best archiving/compression program

[suryad]

WinRAR all the way...even though there is a trend of installnig crap like themes...who the heck uses winrar for that long to warrant the installing of themes?

[oofki]

I always stick with winrar it owns

[RayOK]

imo TugZip is the winner. 100% free. Does a lot of formats including .rar, .ace and .7z.. Integrates into the shell. I'm really suprised a lot more ppl don't use this.

[Crash&Burn]

Well I just checked it out, so if your main goal is free, and you don't mind not having rar-creation support. TugZip is by far the best free GUI-zip utility I've seen to date (and I've tested dozens). It even supports scripting functions. If it had an internal Backup Manager it would be as good or better even than PowerArchiver (which isn't free).

Supports 7Zip as well, and in a better GUI than 7zip's own.

Missing some of Rar's polish and some more expansive features, but overall a very worthwhile application among freeware.

A bit bulky on the install, 12.5 Meg program files directory, compared to WinRar's 4meg. I forgot to check PowerArchiver's install size before removing it, but its a 9meg installer so its likely not small either.

Suppose I'm a bit too old school, I can get most of all the archiving functionality I need from WinRar or commandline tools installed w/ Cygwin, like tar/gzip, tar/bzip or TotalCommander's own zip. And the commandline tools in comparison are Tiiiiiny :-)

[Addenum]

The install size can be significantly reduced w/ UPX, down to 6.8 megs after packing the DLL's and exe's. Successfully created 7z file and un-packed, after UPX.

[/Addenum]

Edited November 16, 2005 by Crash&Burn

[XtremeMaC]

i'm with winrar as well

i don't like winzip nor 7-zip. bc of the interface, right click menu integration stuff etc..

there are many other compression programs like powerarchiver which is good for making cabs..

also there is uharc compression. use this one if u're really in need of compressing something. its very customizable and flexable. gives better compression than 7zip & winrar...

[RJM]

UHARC compression - WINUHA - http://www.klaimsoft.com/winuha/ very good compression but rather slow to compress. 600M ISO to 200M UHA about an hour to compress and 20 min to expand.

[Crash&Burn]

Well, considering that a CD-R costs ~0.50c and one might make 10$+ an hour. Burning that "ISO" to CD just saved you 20 mins of your life or two dollars and 83 cents

Edited November 16, 2005 by Crash&Burn

[RJM]

Crash, that is true, I was only responding about UHARC compression that XTREMEMAC mentioned. It is good only if you have a lot more time than space.

[Crash&Burn]

S'alright, was just being fecitious

If I recall though, WinUharc was nagware w/ a unintuitive interface. Ctrl-A is defined to Open File in the file menu, instead of "select all files". It's memory and time requirements are very similiar to 7zip, though in some instances Uharc can outperform 7zip compression wise.

[XtremeMaC]

well there are many programs that use the uharc tech...not just winuharc

anyways i was just mentioning that it exists, not that i use it..

[spacesurfer]

I'm curious...this may be off topic... but

How do you get that super compression with WinRar?

I've noticed then when I download certain files, they are compressed more than 60%. If I extract them and use WinRar's best compression, I don't get nearly as much compression as it originally was.

Anyone noticed that?

Are they using some other program that does RAR files?

[azagahl]

For compressing, use 7-zip. LZMA is the best compressed format in general.

For decompressing...

1st place - WinRAR. Because its the only one with a working "Freshen files" option.

2nd place - TUGZip (it's free)

3rd place - IZarc (it's also free)

[Crash&Burn]

I'm curious...this may be off topic... but How do you get that super compression with WinRar?

I've noticed then when I download certain files, they are compressed more than 60%. If I extract them and use WinRar's best compression, I don't get nearly as much compression as it originally was.

Anyone noticed that?

Are they using some other program that does RAR files?

It's possible the compression was modified from default values -> [Advanced] / [Compression...]

WinRar can also save NTFS data streams, and all 3 Time/Date stamps on files...Like I said it just has so much more that other archivers and archive formats dont.

[Crash&Burn]

well there are many programs that use the uharc tech...not just winuharc

anyways i was just mentioning that it exists, not that i use it..

I wasn't able to find any other program for it, for the windows platform, or even the source to compile it, nor a basic precompiled command prompt binary. Maybe my search strings were off, but I did a pretty deep search.

Actually no, I did find one that I recall, but it was worse off than WinUHA, looks like it was based off of the same interface - don't recall the name off hand.

Edited November 16, 2005 by Crash&Burn