ZipMounter

Can't open my Zip files at all. Stay away do not waist your $2.

I have used ZipMounter for a few years, and it has been a great tool. It makes ZIP (and other) archive files work like read-only disks (that is the "mounting" process), allowing both you, and your applications, to access their contents without wasting time and disk space temporarily decompressing them (and remembering to delete the decompressed files/folders when finished). Some reviewers have expressed disappointment about archive files being mounted as disks that are read-only (unmodifiable, inalterable, immutable, non-writable). For my purposes, that is a feature, because I treat most archives as master copies of the files they contain, making it vital nothing can modify them while used as disks. Others have been uncertain how to use ZipMounter, because it is not an application in the conventional sense. IMO, the simplest way to use it occasionally is to right-click on an archive file, go to the "Open With" menu, and pick "ZipMounter". If the Finder is configured to show "connected servers" on the desktop (Finder → "Finder" menu → "Preferences…" → "General" → "Show these items on the desktop:" → "☑︎ Connected servers"), the archive will appear on the desktop as a disk with the ZipMounter icon, and the archive's name. The simplest way to use ZipMounter regularly is to "Get Info" on one archive file, go to the "Open with:" section of the "Get Info" window, pick "ZipMounter" from the pop-up menu, and click the "Change All..." button. Thereafter, double-clicking on any archive file of the same type mounts it as disk. (To occasionally decompress an archive file using Apple's "Archive Utility" [the previous default behavior], right-click on the archive, and pick "Archive Utility" from the "Open With" menu.) Finally, to eject ("unmount") a ZipMounter disk, right-click on its icon, and pick "Eject". On rare occasions a dialog appears stating the disk cannot be ejected because another program is using it. (That can happen with any ejectable media and is not ZipMounter's fault.) To solve the problem, close any application which might be using the ZipMounter disk, then click "Try Again" in that dialog. If the disk still doesn't eject, click the dialog's "Force Eject" button. It will warn of dire consequences, like damage to the disk's files, but go ahead, because a read-only "disk", like those created by ZipMounter, cannot be damaged. In summary, anyone needing to conveniently read the contents of many archive files, or even a single large archive file that would be prohibitively time- or disk-consuming to decompress, is likely to find ZipMounter a valuable tool.

After seeing what appeared to be a slick alternative for the late great Zipster, I grabbed this thinking that the "lite" version only handled one archive and only read access. Opened full version and all it does is provide read access. Could have had this with macOS FUSE and Archive Mounter. To ZipMounter's credit, it does open a wide variety of archive file types, including .pkg files which is nice. Still no write access to Zip files is a real let down. Not sure I really need this without write ablity.

Waste of time and money