8 Zip is now a Universal Windows 10 app, has Continuum and Windows Hello support

The file archiving app, 8 Zip, has just updated and is now a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app that can run on any device running Windows 10 such as PCs and smartphones, but also Microsoft’s augmented reality headset, HoloLens.

8 Zip was made into a UWP app back in December 2014 but it was only usable on smartphones running Windows Phone 8.1. It was then made available on Windows 10 in August 2015 but this is the first time that the app has been made fully universal across devices by using the same code.

8 Zip is an app that encrypts and decrypts files. This latest version can use Windows Hello to secure files with an iris scan or fingerprint read and also supports Microsoft’s new Continuum feature. Encrypted files can be shared via OneDrive or Dropbox and just one licence is needed to use the service across the numerous Windows 10 devices used.

Here’s a list of all of its technical capabilities:

High-speed archiving and unpacking.
Incorporation of Continuum technology.
Ability to decrypt archives using Windows Hello.
Play music and video, display images and text files directly in the app.
Send files by e-mail, post them on social networks, or share them on OneDrive and DropBox.
Create archives: zip, 7z, tar, gzip, bzip2, xz.
Open archives: rar, zip, 7z, zipx, iso, bzip2, gzip, tar, arj, cab.
Built-in viewer and player.
View images: jpeg, png, bmp, gif, tiff.
Play music: mp3, wma, m4a, aac, wav, ac3.
Watch video: avi, 3gp, wmv, mp4, m4v, mov, mkv.
Open and view text documents: docx, doc, rtf, txt.
Support for the latest archive formats: RAR5 and 7z.
Various compression methods: Deflate, Deflate64, BZip, LZMA, PPMd.
Create password-protected archives: 256-bit AES encryption.
Ability to open encrypted files through Windows Hello and Microsoft Passport technology.
Support for decompressing multivolume archives: zip, rar, 7z.
Support for Drag&Drop technology.
Support for SD cards.