How do I customize my WinZip MSI?

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WinZip Enterprise users should refer to the Installation and Configuration Guide. Default values are not the same. If you are using WinZip 17.5 or earlier, you should see How do I customize my WinZip MSI? - 17.5 and earlier.

The following information concerns entries in the latest version MSI file Property table. These entries can be configured to add features, remove features, and/or change the behavior of WinZip. If you are using an earlier version, you will not find all of these properties available.

Note: Editing the properties described below may only affect installing WinZip with limited user involvement.

Supported Properties to Customize

The table below lists properties that can be edited. Any simple MSI editing application may be used, including Microsoft's Orca. Properties that exist in the MSI file table that are not listed below should not be changed.

Property

Description
ADDDESKTOPICON Default=1, WinZip shortcut on the Desktop will display; off=0
ADDMENUGROUP Default=1, WinZip group is available at Start -> All Programs; off=0
ADDSTARTMENU Default=1, WinZip shortcut at the top of the Start menu; off=0
ALWAYSENCRYPT Default=DEFAULT, off (or FALSE); TRUE forces the use of encryption
AUTOOPENREADONLY Default=1, Contents of Zip files opened from the Temp folder, such as when received as an attachment, will be Read Only; off=0
DEFAULTCLOUDSERVICE Default=DEFAULT, no cloud service selected; specify a supported service to be the default cloud service for adding/extracting files
DEFAULTSHARESERVICE Default=DEFAULT, no cloud service selected; specify a supported cloud service to be used with share operations
DEFCOMPICK Default=Legacy, create .zip files; Best = create .zipx files
DISABLEBACKGROUNDTOOLS Default=0, background clean up tools are installed and enabled; on=1
DISABLECLOUDSERVICES Default=NONE, all cloud services enabled; other options are ALL; BOX, CLOUDME, DROPBOX, FTP, GOOGLEDRIVE, MEDIAFIRE, ONEDRIVE, SUGARSYNC, and/or ZIPSHARE
DISABLECONVERSIONS Default=NONE, all conversion features enabled; other options are ALL; IMAGERESIZE, DOCTOPDF, WATERMARK, and/or ENLARGEREDUCEIMAGE
DISABLEMM Default=0, Marketing Materials, such as the WinZip Express for Outlook ad link in the WinZip Express dialog, will display; on=1
DISABLENOTIFICATIONSERVICES Default=NONE, all Social Media and Instant Messaging options enabled; other options are ALL; FACEBOOK, LINKEDIN, TWITTER, YOUTUBE, GTALK, FACEBOOKCHAT, JABBER, YAHOOMESSENGER, OFFICE365GROUPS, and TWITTERMESSAGE
DISABLERECENTARCHIVES Default=0, recently used archives are recorded; on=1, not recorded
DISABLERECENTJOBS Default=0, recently used jobs are recorded; on=1, not recorded
DISABLESPLASHSCREEN Default=0, splash screen explaining WinZip 19's new default view displays; on=1, no splash screen
DISABLEUPGRADE Default=0, Upgrade tab displays for WinZip Standard multi-user licensed copies; on=1
DISABLEZIPANDSHARE Default=0, Zip and Share (WinZip Express) context menu entry and the Zip and Share button on the Tools tab enabled; both disabled=1
ENABLEEXPRESSFEATURES Default=1, WinZip Express features (Zip and Share, Snap and Share, and Scan and Share) are available; off=0
ENCRYPTDISABLEMETHODS Default=DEFAULT, all are on; options: ZIP20,AES128, and/or AES256
ENCWIPEDELETE Default=0, A caution message will display when certain files cannot be wiped, they are then deleted normally; on=1 (the caution message is suppressed, files of this type will be deleted only)
HIDEREGINFO Default=0, this property is off, the link in the About WinZip dialog for multi-user license copies that opens a webpage showing registration information will display; on=1
INPRODUCTPURCHASE Default=1, clicking offered Buy Now buttons in WinZip will display the offer in a WinZip dialog; off=0, offers display in the internet browser
