Get rid of WinZip popups
April 26, 2021There’s a special place in hell reserved for software developers that set things to run behind the scenes that pop up to annoy users. I’m looking at you, WinZip! Ever since I installed my current—paid for—version of WinZip Pro (version 24), it’s bombarded me with advertising and promotional popups several times a day, even if I’m right in the middle of work. Not only is it intrusive, but it’s unwanted and unwarranted for someone who has paid for a professional licence. And there’s nowhere in the interface settings where I could find anything that would turn off these popups and notifications. Today I snapped and decided to find out how to turn them off for good (or at least until I buy the next version of WinZip).
Because WinZip has no setting for this [grrrr!], you have to go into Windows task scheduler and turn it off there. Here’s how:
- Open the Run window (click the Start button and type Run, or press Windows key + R).
- Type compmgmt.msc
- On the left of the Computer Management window, expand System Tools > Task Scheduler, then select Task Scheduler Library.
- In the top panel, scroll down to the end of the list until you find the WinZip Update Notifier entries (I had three). Each is set to update and notify at certain times of the day.
- Select any or all of the WinZip Update Notifier entries.
- In the lower right panel, click Delete.
- Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
- Close the Computer Management window.
With luck, you shouldn’t get any further popup notifications from WinZip. (Update: you’ll still get the occasional one, but those that occurred several times a day should now be gone.)
And WinZip, if you’re listening, either get rid of these things altogether for licensed Pro users and/or give the user a simple way to turn the damned things off!
Further update (August 2021): I found another place where you can turn off those that may continue once a day. In Windows 10, search for Startup Apps and check if WinZip Preloader and WinZip Update Notifier are turned on. If they are, turn them off.
Update 20 Nov 2021: See the comment from Kimberly dated 20 Nov 2021, which has this info:
- Remove/delete the 3 WinZip Update Notifier tasks from the Windows Task Scheduler (see main post).
- Also delete the WZUpdateNotifier.exe file from the “C:\Program Files\WinZip” folder without causing any harm to the program.
I haven’t tried that second option yet so can’t verify, but will let you know when I do.
CyberText Newsletter 
Super cheeky to have popups on professional versions of software that you pay for. Thanks for the tip!
Many thanks for this tip. I had exactly the same problem with WinZip.
Had the same problem with CorelDRAW8 & Windows 7Pro last year
The procedure you have outlined worked as there were 3 CorelDRAW8 listings. (WinZip is Corel Corp)
Now have Windows 10Pro & WinZip 23.0 Pro
Just checked the Task Scheduler Library and there are NO WinZip or Corel listings.
Any other suggestions are appreciated as this popup will continue.
Thanks
Thanks so much. Winzip is a good program but this feature makes it act like Spam. Thxs for the assist.
THANK YOU!!! I love people like you who take the time to share their knowledge and so well written. I had 3 that were occurring every day!
Excellent, couldn’t agree more with your take on this practice. Discourages future use (and purchases) of the product.
Thanks for this info. WinZip was making me crazy!!
Appreciate this. I paid for the application, not to be interrupted by scheduled spam.
thank you, I have been searching for way to turn this off.
Many thanks, I have also been searching for way to turn these off. Like you, there were 3 notifications pre-set. Your instructions were easy to follow.
Great, simple instructions. WinZip Spam popups every few hours blocking my work view. Had enough, and found the removal blog, it worked. Three of those nasty demons were set to annoy preset times each day. A curse upon Winzip for abusing for years paying customers for Pro Version. 5 Star upvote. THANK YOU for saving my sanity today!
I just read a thing on Winzip’s website about how to stop website tracking and get rid of popups… guess they should take their own advice, huh? This helped a lot!
Can’t thank you enough for you sharing! Knowledge is power! I very much dislike the business practice of popup advertising when you have a paid subscription.
Great! What an irritant this was. Thanks!
THANK YOU!!!! those popups were irritating and WinZip – you should be ashamed!
Thanks. I have wanted to do that for ages!
Thank you and I couldn’t agree with you more!
Excellent article. Easy to follow instructions. I was SO tired of WinZip popups I seriously considered just deleting the entire app from my system. It is outrageous that software vendors do this to people who buy their products. And then they expect customers to recommend their software to others. What a joke. Thanks for the write up.
