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

If you have to decompress files regularly, especially image files, you may find Zipeg interesting. It's definitely one of the nicest image decompressors I've used in a while and best of all, there's no registration or payment required.

The key feature of this program is a cool preview function which allows you to see what you are going to decompress before you do it. This is great if you can't remember what's in a file or are suspicious about its contents. It supports a huge variety of archive formats including:
ZIP, RAR, ARJ, LHA/LZH, 7z, TAR, GZ, TGZ, BZIP2, CPIO, RPM, ISO, CHM, Z, CBR, CBZ, WAR and EAR.

You can extract/unzip items simply by dragging them and the interface is remarkably easy to use and good looking. It can process archives in the background whilst you work, sorts content of folders by name, size or date and automatically checks for the latest updates.

This is one of the best image compression utilities out there although the thumbnails can take some time to appear when you select a file.

Download Zipeg 2.4.0.922 in Softonic

Many Windows users stay with the standard applications included in the operating system for their most common tasks, like managing files with the integrated File Explorer. However, there are alternative file managers that can also help you to do the job – and sometimes even better than Windows Explorer! Total Commander is one of them.

First of all, be warned that Total Commander is intended for medium to advanced users, and especially for those who like working mainly via keyboard shortcuts. It's not that Total Commander can't be used with your mouse; it's just that it's optimized to be keyboard-controlled.

Total Commander doesn't have what we could describe as an eye-catching design. In fact, it looks pretty dull. It does, however, support three possible views (Full, Brief and Tree) and also uses a double-pane interface, which seem to be quite a common characteristic among other alternative file managers.

This double pane allows you to perform file management tasks like moving and copying in a much more comfortable way. But Total Commander has other aces up its sleeve. It includes extra integrated applications like an FTP client, a ZIP viewer, a renaming tool, a disk space analyzer and a file synchronizer. Another great tool I found to be especially interesting is one that allows you to control, manage and edit file associations so they're not suddenly messed up by a program that you just installed.

Like we said before, Total Commander is intended to be used mainly with your keyboard. This is why it offers handy shortcuts for common tasks like viewing, editing, copying, moving or deleting files. But if you find it hard to abandon your mouse, don't worry: you can use the icons on the program's toolbar as shortcuts for Notepad, Wordpad and the Control Panel, and also add your own shortcuts to your favorite applications via the Configuration > Button bar menu. In fact, Total Commander has such an exhaustive configuration menu that you'll be able to tweak every single detail of the program.

In all, Total Commander is an excellent application that could almost be described as a professional file manager for the advanced user. If you prefer more simple apps then you’d better stick to Windows Explorer.

Download Total Commander 7.04a in Softonic

If you're bored of Windows Explorer or would like to experiment with something a little different, then NexusFile may be your answer.

NexusFile is a powerful and fast file manager that allows you to browse through the contents of your hard drive with great ease. The vast majority of its functions can be controlled by keyboard shortcuts, which makes it quicker and more convenient than other programs especially Explorer. The program also includes integrated utilities that let you go beyond just file browsing and exploring such as a file extractor for compressed files in ZIP, RAR and ACE and it also allows you to create ZIP files, rename multiple files and directories simultaneously, add a description to your personal files and directories, and much more. The program features a very intuitive interface also can be customized completely, using colour coding to better distinguish the various elements, changing fonts and so on.

This is a neat little alternative to Explorer although it takes some getting used to but if you invest the time, you might find yourself sticking with it.

Download NexusFile 5.02.3196 in Softonic

freeCommander is an easy-to-use alternative to the standard windows file manager. The program helps you with daily work in Windows. Here you can find all the necessary functions to manage your data stock.

You can take freeCommander anywhere - just copy the installation directory on a CD, USB-Stick or even a floppy disk - and you can even work with this program on a foreign computer.

This is what freeCommander has to offer:

• Dual-panel technology - horizontal and vertical
• Optional tree view for each panel
• Built in file viewer to view files in hex, binary, text or image format
• File viewer inside archives too
• Built in archive handling: ZIP (read, write), CAB (read, write), RAR (read)
• Nested archive handling
• Easy access to system folders, control panel, desktop and start menu
• Copy, move, delete, rename files and folders
• Wipe files
• Create and verify MD5 checksums
• File splitting
• File properties and context menu
• Calculation of folder size
• Folder comparison / synchronization
• Modification of file date and attributes
• Folder / program favorites
• File searching (inside archive too)
• File filters for display
• User defined columns for detailed view

Download freeCommander 2008.06a in Softonic

Some anti-virus programs cause more problems than they solve. Avast! Home Edition anti-virus is thankfully not one of those as it exceeds expectations while remaining free. Lightweight, vigilant and most importantly, effective, this could be the answer to your prayers if you’ve had no luck finding a virus checker you like.

