StuffIt Deluxe

Editor's Review

StuffIt Deluxe provides powerful tools that help you Zip, access, share and protect all your personal information. It's now easy to compress JPEG photos by up to 30% with absolutely no loss in quality, compress documents from within Microsoft Office using StuffIt's latest plug-ins, archive your files and transfer them automatically over email or FTP, or even directly burn them to CD/DVD. Multi-core optimization means faster compression and access to your files than ever before.

StuffIt Deluxe 2010 is a great program for users who want full control when compressing files. The usual group of programs are still there, some with a makeover: StuffIt Archive Manager helps you locate, manage, view and decompress the archives on your hard drives using Spotlight; Expander is a simple tool for drag-and-drop expansion of archives, DropStuff for creating archives; MagicMenu and a contextual menu plug-in allow you to compress and expand archives without launching any programs; and SEA Maker lets you create archives that self-expand.

There are also other features such as Automator plug-ins and command line tools, which help power users with their workflows.

In terms of formats, StuffIt supports formats such as .zip, .rar through to internet favorites .uu, .hqx and .bin, along with a whole lot more. Plus, StuffIt Deluxe 2010 offers a proprietary format, StuffItX, that allows for a higher level of compression. In StuffItX format, jpeg and other media files may be compressed as much as 50% with no loss of quality.

StuffIt Deluxe 2010: What We Liked

It allows the user to easily select and bundle multiple files into single archives with varying degrees of compression.

Even the least experienced user will be able to understand how to navigate and use StuffIt 2009 thanks to its helpful wizards and the comprehensive Help menu.

Although the program has a busy user interface, it is laid out very well. Basic commands line the top and tabs keep the program's many configurations organized.

The software installs quickly and easily, creating a program folder for itself and another folder in the user's directory under Local Settings, as well as tagging all archive files on the computer with a StuffIt icon.

StuffIt Deluxe 2010: What We Didn't Like

The Archive Manager cannot preview archived Photoshop (.psd) files

The Magic Menu can be confusing

Smith Micro Software Support

Smith Micro Software provide technical support both through direct phone contact and email. They also offer online support via a help question database, FAQs and external links to further help.

About Smith Micro Software

Smith Micro Software, Inc., develops and markets mobile software products and services and an extensive line of PC software products for business & home markets. Their knowledge spans 25 years of design, creation and engineering for hardware and software products.