14 DAY TRIAL // I remember the times when RAR was the only archiver with graphical interface and its main competitors were command line ZIP and ARJ. In order to use these for creating a multi volume archive you had to go through a real adventure and write a command line longer than the Golden Gate Bridge. Those days are gone and most archivers use a friendly interface to make our lives easier.
Leaving the interface question behind, there is a problem that won't change in the near future. Size DOES count. There may be a time when connection speeds and storage space available will make archiving obsolete, but for now we have to keep searching for the best archiving tool for each one of us.
7-Zip is a free archiver that can face commercial ones like WinZip without breaking a sweat. How is that possible and what goodies we can get from it, that's what we have to see next...
First of all, the File Manager that is used as a graphical interface deserves its name. You can enable two panels display using the F9 key and you get an extremely useful file manager. Its keyboard shortcuts are those well known for such programs, like F5 - copy, F8 - delete and so on. You should discover for yourselves how good is the File Manager, because I want to show you what can be done with 7-Zip as an archiver.
To create an archive simply select the file(s) and/or folder(s) and press the Add button from the toolbar (you can also use the contextual menu but you will need more mouse clicks...).
I ran a quick test with this program, archiving a folder with many files in it, having over 500MB in size. I used Ultra LZMA compression with 64MB dictionary size and the results were astonishing!
First I compressed the folder using Total Commander's ZIP compressor and maximum compression. The result: 134MB. Second step was to use 7-Zip with the settings mentioned earlierand it got down to 99MB! And be aware that it can even get better than that; you only need enough memory to face the huge requirements when using large dictionaries (up to 1536MB for PPMd compression method!).
The upper results made me wonder "Can this really beat UHA?" and I compressed the same folder using UHA. The resulting archive was 96.7MB in size, but that's the best you can get, and you will lose a lot of time, compared to 7-Zip.
Should I say more? We got a file manager and an outstanding archiver that doesn't look shiny and doesn't have nice shaded icons, but it does its job so well that you'll forget about all these.
After all, when you got the power and the speed... do you care about the looks? I don't, and that's why 7-Zip is my favorite archiver from now on!
The Good
7-Zip is just what it claims to be: a fast, easy to use and reliable archiver with improved compression ratio. It can also be employed in the file manager role without any problem.
The Bad
Its interface seems a bit outdated and when trying to use large dictionaries it needs large amounts of memory to work (over 1GB for dictionary sizes of 96 and 128MB).
The Truth
If you need a good file manager and an outstanding archiver you can try to get two different products, losing a lot of time testing in order to find the best in each category... or pick 7-Zip from the beginning and do something more useful with your time. I hope this review will guide you on the right path. Enjoy your journey!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
