WinZip 25 Pro shows up as a classic Win32 app in the new Windows 11 Store

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The classic WinZip Win32 app is one of the first to take advantage of Microsoft's new Store policies for Windows 11.

Winzip Windows 11 Store
Winzip Windows 11 Store (Image credit: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Corel, the company behind WinZip, has released its classic, full Win32 app in the new Store for Windows 11.
  • The app uses its own installer and bypasses the Microsoft Store for payments.
  • Users can trial WinZip 25 Pro and then unlock with a purchased license code later.
  • This is the first known app to leverage Microsoft's new Store policies for Windows 11.

Keeping to its promise, Microsoft is letting classic Windows 32 apps into the new Store for Windows 11 unencumbered by wrappers or installers. One of the first apps to take advantage of the new policy is a legendary app many of us have used before: WinZip.

Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)

The company notes the WinZip team "has worked closely with Microsoft" to bring the fully functional app to the Store.

While WinZip has similar apps already for Windows 10, those apps are "Store editions" that may limit functionality and design.

This new WinZip 25 Pro version downloads as a free app, but like classic trialware from the late 1990s, you can run it for a while before entering a license code to unlock the Pro version. And that's the difference: payments for the pro version go through WinZip themselves and not the Microsoft Store, one of the fundamental changes with Windows 11.

It is not just WinZip, however. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is also coming to the new Store as a classic Win32 app. Look for that app later this year when Windows 11 goes live.

Winzip Reco
WinZip 25 Pro (Win32)


Move over limited UPW apps as Corel is bringing its classic and true version of WinZip to the new Microsoft Store for Windows 11. The app is full featured, offers a trial, and licensing goes through Corel direct. (Note: this link will only work on systems with the updated Microsoft Store and the Windows 11 preview installed; or just search for WinZip.)

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.