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ZipStar is a simple-to-use compression utility which comprises plenty of useful functions for helping you carry out an archiving operation swiftly and error-free. It supports the SQX, ZIP and CAB files for the output but many others for extraction jobs.

The interface of the application is clean and pretty intuitive. Thanks to the Explorer-based folder structure, you can seamlessly navigate directories to locate files for compression.

It is simple to create a new archive, as a user-friendly wizard guides you throughout the process. You can enter the file name and specify the output directory, format and version, create separate archives for each item, as well as activate a predefined compression profile.

It is possible to create as many profiles as you want, in order to apply a particular set of ready settings for each compression job, thus ensuring a speedy process. You may include subfolders, make the tool remember the folder structure and move files to the archive, when making a file selection.

As far as compression settings go, you can choose the compression level, dictionary type and recovery data level, enable the compression of multimedia and EXE files, create solid archives, and encrypt the archived items.

There are other advanced options as well, as you can preserve high-precision time stamps, security attributes and additional data streams, automatically save OLE/NTFS file comments, and perform an extended testing after compression.

Other features of ZipStar let you send archives via email, scan them for viruses, check their integrity, set a main and file comment, add or strip recovery data, repair damaged archives, change the UI appearance, customize the toolbar, format font settings, and so on.

ZipStar is light on the system resources, using a minimal quantity of CPU and RAM. It is very responsive to commands and works smoothly, without causing the OS to hang, crash or pop up error dialogs. It offers support for keyboard shortcuts. No error dialogs have been shown in our tests, and the tool did not hang or crash. Too bad that ZipStar has not been updated for a while.