7-Zip Review

7-Zip is an open source file archive and compression software created and developed by Igor Pavlov. The software is made to fill the need of a robust file compression solution that can be used by anyone, whether for personal or commercial purposes. With its own 7Z compression format, the software attempts to give a better compression ratio than the regular ZIP or RAR format, without costing the user any money for the use of the software.

High Compression Ratio

7-Zip has its own proprietary compression format that gives a higher compression ratio as compared to the regular ZIP or RAR compression. The format is called 7Z. This is the extension that you get once you compress your files with this software. Of course, you can still compress your files in ZIP, TAR, and other formats, but for the best compression ratio, it is recommended that you use the 7Z format. The software can provide a high compression format because it uses the LZMA and LZMA2 compression technology, which is capable of reducing your file size to its smallest possible size when you compress it.

Strong Encryption System

Not only this software can compress your files with a high compression ratio, it also provides a strong encryption system for your archives. In this way, when you want to protect your compressed files with a password, it can create a very strong protection for your file archives. It uses a strong AES-256 compression technology to ensure that your archives are well-protected and difficult to decrypt, even if you try to force it open without the password. However, this strong encryption system is only available for 7Z and ZIP formats, so you can’t protect your archives with this encryption system in other formats.

Windows Shell Integration

Once installed on your system, the 7-ZIP file archiver is integrated nicely into your Windows Shell system, meaning that it is very easy for you to access the function of the software any time. In order to use the software via the Windows Shell, you simply need to right click your desired files, and choose the 7-Zip option in the Windows Shell, and then you can compress or decompress your files easily through this simple operation. You can compress your files to 7Z or ZIP format by simply right-clicking your files. Not only that, it also has a powerful file manager function that allows you to manage your files, as well as compress or decompress many files at the same time.

Support For Various File Compression Formats

This software supports a lot of file compression formats, and it can be used as your primary file compression software without any problem. For the compression, the software can compress your files to ZIP, 7Z, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ, TAR, and WIM formats. For decompression, the software can decompress many file archives in the following formats: RAR, ZIP, ISO, 7Z, TAR, WIM, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, VDI, VHD, AR, CAB, and more. The software can automatically detect the file archive format that you put into the system. Some file formats can only be unpacked or decompressed by the software.

Conclusion

When you are looking for a reliable file compression software, there are only a few software that you can use today. However, 7-Zip stands out from the crowd of similar software since it offers its own proprietary compression format, with high compression ratio compared to other similar software. Moreover, the software is completely free to use both for personal and commercial purposes, making this software a top recommended file compression software that you can get for your Windows operating system. With other features that it offers, such as Windows Shell integration, lots of supported formats, 256-bit encryption, and file manager, this software can easily be the must-have compression software for Windows.

How To Use 7-Zip To Compress Or Decompress Your Files

While the main 7-Zip software is available only for Windows 32-bit and 64-bit operating system, there are many variations of the software that goes by different names, that are available for other operating systems as well. These software are mostly unofficial, so it is not supported by the main 7-Zip developers. Some of the software are keka for Mac OSX and p7zip packages for various versions of Linux, such as Debian, Fedora, Solaris, Amiga, FreeBSD, and more.

Whether you are using the 7-Zip software on Windows or the variations of the software on other operating systems, using this file compression software is very simple. Here is the simple step-by-step tutorial:

1. Install the software. Find the installer of the software from the official 7-zip website. Choose the installer based on the version of the operating system that you have.

2. Once the software is installed in your system, you are good to go. There is no additional step that you need to do at this point. When you right click any file or folder in your computer, you can see the 7-Zip option in the Windows Shell. This is where you can access the function of the software easily.

3. On the Windows Shell option, there are the options to add your files to 7Z or ZIP archive locally, or you can do that operation and email your compressed file after the compression is done. Choose the compression operation based on what you need at the moment.

4. When you right-click an archive or compressed file, right-clicking the file can give you the option to extract the archive, whether you want it to extract it on the same folder, or create a new folder for all the extracted files.

5. You can access the File Manager tool by going to Program Files and choose 7-Zip. Then, there is 7zFM.exe. This is the File Manager tool that will help you to perform various operations, such as browsing the files on your computer, extract or compress your files, and add encryption to your archives.