Traditionally the first choice when it comes to compressing and uncompressing files, WinZip is one of the most popular downloads of all time. Despite the fact that its competitors have caught up somewhat, it remains a simple way to archive programs and reduce file sizes.

Much of WinZip's success has been down to its simplicity. From the outset, the program prompts you to choose between Classic mode and Wizard mode. The wizard is great for beginners, although even the classic interface is easily negotiated, giving you instant access to a range of features such as compression ratios, password-protection and a Favorites list.

While archiving files in WinZip is quick and easy, you can't help but thinking that the program has lost some ground on its competitors. For instance, the compression rates aren’t as high as they are in WinRAR, and you can only save files in Zip format rather than RAR, ISO or JAR.

Nevertheless, WinZip performs its function well, helping you archive files quickly and effectively.

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Some will argue that WinRAR isn’t as quick as rival WinZip at compressing files. However, for the small time difference, WinRAR leaves you with a significantly smaller archived file at the end of the process. What’s more, the application allows you to save files into both .ZIP and .RAR formats, with bunches of options for speeding up compression times and reducing file sizes.

Although many newcomers might be put off by the sheer range of features and settings within WinRAR, the interface doesn’t take long to get accustomed to, and if you’re still really stuck there’s a simple wizard-based system that walks you through the process of extracting or compressing. All this adds up to make WinRAR a dependable utility that performs better than any other tool in its class.

Boasting more compression options, higher compression rates and smaller file sizes than WinZip, WinRAR is now the undisputed market leader in file compression.

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This application not only includes support for extracting virtually any kind of file compression format, it also reduces file sizes and runs on almost any version of Windows, from 98 to Windows 7.

Some will argue that WinRAR isn’t as quick as rival WinZip at compressing files. However, for the small time difference, WinRAR leaves you with a significantly smaller archived file at the end of the process. What’s more, the application allows you to save files into both .ZIP and .RAR formats, with bunches of options for speeding up compression times and reducing file sizes.

Although many newcomers might be put off by the sheer range of features and settings within WinRAR, the interface doesn’t take long to get accustomed to. If you’re still really stuck there’s a simple wizard-based system that walks you through the process of extracting or compressing. All this adds up to make WinRAR a dependable utility that performs better than any other tool in its class.

Boasting more compression options, higher compression rates and smaller file sizes than WinZip, WinRAR is now the undisputed market leader in file compression.

Download WinRAR 4.20 in Softonic

This tool recovers passwords and removes file protection from plain and self-extracting archives created with all versions of PKZip, WinZip, RAR, WinRAR and other compatible products in their GUI and command-line incarnations.

Advanced Archive Password Recovery Professional for Windows recovers passwords with different methods. It uses bits of information from the user and a brute-force attack method.

Advanced Archive Password Recovery Professional for Windows has an intuitive user interface that allows you to specify a variety of masks and attacks and a highly optimized low-level code to ensure quick and easy password recovery.

This product can be used by anyone who would like to recover lost or forgotten passwords for browsing or modifying files from ZIP, RAR, ACE and ARJ archives.

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BitZipper is an advanced data compression tool for Windows that enables you to unzip 18 different compression and encoding formats with superior ease-of-use.

With BitZipper you can:

• Unzip almost any compressed file (18 formats)
• Protect data with strong AES 256-bit encryption
• Create 8 different types of compressed files
• Browse archives in Windows Explorer style
• Extract and test multiple archives at once
• Backup data using reusable backup configurations
• Get help from an easy-to-use Wizard interface
• Work with WinZip 9.0, WinRAR and WinACE files
• Get free lifetime updates

Download BitZipper 5.1 in Softonic