Archive/ZIP Software

Hi folks,

Wondering what software most people are using for archiving/compressing/zipping/whatever you want to call it.

I've been a Winzip user for like 20 years - but I've finally reached the point where I can't continue using it's bloated ugliness any longer...

Who's got a solid, lightweight alternative and what are the pro's and con's?

I would recommend 7Zip, have been using it forever. 

Also throwing in my suggestion for 7zip. As far as I know it can handle everything except making a RAR but it can extract them fine. It's great, free, lightweight, no nags and integrates with Windows.

7zip!

Cool thanks folks.  I did have 7-zip a few years ago but I had some zip's I'd created with 256-bit encryption with Winzip and I wanted to add to the archive and had some issues or something - but hopefully it was just a case of me being lazy and not fully investigating the way to get it done!

;-)

Yep, another vote for 7-zip.

As others have said certainly 7zip.

Definitely 7-zip.  advzip if you want to squeeze a few extra bytes out of a normal Deflate-compressed zip file and don't mind a command line program.

My biggest takeaway from this thread is that WinZip is still a thing. That honestly surprises me.

Well, I used WinRAR for years, it was nice because when it said that it was a 40 day free trial you could just click "OK" and go about your business. Five years later.

But yes, I would go with 7ZIP.

It's been mentioned already but I'll mention it on my own behalf: 7Zip.

I thought 7zip isn't worth it since it saves just a bit of space but makes extracting significantly slower?

7-zip or (on Mac) the Unarchiver

25 minutes ago, Memfis said:

I thought 7zip isn't worth it since it saves just a bit of space but makes extracting significantly slower?

7zip the archive format and 7zip the software are two separate things. The latter can handle just about any format under the sun (Zip, 7zip, RAR, Tar....).

7zip the format supports "solid" compression (like what a tar.gz, tar.xz would give you), which indeed makes extracting of a single file slower. It also supports non-solid archives, in which case it's basically a worse version of Zip. Zip supports a lot of timestamp fields and permissions/ownership/ACL fields that 7zip lacks. It can be an important distinction when backing up files; sending files over the internet, not so much.

7zip the tool is definitely the best offer if you want a compression tool under Windows: It can read nearly any archive format out there and its shell integration means it's only one click away when you need it.

I wish Mac tools were just as good but everything I tried was lacking something.

Regarding 7zip the format there's one nice thing it has to offer which I value a lot:

The directory is also compressed, i.e. unreadable in the archive file. Combined with encryption this means that a 7z file created this way doesn't tell anything about its contents which occasionally may be very, very handy, e.g. when making backups of some private stuff for the cloud - especially if you got a good source for unguessable passwords.

7zip, there's no need for nothing else these days.

Good feedback from everyone - looks like it's time to try 7zip again!