Windows Common Control Library Information
In the current release of WinZip, there are several features that allow you to tailor the appearance and behavior of the WinZip window. Some of these features can be used only if a recent version of the Windows Common Control Library (comctl32.dll) is installed on your computer. The Windows Common Control Library is from Microsoft and is not created or supported by WinZip Computing. Note that none of WinZip's zipping, unzipping, or other archive-related functions depends on the Windows Common Control Library; the only features affected are these involved in customizing the toolbar and other elements of the WinZip user interface:
- High color toolbar buttons.
- "Full row selection" in the main WinZip window.
- Columns in main window can be rearranged via drag and drop.
- Flat toolbar buttons.
- Tooltips on toolbar buttons.
- Gridlines in the main WinZip window.
- Choice of toolbar buttons. The sample below shows some of the new optional toolbar buttons. For example, the last four are the toolbar buttons for Delete, Virus Scan, UUencode, and Exit.
- Toolbar buttons can be rearranged by dragging them with the Alt key down.
- Mouse selection settings can match "active desktop" settings.
- Single click mouse selection.
- Explorer-style View toolbar
Note: With version 6.0 of the Windows Common Control Library, gridlines in the main WinZip window are not available, and only flat toolbar buttons are available.
An up-to-date version of the Windows Common Control Library is included in recent versions of Windows and Internet Explorer, and in various software maintenance packages Microsoft has released. If you have any of these installed, or if you have already upgraded the Common Control Library manually, you will be able to use all of the new user-interface customization features.
If you have WinZip installed on your computer, you can determine which version of the library you have by clicking the "System Info" button in WinZip's About box and checking the last line of the resulting display. If the indicated version of the file comctl32.dll is below 4.72.x.x (where "x" indicates additional strings of one of more digits), some or all of the user-interface customization features will not be available. If this is the case, you can choose one of these options:
- The simplest option is to use WinZip without making any changes to your configuration. Except for user-interface customizations listed above, all of the features in the current release of WinZip will be fully functional.
- Check the Microsoft web site for the latest maintenance package and Internet Explorer version available for the release of Windows installed on your computer, and download and install them.
- You can manually install Microsoft's Windows Common Control Library update. Note: If your computer has Windows Me, Windows 2000, or Windows XP, OR if you have Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher installed (regardless of the Windows version your computer has), you should already have an up-to-date Windows Common Control Library. You may also have an up-to-date Windows Common Control Library with some earlier versions of Windows and Internet Explorer. Be sure to check what version of the Windows Common Control Library is currently installed on your computer, as described above, and DO NOT install this library update if you already have a current version (4.72 or higher) installed. The update is available from the web page
Follow the instructions on the page to install the latest version of the library. At the conclusion of the update installation procedure, you may be asked to reboot/restart your system. If you haven't already done so, save any files you have open and close any open/running applications, then click the button to restart your computer, which will complete the update installation process.
