Internet File Format Support In WinZip 5.6:
The Internet is becoming more and more popular, and unlike CompuServe and most other online services, not all parts of the the Internet have standardized on the ZIP file format. Many Internet sites distribute files in "gzip" and Unix "compress" format (files ending in GZ or Z) and use the old TAR (Tape ARchive) format to group files.
WinZip 5.6 adds support for the TAR, gzip, and Unix compress formats. This means you can use WinZip to work with almost all compressed files downloaded from the Internet. No external programs are needed for these file formats.
Some notes on the new Internet file format support:

• WinZip does not let you create files in these formats, but other features (Extract, View, CheckOut) all work.
• Unlike ZIP, TAR, LZH, ARJ, and ARC files, gzip and Unix compress files contain only ONE file.
• Unlike ZIP, LZH, ARJ, and ARC files, TAR files are NEVER compressed.
• Since TAR files are often distributed in Z format (with extensions like .TAZ and .TGZ) WinZip treats Z files containing a TAR file as a special case: WinZip offers to decompress and open the TAR file.
• There is no reliable way to determine the uncompressed size of files in the gzip and Unix compress format, so WinZip shows the size as a question mark.

Other Changes in WinZip 5.6:

• A new checkbox in the Configuration dialog box determines whether the right mouse button pops up a menu or selects listbox entries as in earlier versions.
• Conversion from long names to MS-DOS 8.3 filenames is smarter than in previous versions: a name like XXX.YYY.TXT is now converted to XXXYYY.TXT rather than being truncated to XXX.YYY.