7-Zip - file compression manager
7-Zip Website - Freeware
reviewed by ClifNotes on 26 July 2004
Notes
7-zip is a open source zip file manager that is small, very fast, and does a really great job. I don't need any other zip programs because this one does it all and it's really simple to use. I typically leave Windows in charge of zip folders and send them to 7-zip if they need any special treatment. I put 7-zip in charge of all the other compressed formats.
Screenshot

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The main features of 7-Zip:
- High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression
- 7-Zip is free software distributed under the GNU LGPL
- Supported formats:
- Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
- Unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM and DEB
- For ZIP and GZIP formats 7-Zip provides compression ratio that is 2-10% better than ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
- Self-extracting capability for 7z format
- Integration with Windows Shell
- Powerful File Manager
- Powerful command line version
- Plugin for FAR Manager
- Localizations for 59 languages