Thanks for the clear instructions, have removed them!…paid for Winzip & got this crap from them.
Thank You – easy to follow directions that work!
Thank you!
Thank you, those ads diminish the reputation of Winzip. It is kind of shocking that such a well known product would be so cheesy
Thanks so much!!! I finally got rid of these unwanted popups!
Thanks so much ! These had been anoying me for years. Winzip I’m really disapointed that you take your cutomer hostages like this. I will think again before buying your products !!
Thanks So Much !
Excellent – they are gone
Thank you 🙏 This post was just what I needed to find to save my sanity, and hard agree on developers doing this. A benefit of paying for software should be that you’re not spammed for upgrades all the damn time.
Thanks for the solution. Why put spam in a paid software. Annoying!!
Hi There. I am a Win Zip user and have been super choked to see those pesky ads pop up on my paid subscription. Thank you so much for offering a simple, easy way to remove them from the system.
Thank you for the help! WinZip has chosen to spam my desktop THREE times a day after purchasing the Pro version of their software, grrrrrr. Never again. Cheers.
This company is shady – DO NOT BUY ANY PRODUCTS FROM THEM. I also paid for a license and am constantly bombarded with ads.
Thank you so much for this. Is there any way we can sue them for that bull crap? I mean if you pay for something, they shouldn’t be ad-spamming you.
Thank you, this is just what I needed.
Likewise for me. I won’t be renewing Winzip as a result. Thanks for the tip!
Thank you! Instructions were perfect and you saved me a lot of time!
This is AWESOME! I cant thank you enough!
UPDATE: after 4 days they started popping up again so I contacted Winzip… this is what they told me to do to completely get rid of them…. otherwise the way we did it from the above… they will turn themselves back on…. which mine did after a few days. I did what I they suggested and I have not seen a pop-up ad since from Winzip software… so here you are…
Thank you for contacting WinZip support.
Please remove/delete the 3 WinZip Update Notifier tasks from the Windows Task Scheduler to insure it will not be run.
Also Please delete the WZUpdateNotifier.exe file from the “C:\Program Files\WinZip” folder without causing any harm to the program.
After doing this, you will not get any Promotional POPUP from WinZip application.
POSTED THIS ON 11/20/2021
Thank you — I’ll give that a try. I’ll also add it to the info in the post.
–Rhonda
Thank you!
Thank you! You’re a star. Winzip gave me hell.
Great info. thanks.
THANK YOU. You have made my day… no… my month. Appreciate you doing the legwork to figure this out.
Brilliant. Winzip’s marketing team can now kiss my ass
Winzip’s marketing team can now kiss many asses
Like everyone else, I am on the web because I have had my fill with their stupid pop ups! I don’t think I will be buying their product anymore. There’s ways around using Winzip. This is beyond frustrating! Free programs rarely completely hijack your computer like they’re doing!
I am not subscribed to Winzip and get continual pop ups. what do I do?
Hi Marilyn
I can only suggest you try the things listed in the post.
–Rhonda
Hasn’t stopped mine from popping up :/ although it’s now gone from my Task Scheduler library
I’ll try this instead it’s now disabled on windows start up
Same problem. Thanks for the solution so I didn’t have to figure it out. And I totally agree with your opening sentence. This is the type of selling you expect from late night TV ads on b-rated channels, not software you paid for. Shameful.
Like everyone else, I’m grateful for the solution(s). That one has to find and implement these solutions is an outrage. The only way to stop behavior like this is to NEVER buy (or rebuy) software that markets this way. I’m spending my morning, looking for alternatives to Winzip. We should all do the same … and let the makers of Winzip know that’s what we’re doing.
There is no Winzip listed on my Task Schuler or Library, but I do get the popups. Where do I go for that?
Also get popups for Dell Backup and Recovery Basic. How do I get rid of those?
Thank you for delivering me from winzip.
I’ll never use or recommend winzip.
Thank you SO much for this – I’ve finally got rid of it!
THANK YOU.
Win zip is not on the Task scheduler library. I never purchased this software, only tried a “free” trial version that has long since expired, but when I run a search for winzip, the only thing that comes up is the actual shortcut on my desktop. Nonetheless, I get frequent pop ups reminding me that my free trial is expired or other win zip info trying to get me to purchase it.
