitZipper no longer tries to associate itself with .JAR files during installation even if the extension is not in use, as some "PC Security" suites didn't like this.
Only part1 of multi-part RAR archives are now displayed in the Batch Tool. BitZipper will automatically find and use the other parts, and it would give an error message if you tried working on other parts than part 1. This is also explained in a new informational message that is displayed when the folder contains multi-part RAR archives.
The Batch Tool no longer displays an error message saying that the archive is damaged if you click Cancel on the password entry screen.
BitZipper 2009, released June 3, 2009
New features
BitZipper 2009 adds extraction support for a lot of new file formats: 7z, cpio, rpm, deb, 001, chm, chw, hxs, iso, msi, doc, xls, ppt, wim, swm, dmg, xar, hfs, lzma and NSIS exe files. This brings the number of supported file types up to 44!
Unattended installation has been improved, making it easier to deploy BitZipper on multiple PCs. The installer no longer launches BitZipper after a successful installation if the command line option /silent or /verysilent is used.
BitZipper may now be installed by non-administrator user accounts.
Minor changes and fixes
Now remembers column sizes in file browser in Open, New, Add Files and Batch screens.
Delete from archive could wrongly try to store the temporary file in e.g. C:\ which the user might not have write access to. When asked for a new location, it didn't use the selected folder properly. Now uses the correct temporary folder and handles a manually selected folder properly.
After a new install or after restoring the default preferences the Extract form would not remember its position until after closing BitZipper once.
Now refreshes file list on Batch Tool when files are added or deleted from the displayed folder.
When showing the Extract window, the selected folder is now displayed in the input field. It wasn't before, until you clicked on a folder in the folder tree.
Right-clicking on a file when no files were selected, did not select the file for viewing, extracting etc.
BitZipper 5.1, released September 24, 2008
New features
BitZipper 5.1 introduces support for 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Vista. This includes integration with the Windows Explorer right-click menu and the ability to compress files from the 64-bit Windows system folders.
Minor changes and fixes
The RAR-file decompression engine has been upgraded to improve support for RAR-files created with older versions of WinRAR which stored a wrong value in the last part of a multi-part RAR file.
The folder content of the Open, New, Add and Extract windows was not automatically updated if new files were added to the displayed folder.
BitZipper 5.0.6, released July 21, 2008
Minor changes and fixes
The CRC value of a file spanning two or more parts of a multi-part RAR archive is now displayed and exported correctly.
File date and time is now correctly set to the original date/time when extracting TAR archives.
Now saves edited archive comments when exiting BitZipper without closing the open archives first.
SFX stubs updated to support newer compression methods.
Now handles extraction of archives with invalid characters (e.g. : and ") in the filenames better.
Improved support for older LHA archives using compression method Frozen 5 with level 0.
In rare cases an error reporting screen could be displayed when exiting BitZipper.
BitZipper 5.0.5, released July 2, 2008
Minor changes and fixes
BitZipper can now create archives where the name starts with a dot character.
BitZipper can now correctly extract archives containing folder names starting with a dot character.
CAB files can now be created on Windows Vista.
Added support for LZH variant created by the Japanese FileCompact tool.
Now displays CAB files in Batch Tool on Windows Vista.
No longer displays archives in folder selection menues and tree views on Windows Vista.
If you selected to extract a batch of archives to individual folders in the Batch Tool, and didn't add a backslash after the selected destination folder name, BitZipper would append the archive name to the folder name instead of using it as a sub-folder name, resulting in folders with strange names being created.
Corrected a problem that could cause BitZipper to display a series of error popup messages when the workstation was locked and the content list had focus.
BitZipper 5.0.4, released April 28, 2008
Minor changes and fixes
The BitZipper shell extension (Windows Explorer menu) no longer interferes with Microsoft Office shortcuts in the Start menu on Windows Vista.
BitZipper no longer asks you if you want to associate it with selected file extensions every time you start it on Windows Vista.
Windows Explorer option 'Add to Desktop\New.zip' now works on Windows Vista.
Batch tool now lists ZIP files when compressed folders are enabled on Windows Vista.
When creating a .GZ archive, BitZipper reported that 0 GZ files were created even though 1 was created.
A file named test.tgz was displayed as "test" with no extension when opened in BitZipper. Now it adds a .tar extension in order to be able to handle it correctly.
BitZipper 5.0.3, released February 23, 2008
Minor changes and fixes
BitZipper can now extract files with filenames and paths exceeding 255 characters in length.