INSTALL[cloud service] Default=1, the named cloud service files will be installed; off=0, the named cloud service files will not be installed; cloud service names are BOX, CLOUDME, DROPBOX, FTP, GOOGLEDRIVE, MEDIAFIRE, ONEDRIVE, SUGARSYNC, and ZIPSHARE; example: INSTALLZIPSHARE
INSTALLCMD Default=/autoinstall, no additional options; optional switches are /noc4u, /notip, /nojobrunprompt, /altext "xxx", /noaod, /disableaod
INSTALLEXPRESSOFFICE Default=1, WinZip Express for Office will be installed if a supported Office version is present; off=0
INSTALLFAH Default=1, File Association Helper will be installed; off=0
INSTALLJOBFILES Default=1, preconfigured job files installed; no install=0
INSTALLPREVIEWER Default=1, WinZip file preview feature for Explorer; no install=0
INSTALLSCANNERS Default=1, demo system scan installed and buttons for other utility scanners display in file management mode; no install=0
INST_EXPL_SHELL Default=1, WinZip context menu available; prevent the install of the shell extension (context menu)=0
INST_QKPICK Default=1,Quick Pick installed; no install=0 (Quick Pick only shows up on Vista and Server 2008 unless configured later)
INSTALLUPDATENOTIFIER Default=1, an update notifier will be installed that displays alerts about updates when WinZip is not in use; off=0
MAXUPSZ_[service] Default=0, maximum allowed by the service; number value will set a maximum upload size in megabytes; properties begin with MAXUPSZ_, such as MAXUPSZ_DROPBOX and MAXUPSZ_GDRIVE.
NOEDITMAILACCTS Default=0, allows adding/editing email accounts for the WinZip email feature; prevent=1
NOEDITMAILSVCS Default=0, allows adding/editing email services for the WinZip email feature; prevent=1
NOINTERNALEMAILER Default=0, the WinZip email feature is available; email feature unavailable=1 (not available and No Email tab in WinZip Options)
NOPRODADVUPDATES Default=0, (off) preferred products for file sharing will be advertised; on=1
NOUSERCLOUDDEFAULT Default=DEFAULT, off (same as FALSE) users can specify a default cloud service; *TRUE=users cannot specify a default cloud service
PASSWORDLENGTH Default=8, 8 character encryption password length policy; values from 1 to 99 are allowed
PASSWORDREQLOWER Default=DEFAULT, off (same as FALSE); TRUE requires at least one lower case letter character in encryption passwords
PASSWORDREQNUMBER Default=DEFAULT, off (same as FALSE); TRUE requires at least one number in encryption passwords
PASSWORDREQSYMBOL Default=DEFAULT, off (same as FALSE); TRUE requires at least one symbol character in encryption passwords
PASSWORDREQUPPER Default=DEFAULT, off (same as FALSE); TRUE requires at least one upper case letter character in encryption passwords
PASSWORDRESTRICT Default=DEFAULT or FALSE - users will have a Passwords tab in WinZip Options and can change password policies; TRUE, on (users cannot change password policies and no Passwords tab in WinZip Options)
SHOW_WEBPAGE Default=1, when uninstalled webpage opens; off=0
USAGECOLLECTLOCK Default=0, off, users can change the data collection setting, on=1
USAGEPICK Default=Usage_Yes, data collection turned on; off=Usage_No
WRITABLE_FOLDER_[service] Default="\"(root); Path entered will be used for Share upload operations, acts as the user root folder location in which the "ZipShare" folder, "timestamp" folder, and files are written

*Note: When setting NOUSERCLOUDDEFAULT to TRUE, a default service should be provided in both DEFAULTCLOUDSERVICE and DEFAULTSHARESERVICE if both are to be available.

User Added Properties

The following are properties that do not exist in the MSI file, but that you can add. This can be done either directly to the Property table in the MSI file, or through a transform file, or as a command line property.

