Here’s a new section of this blog: software choices. In this I’ll mention software(s) I have tried ever (mostly for Windows) and share my experience and thought of them and mention which one I prefer most.

Archiver: software to compress/decompress files (losslessly).

In no particular order.

PowerArchiver (last version tried: 7)
————————————-

Probably the best shareware archiver ever. Supports MANY type of files (from zip, rar, ace, 7z, and many more). Good integration with Explorer, very good interface (last I checked its interface looks like Office 2007).

The bad thing is, it is shareware. And interface is the last thing I wanted from a shareware.

WinZip (last version tried: 9)
——————————

It is used to be THE archiver software. Used. It haven’t improved much since version 6. Not many file type supported (no rar, ace, 7z, last time I checked). This is software from the past. Good only to be remembered, not good to use.

WinRAR (last version tried: 3.61)
———————————

Good archiver software overall (just like PowerArchiver). It also has archive recovery (which is good to be used when desperately trying to recover an archive). That’s about it though. I never prefered rar, so being a shareware means that it is not for me to use.

IZarc (last version tried: FORGOT, lol)
—————————————

Freeware! Too bad it has bad Explorer integration (last time I tried, that is). Everything else is good 🙁

7-Zip (last version tried: 4.57)
——————————–

Now THIS is the compression software of choice for me. Good Explorer integration, good software, many file type support (minus .ace). Basically this is the archiver software I used for years now. 😀

Highly recommended. Except if you already have license for PowerArchiver or WinRAR… :p

That’s it for archiver!

Conclusion: *7-Zip* for freeware, *WinRAR* or *PowerArchiver* for shareware.

_Last update 2011-07-11 10:41: markdown-fied, tagged and categorized_