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7-ZIP is a free tool to compress and archive files into a small package. It does the same job as other tools of this kind but with a better compression rate and faster. And it can, of course, unpack those compressed files as well. And even though this tool provides its own .7z format for better efficiency, it is also compatible with the regular .zip format and many other formats. The tool can also apply strong encryption to the archived files. And one thing you need to be aware of is, that even if you download ZIP files, they might contain malware. Therefore, make sure to have a good virus scanner installed on your system.

  • Download, Desktop App

  • Fast and Efficient

  • Many supported formats

  • Strong Encryption

Details for 7-ZIP

7-Zip is free open source software. The most of the code is under the GNU LGPL license. Some parts of the code are under the BSD 3-clause License. Also there is a unRAR license restriction for some parts of the code.

You can use this tool on any computer, including on computers for commercial purposes. You don’t need to register or pay for 7-Zip.

The main features

  • High compression ratio in 7z format with LZMA and LZMA2 compression
  • Supported formats:
    • Packing / unpacking: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP and WIM
    • Unpacking only: AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, IHEX, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, QCOW2, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, UEFI, VDI, VHD, VHDX, VMDK, WIM, XAR and Z.
  • For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
  • Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats
  • Self-extracting capability for 7z format
  • Integration with Windows Shell
  • Powerful File Manager
  • Powerful command line version
  • Plugin for FAR Manager
  • Localizations for 87 languages

7-Zip works in Windows 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista / XP / 2019 / 2016 / 2012 / 2008 / 2003 / 2000.

Compression ratio results are very dependent upon the data used for the tests. Usually, 7-Zip compresses to 7z format 30-70% better than to zip format. And it compresses to zip format 2-10% better than most of other zip compatible programs.