Property

Description
INSTALLDIR Value should be a drive letter and path to the intended install location
USER_WZMUL_LOCATION Value should be the path to a shared folder in which the registration file (WinZip.wzmul) is stored; a UNC path works best

Additional Information about MSI File Properties

Additional information regarding some of the properties in the tables above follows. Some effort to group them according to usage has been made.

WinZip Express

These properties specifically control WinZip Express features:

Program placement, registration, and INSTALLCMD

INSTALLDIR can be used to set the installation folder for WinZip. One must create the INSTALLDIR property and use the destination path for the value. For example, if WinZip should be installed into the "WinZip" subfolder of the "Utility" folder on the D: drive, enter D:\Utility\WinZip as the value for INSTALLDIR.

USER_WZMUL_LOCATION will cause the registration file (WinZip.wzmul) to be copied to each computer automatically from a shared network folder. One must create the USER_WZMUL_LOCATION property. The value must be the path to the shared folder. All installing users must have share permission to this folder. A UNC path (\\Server\Share\Folder Name) usually works best.

INSTALLCMD can be edited to include additional switches. The default value is /autoinstall. Switches added to this property must precede /autoinstall. Each switch must be preceded by the forward slash (/) and must have a space between it and the next switch. The purpose of each switch is explained in the table below.

Switch

Description
noc4u Disable and remove the Check for Update feature
notip Prevent the Tip of the Day from displaying
nojobrunprompt Prevent the prompt dialog from appearing when running WinZip jobs (Caution: Be sure to consider the security implications of allowing your users to automatically run WinZip Job files before using this parameter.)
altext "XXX" The altext property will associate the file extension you specify with WinZip. In other words, if you double click a file with the extension specified, it will open in WinZip.
noaod Prevent WinZip from automatically opening MS Office files when you double click a Zip file
disableaod Prevent users from changing the auto-open for Office files feature*

*Note: Using the /disableaod switch by itself will not disable "auto-open". The /noaod switch must also be used to both disable this and to prevent configuration changes.

Example: To customize your installation to have no Tip of the Day and no auto-open of Office files, the INSTALLCMD property should read:

/notip /noaod /autoinstall

Password Policy Properties

A WinZip Pro license is required in order to enforce password policies. The available properties are listed and described in the table at the top of this article. An additional listing of these properties grouped alphabetically, along with some further information, follows.

The available password policy properties are: ALWAYSENCRYPT, ENCRYPTDISABLEMETHODS, PASSWORDLENGTH, PASSWORDREQLOWER, PASSWORDREQNUMBER, PASSWORDREQSYMBOL, PASSWORDREQUPPER, and PASSWORDRESTRICT.

ENCRYPTDISABLEMETHODS can be used to disable one, two, or all three encryption methods. When disabling more than one method, a comma should be used to delimit the values. For example, if the use of 256-bit AES encryption is the only method desired, the value for ENCRYPTDISABLEMETHODS should read ZIP20,AES128.

Each of the password policy properties causes a registry setting to be created. These registry settings and their values are described in Registry settings for WinZip; Policies and more.

WinZip User Feedback Properties

The two properties controlling feedback sent to WinZip Computing are USAGEPICK and USAGECOLLECTLOCK. By default, USAGEPICK is set to Usage_Yes to provide WinZip Computing with information regarding the ways in which WinZip is used on your computer. This information will be used to improve WinZip. No personally identifiable information will be collected. Configuring this property with the value Usage_No turns data collection off. In either case, individuals will continue to have the ability to turn data collection on or off by checking or unchecking Collect and report anonymous statistics in the Advanced tab of the WinZip Options dialog. If removing the option to change the setting is desired, the USAGECOLLECTLOCK property should be edited and given the value of "1". It is important to make sure that USAGEPICK is set to the desired value, otherwise the default Usage_Yes value will be set and will not be easily changed.

Conversions, Cloud Services, and Sharing

Note: Please keep in mind that Cloud Services and Sharing features in WinZip are related in that a cloud service can be used by WinZip for uploading prior to embedding a link in an email message or embedding a link in a post on a selected social media service. Some properties listed here as affecting cloud services will also affect share services.

