WinZip new version updates

This release strengthens how WinZip protects your files, and how WinZip protects itself.

For IT and security teams, that means stronger encryption on the files your people archive, an application that refuses to run if someone has tampered with it, a record of file activity your auditors can use, and FIPS 140-3 compliance in WinZip Enterprise ahead of the September 21, 2026 U.S. federal deadline.

None of it changes how your users work, so this upgrade adds protection without adding support tickets. WinZip 31 is a cumulative release, which also includes everything delivered in subscription versions 77.1 and 77.2.

Stronger protection for your files

Encryption is only as strong as the program applying it. This release upgrades both: the method WinZip uses to protect your files, and the check that confirms WinZip itself has not been altered.

• Encryption that does two jobs at once

  Standard, Pro, Enterprise

  WinZip now has the option to encrypt with AES-256 in Galois/Counter Mode, replacing the AES-CTR with HMAC method used previously. GCM encrypts your data and confirms that nobody has altered it, in a single step. Contracts, case files, financial records, and personal archives are often kept for seven to ten years or longer, and AES-256-GCM is modern, quantum-resistant cryptography built to hold up across that span. Encrypt a file today and it stays protected for as long as the file matters, with nothing to revisit later.

• A tampered copy of WinZip will not run

  Standard, Pro, Enterprise

  If an attacker modifies WinZip on a machine, the copy that runs can look exactly the same while copying files or installing malware in the background. WinZip now checks its own files for a valid signature every time it starts, and if anything has been changed, it shuts down instead of running. A file utility sits on almost every desktop in an organization, which makes it worth attacking, and this closes that route without adding anything for users to check or IT to monitor.

Evidence and compliance for IT teams

Compliance work usually reaches IT as a request for evidence. These three changes put that evidence where your team already looks, and keep WinZip eligible in environments that mandate FIPS.

• FIPS 140-3 compliance

  Enterprise

  WinZip Enterprise is FIPS 140-3 compliant. It performs its cryptographic operations through Microsoft's FIPS 140-3 validated Cryptographic Primitives Library, in a FIPS approved mode. FIPS 140-3 is the current standard and supersedes FIPS 140-2. US federal agencies are held to it from September 21, 2026, and software that does not meet the standard is removed from approved software lists. Agencies, the contractors who supply them, and regulated firms can keep WinZip through procurement and security review instead of replacing a tool their people already know how to use.

• An audit-ready record of file activity

  Standard, Pro, Enterprise

  WinZip can record what it does with your files, including opening and closing them, adding, extracting, renaming, and moving them between folders. Administrators switch it on, and the entries are written to the Windows event log on each machine, where the tools IT teams already use can view, collect, and forward them. When an auditor, a client security review, or an internal investigation asks what was done to which files and when, the answer comes from a system record instead of being pieced together from tickets and memory.

• Updates that arrive without anyone chasing them

  Enterprise

  WinZip Enterprise installations receive updates automatically, instead of someone tracking each release and reinstalling machine by machine. Security fixes reach users as they ship, and IT stops checking version numbers across the organization to work out who is still exposed. Perpetual customers have often lagged behind on fixes because updating was manual, leaving known issues in place longer than necessary.

Performance on current hardware

Mixed fleets are now the normal case, with ARM-based Windows laptops arriving alongside Intel and AMD. WinZip runs as ARM64EC on one and x64 on the other, on a platform that has been brought up to date underneath.

• Full speed on ARM-based Windows PCs

  Standard, Pro, Enterprise

  WinZip runs as ARM64EC code on ARM-based Windows devices, including Copilot+ PCs, and as x64 on Intel and AMD systems. Compressing and extracting run at the speed of the hardware rather than through an emulation layer. An ARM64EC edition is also available in the Microsoft Store. Organizations refreshing their hardware can standardize on one file tool across both architectures instead of maintaining two.

• A more stable application

  Standard, Pro, Enterprise

  WinZip now runs on .NET Framework 4.8, the long-term support release, with third-party libraries updated alongside it. Windows 11 behaviour has been fixed in several places, including shell integration. The result is a more stable application, with known vulnerabilities in bundled components closed.

Also in this release

• Security improvements to the WinZip Software Update Platform, which delivers updates to installed copies of WinZip.
• Third-party components updated to close known vulnerabilities.
• Promotional references to ZipShare removed from the application.
• Issues reported by customers and found in our own testing resolved across the application.