Zippping a directory recursively from Python script on Windows

[Max M]

I guess that the best approach is calling a shell tool with something 
like os.popen(). But I cannot seem to find any free tools.

Winzip has a command line option, but for registered users only. That is 
bothersome if I want to install the script on other machines.

The same for pkwares zip. At least I cannot seem to find a free version 
of it.

gzip seems able to do the trick, but I need to install Cygwin, that's 
also a bother ;-)

Can it really be that there is no free .zip command line tool for 
Windows, or are my Googling skills just to poor?

Ideally it should just be a single .exe file that I can put in the 
folder with my script, for easy distribution.

Or is there a more Pythonic approach?


regards Max M