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Best Free File Archiver-Zip Utility
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Introduction
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Utilities that compress one or more files into one smaller file have been around since the first personal computers. These archive or zip file utilities were known by various names such as arc, pkarc and pkzip and they were run from a command line. Considering that most personal computers back then didn't have a hard drive larger than 10 MB (if they even had one at all) and only connected via modem speeds up to 1200bps, these compression utilities were essential for saving space and shortening upload and download times. Even though today's computers have much more storage space and faster connection speeds, compression utilities are still incredibly useful. Through their modern graphical interfaces, drag and drop capability, support for multiple compression formats, and security features, they are also easier than ever to use. |
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Discussion
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7-Zip supports 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM, and DEB. Even though it handles fewer archive types than some other programs, it is a fantastic program that will fulfill 99% of all your file archiving needs.
If you already use WinZip you'll find either 7-Zip or IZArc make excellent companion products. They can read just about all the major archive formats, including the widely used RAR. Note: Despite saying this on their website: "IZArc is 100% virus free and it doesn't contain any spyware or adware.", this program is bundled with OpenCandy (See this article for more information.). If you want to do away with OpenCandy, you have to add a switch, for example C:\IZArcSetup.exe /NOCANDY, when installing the program.
It runs on 32 and 64 bit Windows as well as various Linux distibutions. It's open source, portable and a great little program. Currently, Peazip (Windows version) provides three types of installer on its download page. The first one is bundled with OpenCandy (See this article for more information), the second is a plain installer without OpenCandy, and the third is a portable version which does not require installation, no third-party bundle and does not modify your host system. |
Non-English languages are supported. The portable version is available here.
Can encrypt files using Rijandael - AES (256-bits) encryption
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archive file, zip file, unzip file, best free archiver, best free zip tool, zip utility |
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Here's a new software for you to review Haozip. Very promising
Try also Bandizip: http://www.bandicam.com/bandizip/
I started to use this and first positive thing in this archiever is high speed of compression and decompression of files.
7-zip is great except for two things:
1. On my Acer Travelmate 6293 with Win7 Pro, it refuses to register the filetypes it manages. So, I would have to register each one individually. No thank you.
2. The context menus are bonehead. If you right-click on a zip, 7-zip still shows the option to "Add to Zip".
After looking through the comments here, I tried Haozip and it rocks!
The icons look good, the context menu is smart and configurable and it supports the file types I need. That's all that matters to me in a file archiver.
Yay for Haozip :)
well, the regular or standard edition of 7 zip do have problems while registering file types.i would suggest you to use the beta edition. it works well and also registers itself as default archive handler :) without any trouble.
it also has the feature to manually change read/write settings for individual user.
7-zip doesn't register file associations properly in Windows 7, I suspect because the installer does not have the correct user access. To fix the problem, run the 7-zip File Manager as Administrator, then go to Tools -> Options and associate 7-zip will all the available file extensions.
I found Kuaizip recently. For those wanting to take a look: http://www.kuaizip.com/en/index.html
If you want a basic program that a novice can use just with a right-click of a mouse, then have a look at JustZIPit:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Compression-tools/JustZIPit.shtml
I've discovered HaoZip and now it's my favorite one. Works perfectly. Give It A Try .
Hello, if you can please do review of a KGB Archiver. It is an open source application and has various features. Me personally use 7ZIP and it is good pick for best zip utility. But i am curious about this one.
KGB Archiver is a very strong compressor, but takes a lot of time as it is built on a modified old version of PAQ algorithm.
PeaZip compresses better than KGB with PAQ8, but it takes too long too.
7Zip with .7z format, using LZMA or LZMA2, is a good choice for strong compression with acceptable speed, and FreeArc's .arc is even more efficient in compression but slower on extraction.
PeaZip supports both .7z and .arc compression/extraction, so can be a good starting point to compare all those alternatives.
BTW, all of those applications are Open Source software.
Something is messed up:
"Note: Despite saying this on their website: "IZArc is 100% virus free and it doesn't contain any spyware or adware.", this program is bundled with OpenCandy (See this article for more information.). If you want to do away with OpenCandy, you have to add a switch, for example C:\IZArcSetup.exe /NOCANDY, when installing the program."
(...)
"PeaZip
Supports many file types.