During installation and when updating file associations from the Preferences menu, a Program Compatibility Assistant prompt was displayed on Windows Vista.
An information screen is now displayed if you try to extract a multi-part RAR archive and you don't have all the parts.
No longer translates entity names in XML export files.
When exporting the file list, the default location of the export file is now the same folder as the archive.
When deleting a multi-part archive you no longer need to confirm the deletion of every file. Instead you are asked if you want to move all parts to the recycle bin.
BitZipper 5.0.2, released November 19 2007
Minor changes and fixes
An incompatibility with certain JAR archives has been corrected.
Fixed a compatibility issue with AES256 encrypted archives created with WinZip 11.
Delete, Rename, Copy and Move archive operations now moves all parts of a split archive.
An additional (invalid) file spec would be added to a Backup Set when edited. This was a display issue only.
Creating archives over 4.7 GB in size could cause BitZipper to hang.
RAR files can now be converted to other formats via the Batch Tool.
The Last Extract Folder is no longer set to a temporary BitZipper folder after running or viewing a file.
Selection of destination path on the Export window improved.
BitZipper 5.0.1, released May 20 2007
Minor changes and fixes
BitZipper now correctly extracts old .Z archives created on HP-UX 10+ years ago (exact compress utility version unknown). A rarely occuring problem caused the end of the extracted file to be cut off.
BitZipper now supports ZIP-files with more than 65536 files in them
A crash reporting window was displayed if an installer in an archive failed to run after clicking the Install button on the toolbar.
A crash reporting window was displayed if an empty file search filter was applied on the file list, or if a filter other than * or *.* was applied on an archive containing empty file names (e.g. some JAR archives).
Enabling or disabling shell integration on the Preferences window had no effect unless you also changed file associations.
BitZipper 5.0, released February 27 2007
New features
The new BitZipper 5.0 introduces support for BZIP2 compression, which offers compression ratios much better than standard ZIP compression. BZIP2 is supported as stand-alone BZ2 and TBZ files and as a WinZip compatible extension to the existing ZIP file format.
The second major feature introduced is unicode support, which enables BitZipper to compress and extract files with e.g. various asian and eastern languages.
BitZipper 5.0 is Windows Vista compatible.
More minor changes and fixes
Improved dual-screen support.
A small security vulnerability in the third-party library used when extracting ACE archives has been corrected by upgrading the library.
In the Preferences you can now enable display of compression method, CRC checksum and encryption status in the archive file list.
RAR support has been improved and a problem extracting files from certain password protected RAR files have been corrected.
A problem extracting files from certain password protected .BH archives has been corrected.
TAR support improved by adding support for TAR filenames greater than the header limitation of 100 chars.
BitZipper 4.1 Service Release 1, released November 28 2004
New features
BitZipper 4.1 SR-1 is a maintenance release containing minor but important updates to BitZipper 4.1.
The main new feature in this version is that a warning message will be displayed if you try to run a potentially unsafe file stored inside a compressed file. BitZipper uses the same list of unsafe file types as Microsoft uses to block potential harmful attachments received to emails in Microsoft Outlook. You may disable the warning for each specific file type.
More minor changes and fixes
Support for creating archives on ZIP drives added.
Improved support for adding empty folders to archives and working with archives containing only empty folders.
Improved drag and drop support. It is now possible to open multiple archives by dragging them onto the BitZipper main window and it is again possible to drag multiple files to an open archive.
Displaying a file with full drive and path information stored in an archive did not work. Fixed.
The Wizard could not open certain ZIP files. Fixed.
BitZipper 4.1, released July 5 2004
New features
BitZipper now supports strong AES encryption. The implementation is WinZip 9 compatible and ZIP-files encrypted with WinZip 9 can be managed by BitZipper 4.1 and vice versa. AES provides strong encryption and in June 2003 the U.S. Government (NSA) informs that AES is secure enough to protect classified information up to the TOP SECRET level, which is the highest security level and defined as information which would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security if disclosed to the public. The AES algorithm uses one of three cipher key strengths: a 128-, 192-, or 256-bit encryption key (password). Each encryption key size causes the algorithm to behave slightly differently, so the increasing key sizes not only offer a larger number of bits with which you can scramble the data, but also increase the complexity of the cipher algorithm. BitZipper supports 128- and 256-bit encryption keys, which is the two key strengths supported by WinZip 9. Both key strengths provide significantly better security than standard ZIP 2.0 encryption. It is slightly faster to encrypt and decrypt data protected with 128-bit AES, but with today's fast PCs the time difference is barely notable.