Conversions are actions that make a lasting change to files. They will be applied to files that are being zipped and/or shared. If you are working with the Files pane fully expanded (file management mode), you can also apply conversions directly to saved files without zipping them. Encryption, a special type of conversion, changes the file from its original format into an encrypted format. Settings involving encryption are covered in Password Policy Properties.

DISABLECONVERSIONS can be used to disable one or more of the listed conversions (see the table at the top). When disabling more than one conversion, a comma should be used to delimit the values. For example, to disable the Reduce photos and the Watermark conversions, the value for DISABLECONVERSIONS should read IMAGERESIZE,WATERMARK. To disable all four conversions, the value ALL can be used. Note: The value ENLARGEREDUCEIMAGE affects the new Resize feature that is available when you are working in the fully expanded Files pane in WinZip.

Cloud Services are numerous, as are the settings available to control their use. Currently, the available cloud services are Box, CloudMe, Dropbox, Google Drive, Mediafire, OneDrive, and/or SugarSync. Note: References to Amazon S3 and SharePoint will be found in WinZip MSI files, but these are only available with WinZip Enterprise. Cloud service properties are:

Sharing features involve emailing files or posting them to a Social Media service. When emailing a Zip file using Zip and Email, for example, if that Zip file is over a threshold size (the default is 5 MB), WinZip will use your default share service to upload that Zip file and then a link to it will be placed in the email message. Posting a similar link to a Social Media service is also a share feature. Share service properties are:

WinZip Email feature

Note: A WinZip Pro license is required in order to enforce restrictions to the WinZip Email feature.

The WinZip Email feature works with Zip and E-Mail and/or with WinZip Job email notifications (WinZip Pro required) depending on how it has been configured. Three webmail services are supported and users can configure additional email services and email accounts.

The three available properties for the email feature are: NOEDITMAILACCTS, NOEDITMAILSVCS, and NOINTERNALEMAILER.

Miscellaneous

DISABLEUPGRADE can be used with a standard WinZip license to remove the Upgrade tab from the ribbon.

INSTALLUPDATENOTIFIER is set to "1" by default and will allow an update notifier feature to be installed. This feature, unlike Check for Updates, will alert you even when WinZip is not running to insure that you have the latest update as soon as possible. A value of "0" causes this feature to be prevented from being installed.

SHOW_WEBPAGE is set to "1" by default and will cause a webpage to open when WinZip is uninstalled. To prevent this, either the value of the property should be changed to "0" in the MSI file before installing or the command line used to uninstall should include SHOW_WEBPAGE=0.

Installing WinZip with limited user involvement

If WinZip is installed manually, that is with full user involvement, any editing you have done to the INSTALLCMD property and many others will be ignored as the user will be offered options that can be configured while installing. To insure that custom settings are used, the install should be done with limited user involvement. A Group Policy install will be silent and will use configured custom settings. Windows Installer switches and custom properties executed from a command line or script can also limit user involvement. Three common switches are /qr (reduced), /qb (basic), and /qn (none or silent). For example, to install WinZip silently your command line could be:

msiexec /i \\server\share\winzipxxx.msi /qn

For more information regarding installing from a command line see Command line installing with the WinZip MSI file.

Important Additional Considerations

WinZip installs as a machine level application rather than a user level application. As a result, once WinZip is installed and registered for one user of a computer, WinZip is available and registered for all users of that computer (please keep this in mind when purchasing licenses). Since WinZip is a machine level application, performing a "user configuration" installation by Group Policy (GPO) is not supported.

Therefore, if you will be installing by Group Policy:

You may also want to avoid using the administrative install option (MSIEXEC /a) with this MSI file. Although WinZip will install from the resulting program files and MSI file generated from an administrative install, the path to WinZip will be determined by the target folder specified at the time of the administrative install. In other words, if you specify that this administrative install should place the WinZip files in a shared network folder named "Software", the resulting group policy installation of WinZip will be placed on the users' computers with a path of "C:\Software\Program Files\WinZip".

If you have any questions about this information please email Technical Support.

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