The developers make a point of stressing that this program is strictly not for institutional use – it is designed specifically for the threats most home users face daily. Their philosophy is that efficient home virus protection is essential in preventing users one day being struck by a serious global virus. What impresses you immediately with Avast! is its vigilance. It’s likely that within minutes of installation, you’ll receive a pop up alert due to a Trojan or virus that had been incubating on your PC. If not, rest assured that it won’t be long before Avast! sets off its trademark siren and alerts you that something has been detected. The latest version of

Avast’s antivirus kernel promises 100% detection of ‘In-the-Wild’ viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and excellent detection of Trojan horses. Avast! provides 24 hour protection via its ‘On-Access’ scanner but you can initiate manual scans via the fairly simple user interface. You can start additional modules from here, such as the Virus Chest, Updater or Log Viewer. Another great feature of Avast! is the option to change the skin of this interface. The developer website features practically hundreds of distinctive designs made by aficionados and even offers a guide to designing your own.

Something often overlooked by major virus checking packages is P2P applications installed on your PC but Avast! covers this with a P2P and Instant Messenger shield. Whilst chat applications themselves do not impose any serious security risks in terms of viruses, their less sophisticated file sharing methods can easily lead to virus infections if not properly monitored. With so many infected files on P2P networks such as Kazaa and eMule too, it’s also good to know that Avast! won’t let you open them without quietly checking them first.

The program also features both a Web and Network shield that constantly monitors traffic. The Web Shield acts as a transparent HTTP proxy and is compatible with all major web browsers. One of the truly outstanding features of Avast! is that unlike heavyweights such as Kaspersky or Norton, you hardly notice it working in the background. This is because of a unique feature the developers call ‘Intelligent Stream Scan’ that scans objects on-the-fly, without needing to cache them locally. Even the virus updates are unobtrusive. Avast! downloads the updates gradually and only those that are absolutely essential instead of the whole database. You receive a ‘Virus database has been updated’ voice message every time this has been completed along with a small popup which you can turn off if it annoys you.

There really is little to fault Avast! on in a market that is saturated with too many ineffective virus checkers. Although it doesn’t guzzle resources, if you’re running it on an older machine, you might find it slows you down. Some new users also complain that conducting a simple manual scan is more complicated than it should be but if you’ve spent anytime with virus checkers, you’ll realise that its more than worth your while getting to know this excellent program.

Download Avast! Home 4.8.1229 in Softonic

If you have lots of photos, music, software and documents then it's probably a good idea to begin making backup copies, so that you have everything conveniently stored in CD or DVD. But how can you manage such a collection?

The answer is CD Archiver. This program helps you create an organized catalogue of all your recorded CD and DVD in a very easy way: insert a disc in the drive, choose or create the appropriate category and CD Archiver will read it and store its index of contents in the database. Be warned that, although almost fully automated, the whole process can take a while as the program is a bit slow indexing large discs.

Once you have your database, you can see a nice graphic that displays the distribution and percentages of file types but, what's more important, you'll be able to search for any file with the embedded search engine, without having to check discs one by one.

Download CD Archiver 5.3.3067 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

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 the app’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, the program performs well and now comes bundled with Google Toolbar and Google Desktop Search, and is also fully certified for Windows Vista.

Download WinZip 11.2 in Softonic

This is a powerful, easy to use utility for finding, extracting, creating and editing icons, cursors and managing icon libraries and image lists. Windows Cursor and Icon Editor With IconLover you can:

• Manage icons, static and animated cursors, icon and cursor libraries, image lists
• Create and edit smooth semi-transparent icons, static and animated cursors for Windows XP
• Create and edit icons in standard and custom sizes, with color depth up to 32-bit True Color
• Make stylish icons from your images
• Paint images with gradient and chess fill
• Create multi-layer images
• Modify images with drop shadow, opacity, smooth, negative, grayscale, colorize, rotate, roll and mirror effects
• Import and export ICO, BMP, JPEG, ANI, CUR, GIF, PNG, TGA, TIFF, WMF, WBMP, XPM, XBM and Adobe Photoshop PSD image formats
• Import Mac OS icons from ICNS and RSRC files
• Manage icon libraries for better and more efficient image storage
• Extract icons from Windows executables, libraries and animated cursor files, ZIP and RAR archives
• Download icons from the Internet
• Modify icons inside executables
• Search in folders for icons and cursors
• Convert or apply effects to multiple icons at once
• Customize desktop and folder icons

Download IconLover 4.22 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

JZip is a complete platform for handling compressed files. In addition to compressing and decompressing, it allows the user to choose how much space to save, preview files and protect them with a password.