Bundled with OpenCandy (see notice above), but plain installer is also available."
Which one is it?
http://www.bandicam.com/bandizip/
ha! bizarre... I consider 7zip to be extremely stable... True, I had it crashed once or twice... But most likely, my partition was already damaged, or I may have messed with file permissions. I certainly never had a bsod using 7zip, and I have used it on at least 5 OS, including Win7. The only thing I find lacking in 7zip is speed, but than again, I have not found any software that's faster, and I have tried a good many of them. I bought myself a new pc (4 processors & gigatons of ram) and I was expecting better performance... (Just another proof I don't know much about compression algorithms). As a sidenote, the default settings in 7zip do not take advantage of pc's with more than 2 processors (lzma2 > lzma). ... Who's writing this about 7zip being unstable? I don't want to insult anybody, but sometimes I can't keep from thinking some guys may work for competitors... Just suspicions, no accusation.
Agree, 7-Zip is a really rock-solid software.
Of course speed is not blazing, as lzma is quite heavy and 7-Zip hyper-optimizes even good old deflate to provide premium compression rate.
However on dual core it beats WinRar and WinZip, and I hope the same will remain true in near future when lzma2 will be mature enough to be the new default, as a multi-core CPU is now the norm.
Good observation. We notice this kind of thing happening here all the time, and no doubt it does in other places too. The best way to check these things out before deciding on a program is to Google the name followed by something like "user problems" or "user issues" and then look for forum discussions as opposed to just anonymous comments. Especially, never believe what you read in the CNET comments which have a very high rate of false pro and con posts.
too bad, IZarc used to be my favorite but appears that it and PeaZip are no longer trustworthy. whatever happened to that one from Italy? Genius something or other.
IZarc is perfectly reliable programme in version 4.1.6. Default compression type is "maximal" - if thisd seems slow to you just switch to normal for there is almost no difference in filesize but compression speed increases dramaticaly.
Finally have to switched to pZip.
7Zip causes BSOD many times on my Win7Pro SP1 32bit, and I'm sick of it. Development seems slow and nearly dead.
Oh BTW the new version of pZip is out version 3.9.1.
Using 7-Zip in 10 years and never had a BSOD for it.
PeaZip, and JZip, and others rely on 7-Zip rock solid code, and it is for a good reason, being 7-Zip one of the best (and better maintained) Open Source project out there.
PeaZip, in details, adds some features very often asked on 7-Zip forums that for some reason does not find place in the main project, like archive conversion, creation of separate archives at once, support of some experimental formats like PAQ, secure file deletion and others, but documentation explicitly says mainstream formats are handled by 7-Zip Open Source technology (and that's why I use it alongside 7-Zip!).
7-Zip development is nowhere slow or dead, there are alpha and beta releases regularly published on SourceForge, and there is the high performance LZMA2 algorithm recently introduced.
Of course non-beta versions are rarer as for mainstream use an archiving software must be more than well tested!
Used a lot of file archiver (since pkzip 1.0, dos time).
7zip is reliable, and a good pick.
FreeArc is the fastest AND offers the best compression ratio.
It lacks some options but it deserves to be tested here.
See : http://www.haozip.com/Eng/index_en.htm ???
7z : sure is better than zip. Slightly better than winrar compression. Multithread. Free. Open Source. Interface manager still buggy (easy to crash). The author doesn't know how to count ? :-) Version number jumped from 4.65 to 9.04. highly discussed on his forums.
Peazip : Free. Open Source. Interface not easy to use. easy to make mistakes. easy to forget passwords. Passwords are plainly parsed in command line that make a security problem. Too constraint for archivers command line.
Izarc : buggy, tons of register entries. high memory footprint. I had installed it to replace winzip (at this age, I discover Windows :-))
TUGZIP : It got a encoding character problem. Now I don't know.
FreeARC : I stay aware of new versions. Not stable yet.
[Moderator's note : Material about Winrar removed, since it is commercial, and not freeware]
@A momy mous: [unsuitable language removed]. There have been numerous releases between 4.65 and 9.04. Thing is, they were beta. Pavlov wouldn't promote anything unstable and untested. Watch the log including beta releases included, and you'll see that you're horribly wrong. Also, for as far as we know, there may perhaps have been even more versions we don't know of that were either too buggy, incomplete or unfit. The general thought of anyone thinking that slightly unclear numbering would be a sign of bad credibility makes me cringe. Really.
this is the first time ever i found someone said that 7zip crashed.
that's interesting. any more info from drwatson perhaps?
