To extract and compress your files, 7-Zip is a perfectly viable alternative to the better known WinZip or WinRAR. The application works exactly like its main competitors yet manages to mix in WinZip’s selection of tools with WinRAR’s versatility.

The 7-Zip interface is similar to that of its competitors, with a main file manager and a command line to search and select files to extract or compress. The control panel is comprised of the essential buttons like extract, add and test, but also features copy, move and delete functions to allow you to manage your files. 7-Zip extracts and compresses files as fast as WinZip and WinRAR and handles the main archive formats like ZIP, TAR, RAR and ISO.

The archiving process is where 7-Zip differs most from its rivals. Where WinZip only lets you compress to ZIP and WinRAR to RAR or ZIP, 7zip offers you up to 5 different archive formats to choose from. The application lets you choose the update mode, depending on whether you want to add and replace files, refresh the archive or just synchronize files. If you don’t want somebody opening up your archive without your permission, you can set a password to protect your archive.We particularly liked the split tool because it can cut up your archive into equal parts which fit on a floppy, CD or DVD, handy if you need to distribute a particularly large archive.

Security is where 7-Zip lags behind its main rivals. There is no option to scan archives for viruses and you can’t repair damaged or corrupted files. While you can set a password to protect your archive, you can’t choose between different levels of encryption.

7-Zip might not be as secure as WinZip or WinRAR but it is definitely more versatile. It works with more archive formats and offers many useful tools like update mode or splitting. If you feel too limited by WinZip and if you don’t like WinRAR we suggest giving 7-Zip a try and taking advantage of all its possibilities.

Download 7-Zip 4.60 in Softonic

When your CD collection outgrows all the available shelves of your bookcase, you know it's time for a bit of organization. And the easiest way to organize a CD collection is by creating a catalog.

Visual CD enables you to create that CD catalog in just a few simple steps. Insert the disk into the CD drive, let Visual CD index its contents and save it as a fully searchable catalog. This means that you can later on explore, search and find files that are saved on CD even if the physical disc is not in the drive.

Visual CD doesn't work only with CD: it also supports DVD, floppy disks, removable hard drives and even folders in your system hard drive. What strikes me is the fact that each drive you explore must be saved as a new catalog, whereas other similar tools save explored drives as categories inside one single catalog.

The program features also very interesting advanced functions such as a duplicate files finder, a file splitter, a photo renaming tool, a playlist generator and a thumbnail maker, among others.

Visual CD lets you save the contents of your CD and DVD in separate catalogs so that you can browse and search your collection without having to insert each disk one by one

Download Visual CD 3.1 in Softonic

If you're tired of being bugged by WinZip to upgrade or register and don't mind using something slightly different, then ALZip is an excellent solution.

AlZip is compatible with all ZIP and compressed file types and best of all, it's completely free for home use so there's no annoying nag screen or usage period to worry about. But much more than that, AlZip allows you to choose which program you want to open a certain file with rather than autoselect one for you or open it as generic Windows file. It's also a good option for unzipping files that have been downloaded from eMule or other P2P networks because it scans them for malware or viruses before opening them. The one thing that strikes you about this program though is how easy it is to use - you're grandma could probably unzip files with this program easily. It takes you through the unzipping process gently and doesn't hide decompressed files in some inconvenient location like some programs do. It also doesn't require any plugins or add ons to enhance its functionality or deal with certain file times - it's all in the program anyway. The latest release is ultra fast and they've implemented a new update and restore option for repeated tasks.

For a comprehensive, easy to use and powerful decompression tool, ALZip is all you need to banish those zipper blues.

Download ALZip 7.0 in Softonic

It's been a while since anything came along that could possibly rival WinZIP or WinRAR in terms of speed and compression/decompression power but ZipItFree gives them a good run for their money.

