I like 7zip better as a program and how the context menus are formatted, but WinRAR .rar file is supperior compression. I wondered at one point and tested all 7zip supported formats at various settings and then tried WinRAR and RAR came out on top.

7zip's LZMA compression is better than WinRAR's RAR compression.

However WinRAR can achieve better compression on multimedia files because it has some "filters". Some filters are developped for 7-zip too but not yet included in the official 7-zip.

For general use, WinRAR. For best compression, KGB Archiver, WinRK, PAQ8o, DURILCA, and other programs you never heard about.

You must be mad to compress using PAQ and others.

I am just used to winrar. If it could make iso and compress to lzx21 then wow.

Hey peeps , you might want to notice that this thread dates back to 2004.

At the time Winrar was probably the best one around, nowadays 7zip or Izarc are better, or at least equal in functionalities and are several bucks cheaper.

KGB has a tight compression, but how muach time does it take to compress and decompress?

WinRK is said to be (slightly) the best one around, but not freeware.

jaclaz

Hey peeps , you might want to notice that this thread dates back to 2004.

Yes but it seems to be in fashion to revive old threads on msfn recently so let's be fashon-victims. B)

Edited May 11, 200818 yr by Camarade_Tux

WinRAR Rewlz!!!! B) B) B)

Hello

Winrar for some years ! but i was fed up to buy it or cracked it ! oups !

So welcome 7-Zip, the best compression software even if it doesn't have all compression format. but in 7z, it has a wonderful compression ratio !

Try it, love it !

winrar does hav best compression by far, but i never compress files, only open them, so for that i use winzip, ease of use, but i hav winrar as well

IMHO first 7-Zip, then WinUHA and then WinRAR ...

A nice link to a comparison of compression programs with compression ratios and speed ratings.

http://www.maximumcompression.com/data/summary_mf.php

winrar does hav best compression by far

no it doesn't, 7zip is far better, and it's faster at extracting

why the hell was this thread brought back up again, it's from 2003 for god's sake

winrar does hav best compression by far

no it doesn't, 7zip is far better, and it's faster at extracting

why the hell was this thread brought back up again, it's from 2003 for god's sake

It's because of the thing giving "related" topics at the end of the page : it doesn't take the date into account.

no it doesn't, 7zip is far better, and it's faster at extracting

But it's considerably slower at compression for a given resulting output size. And it uses more RAM... and people who aren't entirely techno-savvy have a harder time with 7zip than they do with WinRAR (for the most part).

They each have their advantages.