How did you managed to crash 7z?!
"Version number jumped from 4.65 to 9.04."
4.x versions were released starting from 2004, and guess... 9.x were released starting in 2009.
There are no scared rules written in stone for version numbers, and if the is a sacred rule I would vote for the author being free to decide how to number.
Still it makes more sense than shooting high numbers like Chrome to show the team did hard work.
"Passwords are plainly parsed in command line that make a security problem"
No, in facts it is more secure to use system's pipes rather than reinventing the wheel to make processes communicate in a secure way. That's why in *x nearly everything communicate using system's pipes, and that's why PeaZip had fewer Secunia warnings than others.
"I stay aware of new versions. Not stable yet."
FreeArc is one of the best open source projects of the decade, and works quite well right now, there it is no point in spreading FUD, and it does not deserve it.
I Used Izarc a long time ago when it was buggy (it was)
For Peazip I do simple archive with password (by using the interface like 4 billions of computer users in the word ;-))
and I looked at precess explorer and her the command http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/696/peazipguesspassword.jpg/ Guess password ? (sorry for one of you, I d'ont understand "system pipes")
Peazip make corrupted arc archives. minor problem.
For 7zip, the jump of version numbers is a sign of a fake (and malware included) software (for ex msn messenger, kmplayer, vlc, windows ;-), internet explorer, shareaza, winrar...) (and ones of them had been mirrored on popular sites) and it doesn't seem serious. It is just looking bad but 7zip is congraluated, open source and highly used that makes sure to use.
For information, I use a little old PC (1999 and survived 2000 lol), 450 MB of RAM, 1 GHz Intel silicium...
It's perfectly normal *you* can see anything you want of *your* processes, in facts it is perfectly normal *you* can see everything of what is in the memory of *your* processes, nothing different in concept of *you* being able to see *your* files...
The problem would be if a process not started/authorized by you could read in the memory of a process started/authorized by you, that's not what happens here.
If an unauthorized process gets privileges to read in your processes memory, i.e. a malware get yours (or administrator's) privileges, it does not matter where the password is in the memory of your processes 1)it will find it anyway 2)more important, the whole system is hosed, so it would be your data exposed not just a password.
Data communicated in a console never was a security breach, many (very secure) software on *x pass any kind of data this way, and password on command line can be sent to WinRar, 7-Zip, TrueCrypt and a lot of other software.
In fact in this way the user would not have to worry and hope the way the software re-invents to pass the password is insecure itself (has it proper user's right management? does it leaks memory? does it writes something to disk?), but rather rely on a well proven fundamental piece of the operating system.
About jump version numbers as a scam warning, I don't follow your logic: if someone try to spread malware using the name of a well known software (it makes sense), why would let a giant warning to users declaring a blatantly wrong version number (does not make sense: it is the exact opposite of the previous point!)?
Yes, indeed it is very simple to verify with Sysinternals' Process Explorer that, as expected, you can read in your user's processes memory (even to values not in the command line!).
But if you switch to another user you will no longer able to snoop into original user's processes.
System grant access to each user processes' command line, path, environment, memory etc only to the legitimate user - and if a rogue process has taken the user's rights, there is no longer anything secure anyway!
A common misunderstanding is that if a data is communicated to another process not in an obvious, human readable way, it must be secure... but it is not, the most common error being not securely removing critical data right after usage and let open the door to buffer overflow and similar attacks.
Relying on standard system components avoids risks of home-brewed security solutions, as all those risks were taken in account and robustly secured - that's why very secure programs like Truecrypt supports this method of passing passwords, and why in the very secure UNIX word passing any sort of parameter as command is the de facto standard.
7-zip crashes? It has never crashed to me in 10 years.
Peazip not easy to use? What part of "Add" or "Extract" you don't understand?
Izarc has high memory footprint? 8MB is huge for you? What happens when you start programs like Chrome or Firefox that eats more than 100 MB just to display an empty page, do you run away in terror?
Thats probably an issue. Users are likely testing these wares with ff and or ie open + outlook.
-Rick Fithen
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