I’ve looked up numerous instructions on how to deal with this, and none of them have shown me where to ferret out the place this annoying little piece of malware is hiding.
thank you – this ws driving me NUTS!!!
Couldn’t see it in the Task Scheduler Library in WinZip26 but found the offending buttons in the startup apps route worked fine. Thanks very much. Can’t imagine these pop ups win WinZip any new customers but just cause existing customers to leave.
Thanks for posting this!!! It was super helpful and easy to follow. I applied all suggestions. Hopefully I wont see that annoying pop-up any longer.
Thank you!!!!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And THANK YOU! Special place in hell for them indeed. Commensurate with your special place in heaven. Much appreciated.
Thank you so very much. This is very much appreciated
Thank you for your help. It works
Thanks. WinZip and other developers should know that I will never buy any software that gives me unwanted popups.
Thank you so much for this. I am eternally grateful. If these people want to succeed and keep selling their product why ever would they make it so infuriating? It makes no sense, I am convinced they secretly enjoy the power they have over those they annoy. A sick way to get kicks!!
I don’t see the Delete option :(
I’d like to my thanks to the chorus sounding already. I had (very grudgingly) suffered their adds. But today they took the biscuit: they advertised an ad-blocker. “Click here to get rid of those annoying ads”. At first I thought it was malware. Then I saw it was the malware I had paid for (winzip 24 pro). And I thought I’d either forgo use of winzip (use 7zip or something) or find a cure for this rubbish.
So thank you for helping to retain winzip functionality without all the crap.
Thank you! Those pop-ups were sooo annoying! I did the second step of removing the WinZip program file too.
There is a special place in HEAVEN!! for the publishers of information like this. THANK YOU!!
Thank you! Was so sick of those constant pop ups. I hate WinZip because of this to be honest, really ruined the product for me.
Thank you… I just sent a nasty email to their support team as well…(winzip-tech-support@mysupport.corel.com), in case you wish to do the same.
Thank you! Those were so annoying!
THANK YOU!!! I was putting up with these things popping up for 3 years. Tried to find a post like yours that was simple to follow and easy to execute. FINALLY, WinZip pop-ups are gone!!!
Many thanks, I had six or seven of the little c….ts
Thank you so much!! finely got rid of that annoying Sh….t
Thank you for your blog, you have helped 2 senior citizens, aged 89 & 73 in Auckland New Zealand, stop these annoying emails
Thank you. When the bought and paid app is WORSE than the freeware version you know a company has made bad choices. Now, with all damned “notifications” physically removed, let´s hope it keeps working as it should.
TY very much. An easy method I find which works some times is to just type the file’s name in to run (Type:WinZip)then kill any thing with that name. IE just do a basic search and destroy. Can take less than 30 seconds. The search also brings up WZ files which are really WinZip files. Right clicking on properties can show evidence that they are WinZip ‘s.files. This is for people who do not want WinZip on their computor. I was still getting hourly pop-ups after uninstalling. Hence I just kill anything Winzip on my computor.
Thank you so much!!!
Thanks very much for this solution – really helpful! WinZip shouldn’t be doing this three times a day, without an option in their program to stop it. Especially, as you say, after we have paid for it!
Thank you!
With my paid WinZip software, I got a pop-up while I was in the middle of a presentation to senior management. That was a bit embarrassing for me and distracting for everyone.
Corel really needs to ratchet back their marketing, especially on paid products.
Thank you so much for this information! I found three tasks just as you did. Since I just deleted them I’m guessing it will stop the annoying popups. My trial WinZip expired long ago and I’m doing fine with the tool Windows 11 provides so I decided to uninstall WinZip and the system wouldn’t let me! So I found the WinZip folder and tried to delete it but couldn’t because it said it was open in another application. Well, I started deleting the files in the app and all but one deleted. The one I couldn’t get rid of is wzshls64.dll. The message box says it can’t be deleted because it is open in Windows Explorer. They must have found a way to attach it to this app to make sure you can’t completely get rid of it.
You need to use something like Revo Uninstaller to get rid of all remnants of a program — many elements will be in the Registry (on Windows), which isn’t an area you should go unless you absolutely know what you’re doing.
–Rhonda