PIM

PIM is an application that you can use to compress files in the simplest way possible.

The interface of the program consists of a standard window in which you have few options at your disposal. In order to create a new archive, you have to specify the output name and destination.

Files and folders can be imported into the new archive by using the file browser or "drag and drop" method.

In the list you can check out the name, size, packed size and method of each file.

You can easily extract content from archives, test the integrity of an archive, select the compression method (optionally enable filters) and set file associations (e.g. ZIP, ZAR).

The software uses a high amount of system CPU and memory when it's busy with a task, and low resources otherwise. There is no help file available, but that's because PIM is extremely easy to use by individuals of any level of experience.

On the other hand, there are some downsides. For example, you cannot view a progress bar, elapsed or remaining time, or something similar when PIM is compressing a file (which can take a while, even if we're talking about something small) and no message pops up toward the end.

We tested the tool on both Windows 7 and XP. On 7 it displays an error and automatically closes when pressing the "Ok" button in "Settings" (even if you don't make any changes), but this problem doesn't occur on XP. Also, it doesn't integrate in the Explorer context menu.

PIM is a pretty good compression tool but it needs to work on its issues. Nevertheless, it is straightforward, since it doesn't come bundled with unnecessary features.