You can now exclude files in specific folders when using Backup Sets or adding files to your archives. In the exclude list, add a filespec like this "cache\*.*" which will exclude all files in all directories named "cache" throughout the folder tree you are adding.
More minor changes and fixes
Extraction of Unix created multi-header compressed .GZ archives is now supported. The .GZ format is still for single files, but in some versions of the Unix/Linux gzip utility, the compressed data stream is broken into multiple segments and separated by these headers.
Backup Set configuration files may now contain lines with length up to 2048 characters. Previous limit was 256 characters which would cause problems if you added very long folder names to a Backup Set.
Exporting to Word or Excel format on PCs where those tools are not installed now displays an explanation instead of bringing up the error reporting tool.
Sorting the file list in the Add, Open and Extract windows under rare circumstances caused an error to be displayed. Fixed.
Opening an archive through Windows Explorer while BitZipper had another window open, e.g. Add Files, Extract, Split ZIP-file etc., caused an error message to be displayed. Fixed.
Dragging a file from an archive onto a folder where a file with the same name already existed did not display the size and date of the new file on the Overwrite File window. Fixed.
Dragging a file from an archive onto a file with the same name which was in use by another process caused BitZipper to hang. Fixed.
National characters are now supported in empty folder names.
BitZipper 4.0, released February 23 2004
New features
BitZipper now offers the option to split ZIP files into multiple volumes. You can split existing ZIP files, or you can choose to create a multi-volume ZIP file directly when creating or adding files to a ZIP file. It is also possible to create multi-volume ZIP files using the Backup feature.
You can now unzip ZIP files forever without nagging in the trial version of BitZipper.
The Backup functionality has been greatly improved as you now have many more options you can specify per include filespec: Include files recursively, store folder information, use relative folders, store drive information and store empty folders. On the Backup Set level you can now select the compression level and optionally a volume size if you wish to create a multi-volume ZIP file.
Shortcuts to My Recent Documents, Desktop, My Documents, My Computer and My Network Places added to the New Archive window and Open Archive window to ease navigation.
A "Add with wildcard" button has been added to the Add Files window to improve compatibility with competing products. The Add button will now list the files matching a filespec entered in the Files input field if wildcards are entered, and will otherwise add the selected files. "Add with wildcard" will add the files using any wildcard (* or ?) entered in the Files input field.
You can now check for new versions of BitZipper by selecting "Check for update" in the Help menu. This will open your browser and based on the version of your installed BitZipper, tell you which new versions are available for download.
More minor changes and fixes
If you drag the top node of the archive folder tree of an archive to a folder, BitZipper will now extract all files and folders to that location.
Dragging the archive folder "
Result list in the Batch Tool can now be sorted by clicking the column headers.
If BitZipper encounters an internal error you will now be asked to submit an error report in a similar way as you know it from Microsoft products.
Speed improvement on windows showing filelists (Add Files, New Archive, Open Archive, Extract etc.) on systems with disconnected but visible network drives.
Fixed problem updating edited files in archives.
Fixed problem with multivolume RAR files with unicode filenames.
A few shortcuts were changed, e.g. the Delete key is now used to delete files from an archive instead of Ctrl-D.
No longer automatically opens your browser when uninstalling the trial version.
BitZipper would associate itself with the .ZIP file extension even if you did not select it during installation.
Toolbar icons did not all have the same hover effect.
BitZipper 3.4.1, released July 28th 2003
New features
Added support for extraction of ZIP files created with WinZip 9 Beta using Enhanced Deflate compression.
More minor changes and fixes
Fixed problem with archive creation on Windows 95/98
No longer displays an error message if you rapidly open multiple archives, e.g. by selecting multiple archives in Windows Explorer and hitting Enter.
BitZipper 3.4, released July 7th 2003
New features
Added support for .WAR files (Web Archives), reading and decompression of CAB SFXs and decompression of RAR files larger than 4 GB.
Added "filter" option allowing you to display only certain files in an archive by specifying a file spec on the archive tab.
Added support for Windows XP themes which means that BitZipper now has a new great look on Windows XP.
Major performance improvement when creating large archives.
RAR extraction code updated to support the latest WinRAR 3.11 and 3.20
More minor changes and fixes
The latest interface used (Wizard or Classic) will now automatically be used the next time BitZipper starts.
