Passwords and Removing Encryption

Password Policy for Encryption

Customizable password policies make it possible for you to configure the complexity requirements for passwords when encryption is used with WinZip. Parameters for minimum password length and a required mixture of characters are user definable. The types of characters that can be specified are upper and lower case, numerals, and symbols.

The security of your data depends not only on the strength of the encryption method but also on the strength of your password, including factors such as length and composition of the password. By setting a password policy, you can configure WinZip to disallow encrypting files with a password that does not meet the strength requirements you have defined.

To open the WinZip Options dialog click the Settings tab and then click the WinZip Options button.

With a WinZip Enterprise license, System Administrators can customize and lock down the MSI installation of WinZip to install password policy requirements that meet their organization's needs for password complexity.

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If you have any questions about this information, please submit a Technical Support ticket.

What must I do to remove encryption from my Zip file?

There is no feature in WinZip for removing encryption from a Zip file. With the Zip file format, it is not the Zip file itself that is encrypted, but the data in the Zip file.

In the WinZip AES Encryption Information webpage you will find the following:

Encryption is applied only to the content of files. It is performed after compression, and not to any other associated data. The file data is encrypted byte-for-byte...

To remove encryption from the files that have been zipped, they would need to be extracted using the correct password. WinZip uses the password in combination with the appropriate key to decrypt the zipped data and recreate exact byte-for-byte duplicates of the originals. Once the files have been extracted, you can create a new Zip file without applying encryption. Afterwards, you can delete the encrypted Zip file, leaving only the new, unencrypted Zip file.

If you have any questions about this information, please submit a Technical Support ticket.

Compiled from the official WinZip Knowledge Base (https://kb.winzip.com/)