This week I’d like to highlight a utility that makes working with large files or compressed files a breeze – 7-Zip.

I’m sure everyone is familiar with the concept of compressing files.  This is where one takes a file, or a group of files, and, using software like the one I’ll be highlighting this week, creates a new file that is smaller than the sum of the original files, but still contains all of the information and functionality of the original files.  File compression is a popular way of reducing download times and making back-ups easier.

I’m sure many of the knowledgeable readers out there are already asking “Why do I need to download compression software at all?  XP has it built in.”  I’m glad you asked.

7-Zip is the program of the week.  It is open source, released under the Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL).  As usual, it is a free download, although paid support is available.

7-Zip is the best archival/compression software on the market.  It can create and unpack several formats of compressed archives, including its own 7z format, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB files.  That’s the first reason even XP users need 7-Zip. It works with formats that XP can’t handle alone.  It’s even more valuable to 9x/NT users.

Another benefit of 7-Zip is that it is highly configurable, (a common feature in most open source projects).  This allows users to balance the level of compression and speed.  It has self-extracting capabilities for it’s native 7z format.  And 7-Zip is also available in over 40 languages.

Familiarity is another feature that makes 7-Zip a must-have.  The interface of 7-Zip is designed to mirror the look-and-feel of Windows Explorer, so most users will barely know that that are opening anything other than a folder when they are using the program.  It’s almost like having the built-in ZIP function of XP on your 9x/NT machine.  Even the most basic users will feel at home using 7-Zip.

7-Zip works on Windows 98, 98SE, ME, NT, 2000, XP, and 2003.  For those “GUI-is-for-WIMPs” guys out there, 7-Zip has a powerful command-line interface available as well which works on Windows and Linux (although WINE is needed for 7-Zip to function in Linux).

But by far, the best reason to use 7-Zip is the huge amounts of space you’ll save when you archive your files using it’s native format, 7z.  I took this comparison test from their website, http://www.7Zip.org/

Compression ratio results are very dependent upon the data used for the tests. We compared 7-Zip with some of the leading archivers: WinRAR 3.10, WinAce 2.3, CABARC 1.0, PKZIP 2.50.
 
FILE SET: The GIMP 1.2.4 for Windows after full installation (127 subfolders, 1304 files totaling 27,128,826 bytes). The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It can be downloaded from www.gimp.org.

Archiver    Compressed size  Ratio

7-Zip (7z format)   5445402   100%
WinRAR 3.10    6004155   110%
WinAce 2.3   6242424   115%
CABARC 1.0    6455327   119%
7-Zip (zip format)   9461621   174%
PKZIP 2.50   9842800   181%

As you can see, the 7z format is close to half the size of the old ZIP format. And about 20% of the size of the uncompressed files.

Even with the standard ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides compression ratio that is 2-10 % smaller than the ratio provided by PKZIP,WinZip, and the XP built-in ZIP software.  7-Zip’s native 7z format can provide a whopping 30-50% reduction in the size of the file when compared to the same files in the common ZIP format. That’s the highest level of compression available today.

Some of the other benefits of the 7z format are: open architecture, strong AES-256 encryption, the ability to use any compression, conversion or encryption method, even ones that don’t exist yet – since it can be developed by anyone who wants to work on it, support for files with sizes up to 16,000 Petabytes (That’s 16,000,000 Terabytes or 16 BILLION Gigabytes!!!), Unicode file names, solid compressing, and archive headers compressing

With the glut of shareware/crippleware/trialware compression software available today, it may seem that building up about another “free” zipper would be a waste.  But getting the highest compression available for free, without any annoying ads, appeals to “Upgrade to the full version”, or spyware/adware, is truly something to write about.

There you will also find further details about the world’s greatest archiving program, support information, and find out about other programs from the 7-Zip team.

I’ll be back next week with a review of another valuable open source program for Windows that you can download, include on any/all of your computers that you own, build, give-away, or sell, give to your friends, tweak for yourself, work on the code, or even sell on CD, all legally.