Using "Add to ..." from Windows Explorer now defaults to the same folder as the selected files.
Progress window is no longer displayed above windows not belonging to BitZipper and BitZipper windows can now be minimized.
UUEncode operations can now be cancelled.
Improved display of texts and counters in statusbar.
Clicking "My Computer" in the Add Files window on non-English Windows versions no longer starts compressing all files in "My Computer".
Fixed bug extracting LHA archives containing folder names with no file name.
Wildcard searches on the Open and New Archive windows are no longer case sensitive.
No longer displays "Nothing to do" and an error message if you add an empty folder to an archive and no longer displays an error message if you try to open an empty archive.
XML export now replaces spaces and special characters in tag names with underscores.
HTML export now right-aligns column captions when values are right aligned.
Decompression can now be cancelled when dragging files or folders from an archive.
Extracting files from multi-volume RAR archives using drag and drop no longer displays an error message.
If a file being decompressed from a RAR archive already exists, the size of the file being decompressed is no longer reported as 0 bytes and the file date as January 1st 1980.
No longer displays a 'Cannot make a visible window modal' error if BitZipper is open with the Backup window displayed, and a backup shortcut is clicked on e.g. the desktop
Extracting ASCII files from GZ files no longer adds a .txt extension to the extracted filename.
An explanation of how GZ files are created are now displayed before the files are created. GZ files are treated a little differently than other archive types as they can only contain one file per archive.
No longer displays an error message when extracting GZ files with a TAR file inside from Windows Explorer.
Now correctly names an archive .TAR.GZ and cleans up the temporary .TAR file when converting other archive types to .GZ both when converting single archives and multiple archives using the Batch Tool.
Double-clicking a ZIP file on the New Archive window no longer displays the ZIP file as a normal folder on Windows XP, and clicking an archive in the file list now enables the OK button.
BitZipper 3.3, released January 31st 2003
New features
Faster opening of archives on Windows XP with Compressed Folders enabled.
Added support for WinZip's split volume archives. This version supports the viewing and decompression of multi-volume zip archives.
Support for ZIP files larger than 4 GB on NTFS formatted drives.
Displays progress window when dragging files from an archive.
When using Backup Sets you were previously prompted each time a file which was in use was encountered. Now the backup continues but displays a new status window when done.
Display speed improved in the translated versions of BitZipper.
More minor changes and fixes
Can now add files with file attributes FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NOT_CONTENT_INDEXED and FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ENCRYPTED.
Single files can now be extracted from ACE archives.
Sometimes a "Cannot focus a disabled or invisible window" was displayed when using the Wizard.
If an archive was deleted while kept open in BitZipper, BitZipper would display an error message when closing the archive.
Wizard graphic quality improved on Windows 98.
BitZipper 3.2.1, released December 30th 2002
New features
German and Danish versions available with fully translated interface and help files.
Archive file types are now named "BitZipper [EXT] Archive" instead of ".[EXT] BitZipper Archive" when viewed in Windows Explorer.
More minor changes and fixes
BitZipper can now be minimized to the taskbar.
Files can now be dragged from ACE and RAR archives onto e.g. the Desktop.
Double-clicking a folder in the BitZipper Explorer file list no longer displays an error message on Windows XP.
Deleting files from a zip file could under certain conditions display an error message instead of deleting the requested file(s).
Folders with e.g. ".com" in the filename is now displayed correctly on the File Open window when the filespec is e.g. "*.exe"
Fixed an incompatibility with CursorXP from Stardock.
Files are now displayed correctly on the File Open window when using a filespec starting with "*".
BitZipper 3.2, released November 21st 2002
New features
Major rework of the Wizard interface to make it even more user friendly. It is now possible to let BitZipper start using the Wizard interface directly and new actions were added to the final screens of each Wizard, such as Browse folder, email zipfile etc.
It is now possible to search for files in an open archive by typing letters while the content list has focus.
If you select a folder in the treeview on the Add Files window and have selected to add relative folder information, the folder name is stored in the archive unless you select specific files in the file list.
More minor changes and fixes
Renaming a folder on the Extract window would not update the "Save in:" input field which could cause the zipfile to be extracted to the wrong folder.
In rare circumstances the main window could be displayed at the bottom of the desktop and sometimes outside the desktop on systems with a low screen resolution.
Fixed a problem using wildcards in filenames on the Open window.
And a few other minor fixes. See the history.txt file for detailed information.
Older releases
Change history for older versions no longer published.