Apart from anything else, the best thing to start off with is by stating this is completely free - no annoying registrations or fees to pay. It's also now fully functional with Vista with an appropriate modern and stylish interface that gives you the feel that you're dealing with a quality piece of software. The key selling point of this program however is the way it compresses files using what the developers call the "Black Hole" method which provides very high compression ratios and ultra fast decompression. The other major selling point is what they call the ZipV2 encryption algorithm which they describe as "by far the most secure encryption for archiving (hundreds of times more secure than even the leading AES encryption)".

How secure this format is is debatable but the fact is that it's certainly one of the less utilised compression ratios that should mean it's less liable to attack. Apart from the fact that it handles multiple formats with ease, what's also nice is that you can leave comments on your archives describing what the archive contains so you don't have to go to the hassle of unzipping it all.

For a free, stylish and powerful alternative to WinZIP and WinRAR, ZipItFree is one of the most impressive efforts out there.

Download ZipItFree 1.80 in Softonic

7-Zip Portable is the popular 7-Zip packaged as a portable app, so you can take your file archiver with you and work with your compressed 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, RAR files and more on the go. You can place it on your USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive or a CD and use it on any computer, without leaving any personal information behind.

7-Zip is a file archiver utility for Windows with a great array of features including:

• High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression
• 7-Zip provides compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than PKZip and WinZip
• Self-extracting capability for 7z format
• Powerful File Manager
• Localizations for 63 languages

Download 7-Zip Portable 4.57 in Softonic

TUGZip is a powerful award-winning freeware archiving utility for Windows® that provides support for a wide range of compressed, encoded and disc-image files, as well as very powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration.

Features:

• Supports ZIP, 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, BH, BZ2, CAB, CPIO, DEB, GCA, GZ, IMP, JAR, LHA (LZH), LIB, RAR, RPM, SQX, TAR, TGZ, TBZ, TAZ, YZ1 and ZOO archives
• Supports BIN, C2D, IMG, ISO and NRG disc-images
• Support for external plugins
• Windows® shell integration, e.g. drag & drop, shell context menu and drop handlers
• Create 7-ZIP, BH, BZ2, CAB, JAR, LHA (LZH), SQX, TAR, TGZ, YZ1 and ZIP archives
• Script support which allows you to make automated backups
• Basic features like: add, extract, delete, rename, run, view, checkout, install, test, comment, SFX, virus-scanning, disk-spanning and much more
• Repair corrupted ZIP and SQX archives
• Can extract multiple archives at once using Multi Extract
• Encrypt archives using 6 different algorithms. Blowfish (128-bit), DES (56-bit), Triple DES (168-bit) and Rijndael (128-bit, 192-bit and 256-bit).
• Create self-extracting encrypted archives
• Automatic updates using the "Web Update" function

Download TUGZip 3.4.0.2 in Softonic

FilZip is an archiving utility that supports roughly 15 archive types, including ARJ, CAB, RAR, TAR, and LHA. Among its features are Windows integration (drag and drop, and file compression and extraction from the context menu), multiExtract, and FastExtract.

It also comes with an SFX creator. With its zipping features, you can add files to an archive; delete, view, and open files from an archive; view ZIP comments; password-protect ZIP files; test files while extracting; and automatically install archives. You also can quickly and easily convert one archive into another, delete archives, and send archives over the Internet via the built-in email function.

Download FilZip 3.06 in Softonic

ZipStar is a free archiving application for home users. You can use it to create and unpack the archive formats SQX, CAB and ZIP. ZipStar relies on the well-known Squeez technology, one of the fastest engines for file compression and extraction which is also used in SpeedCommander and Squeez.

Thanks to the integrated Quick View for the most common file and multimedia formats you can view files within archives without first having to extract them. You can compress and extract files directly from Windows Explorer.

Features included:

• Direct support for the archive formats SQX, ZIP and CAB
• Full support of ZIP64 (no restrictions regarding the archive size and number of files within a ZIP archive) and Deflate64
• Complete Windows Explorer integration
• Integrated Quick View for many file formats
• Archive Favorites and Archive Folders
• Archive information window which displays the most important archive properties

Download ZipStar 5.20.4600 in Softonic