PowerArchiver 2012 13.03.02

PowerArchiver is a complete archive utility for Windows that also sports a file browsing feature.

Once you have installed the program, you can set interface options (for novice or power users) and file format associations, in the first configuration wizard.

The Explorer-based layout contains six tabs - Home, FTP, Backup, Burner, Tools and Options.

With PowerArchiver, you can create, convert and multi-extract archives, batch archive files, password-protected files, create backups, and burn files.

You can also schedule data compression operations at regular time intervals in a specific location. PowerArchiver verifies the location for the new data and automatically adds it to the backup archive.

The FTP client is powerful enough to save information for multiple connection profiles, as well as support SFTP and FTPS, while the Burner allows you to burn files or images to disc, copy discs to discs or images, erase rewritable discs, and create a new ISO. In order to access the Virtual Drive, you have to purchase the full product.

The Tools section allows you to encrypt files, convert archives (ZIP, 7-ZIP, CAB, BH, TAR), create a SFX archive, repair ZIP files, encode files, merge or write multi-volume ZIPs, and more. Additionally, you can fully customize PowerArchiver's interface, by changing the toolbar style, view mode, skin, and language.

We converted a 1,16GB file to a ZIPX archive. The task took 5 minutes and 11 seconds, and the archive was shrunk to 35.6%, weighing only 423MB. By the way, PowerArchiver comes with Volume Shadow Copy support, so you can also compress files while you are using them.

In conclusion, PowerArchiver proves to be an amazing compression and decompression tool that uses a moderate amount of CPU and memory resources. All it lacks are some extra supported formats to the collection.