The ZIP is a file format used for the compressed data. Data is compressed to save space and increase the speed with which the file is sent to any location. Saving space is important when the amount of space is limited, but saving time is important for every user whether it is a private user or an organization. Encryption or password protection was not supported in the initial version of the compression tools but now it has become a prominent feature of such tools.
Well that was a brief history about ZIP, knowing history is important because we get many things to learn from the past. Let's talk about the present now, presently ZIP format is associated with WinZip utility. Although there are various tools made for compressing the data but WinZip is the most famous. The tool that comes just after the WinZip is the PKZip. Before going ahead it would be nice if some differences of both the tools are mentioned.
The first difference is the cost. PKZip is cheaper than the WinZip utility.
PKZip supports more file formats than the WinZip utility.
PKZip supports DOS OS and WinZip supports the command line interface as well.
The ZIP format is now supported by many data compressing utilities along with the PKZip tool. When archiving tools are used to compress any file or folder the size of the resultant file will be much smaller than the size of the uncompressed file. The tools that archive data provide you with the functionality of protecting the data with a password. The ZIP files have many limitations as well. The password is not secure because many ZIP password cracker software are available over the internet for free download and use. If any virus infected file is archived, the file will be hidden from the anti virus program.
If there is someone who has encrypted the ZIP file and forgot the password then as said earlier, the user has the freedom of choosing a password cracker from among the hundreds of ZIP password cracker freeware available. The tool should be chosen wisely so that it can fulfill your requirements. To get more help on advance ZIP password recovery utilities, you can read online reviews of such tools.