Corel's WinZip Computing unit has updated its flagship WinZip compression utility to version 11.0, adding thumbnail images users can browse before extracting digital photos, as well as support for the popular RAR file format.

The upgrade's Pro edition includes an integrated image viewer, letting users inspect multiple images directly within the utility; both Standard and Pro offer thumbnails that show an archive's contents before individual files are decompressed.

The more expensive and expansive Pro version also has been beefed up with enhancements to the utility's step-by-step Wizard, which walks users through the process of compressing data. WinZip 11.0 will, for example, automatically e-mail a resulting Zip archive once it's created.

Corel, which acquired the privately held WinZip in May, also touted new compression formats, including RAR, BZ2, and a special lossless technique to squeeze .wav-formatted audio files as reasons to upgrade.

WinZip 11.0 Standard sells for $29.95, while the Pro version lists for $49.95. Both are available immediately from the WinZip site.

Coincidentally, the new version's predecessor, WinZip 10, contains a critical bug that could allow attackers to hijack a Windows PC running the utility.

According to an alert posted Wednesday by Danish vulnerability tracker Secunia, the "highly critical" flaw is within the FileView ActiveX control that WinZip calls up. A malicious Web site exploiting the vulnerability could compromise the computer and let a hacker install malware such as a backdoor Trojan or spyware on the PC.

WinZip has released a new build of version 10 (build 7245) that patches the vulnerability; it can be downloaded from the WinZip site. The bug doesn't affect earlier versions of the utility such as WinZip 9.