7-Zip

7-Zip is a powerful file compression tool that can compress files with high percentage. It is an open source software and supports Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It uses LZMA compression for 7z formats. Its compression ratio is better than other compression utilities up to 2-10 %.

7-Zip Features

Simple UI

User interface is quite simple. You may surprise that what this simple tool can? But don’t get it light, it’s very powerful tool. Its easy interface makes it easy to use for beginners. But this tool is suited for developers.

More Efficient than WinZip

7-Zip is lets you discover that there is more than simple ZIP format archives. It is free and more powerful than WinZip. The archives created by 7Zip are almost 30-40 % smaller than ZIP archives. The compression size may vary from file to file according to capability of files for compression.

Format Support

It supports a huge variety of archive formats. It supports 7z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, XZ, BZIP2 and WIM for packing and unpacking. CAB, RAR, Z, CHM, DEB, DMG, ARJ, CPIO, HFS, ISO, UDF, FAT, NTFS, MBR, MSI, LZH, LZMA, RPM, VHD, XAR, CramFS and SquashFS are supported for unpacking only.

Self-Extracting Archive

There are also advanced options to empower more than you see in basic mode. You can create self-extracting and solid archives. Self-extracting archives behave like program installers that first un-compress files and then runs any executable file if you have selected some during creation of archive.

Encryption

Protect your archives with password protection. All files in archive are encrypted and can’t be opened without correct password. You are advised to protect files with a strong password.

Command line mode

Command line mode is also supported. You may use this method if you find it convenient.

Command line is mostly used by experts to speed up some task. It is like MS DOS where you enter a command to reach a specific function directly.

Multilingual Support

It is available in about 79 languages. It shows the popularity of this application and its fans.

Summary

7-Zip is very popular and efficient tool for file archiving. It is trusted and used worldwide and famous for its powerful features. Unlike most archiving utilities, it’s absolutely free.