Another function that has become critical in this type of program is the integration into Windows Explorer allowing navigate within compressed files. In short, this is a program that has the functions most commonly used in a compressor, without advanced options which sometimes only serve to recharge the interface and confuse users with less experience. The developers claim that it is jZip is built on proven and reliable 7-Zip technology. 7-Zip technology is basically very fast and achieves compression ratios that the developers claim are higher or equivalent to other leading compression programs. jZip is fully compatible with all your current Zip, RAR, 7z and many other formats so if you're looking for a change, this may well be it.

Fast, free and reliable, if you're sick of WinZip asking you for money or don't like WinRAR, this is a superb free solution.

Download jZip 1.2.0.41079 in Softonic

FileLocator Pro offers the most affordable way to exhaustively search your computer for all your important data. Unlike other search products FileLocator Pro does not consider any file too small or insignificant to examine. Find out why many Windows XP users are switching to FileLocator Pro today!

Main Features:

• ZIP, RAR, and CAB file searching
• PDF searching
• Basic Word Doc searching
• Active Scripting support for the ultimate in search customization
• LAN/WAN network drives searching (UNC support)
• Export search results in Text, CSV, HTML, or XML
• Surrounding lines of text option
• Regular Expression and Boolean Search support on Filename, Contents & Folder names
• Built-in file viewer
• Option to launch external editor at current line (including Visual Studio.NET)
• Drag and drop support
• Print preview

Download FileLocator Pro 4.0.787 in Softonic

WinAce is not just another archiving shell. With it's own powerful compression format ACE and built-in support for other popular compression types like ZIP, RAR and MS-CAB (to name a few), WinAce could actually become the only archiver you need.

The feature list of WinAce includes:

• Compression of the following formats: ACE, ZIP, LHA, MS-CAB, JAVA JAR
• Decompression of: ACE, ZIP, LHA, MS-CAB, RAR, ARC, ARJ, GZip, TAR, ZOO, JAR
• Multi-volume (disk spanning) archives for ACE, ZIP, CAB
• Self-extracting archives (SFX) for ACE and ZIP
• Password encryption & recovery records for data protection
• Integrity check for ACE, ZIP, LHA, MS-CAB, RAR, ARC, ARJ, GZip, TAR, ZOO, JAR
• Repair functionality for ACE and ZIP archives
• Authenticity verification for ACE archives
• Comment files in HTML, ANSI or ASCII for ACE- and ZIP-Archives
• Full command line access (compatible with DOS ACE)
• Detailed information for all archive types
• Quickviewer for graphic files, Word Documents, HTML pages and ASCII files
• Full drag&drop support
• Complete file-management (copying, moving and deleting of files and directories)
• Optimization of existing archives
• Access to your archives in Windows Explorer and via the context menu (shell extension)
• Table of contents in the "Properties" panel of ACE and ZIP files (shell extension)

Download WinAce 2.69 in Softonic

With CoView you can comfortably read your favorite digital comics on your computer. This tool has been designed with the comic as the most important element, removing anything else from the interface. This special design leaves a lot of room for the comic itself but it makes the program a bit hard to manage because there are no menus and everything is controlled with hotkeys.

The first key you need to know is F1, to open the menu, and then i, to change language. Unfortunately it seems that language settings are not saved and you'll have to switch to English every time you run the program

CoView allows you to read comics almost in any format: it supports special comic file types such as CBR and CBZ, but also images stored in archives or simply saved in folders. You can browse through them and read just like you turn the pages of a real comic. Plus, with the zoom tool you won't miss a single detail of the drawings, and the bookmark tool will enable you to continue your reading just where you left it.

Coview is a digital comic reader with support for many formats. It's a bit confusing at the beginning but turns out to be a great tool for all comic fans.

Download CoView 1.0.28 in Softonic

Whether you need to take a dozen screenshots everyday or you simply need to capture a single image from time to time, it's always a good idea to have a screen capturing tool installed like Fergo Screenshot on your computer.

Fergo Screenshot is a great choice for both compulsive and casual screen capturers, because it includes three different capturing methods (the most popular ones, namely full screen, active window and user-defined area) and has some interesting automatic functions, but at the same time, it's very easy to use.

You can assign a customized hotkey to each capturing mode or let the program take screenshots automatically every few seconds. Captures are also automatically renamed.

The program has some basic configuration options which include support for skins, although you'll have to restart it for the changed to be applied.

Fergo is an easy screen capturing app with all the tools you need for taking screenshots

Download Fergo Screenshot 1.2.34 Beta in Softonic

Stealing the crown from WinZip, the previously undisputed king of file compression apps, WinRAR is a must-have in any modern-day PC toolkit. The application not only includes support for extracting virtually any kind of file compression format, it also boasts a no-nonsense approach to reducing file sizes.

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

Although many newcomers might be put off by the sheer range of features and settings within the program, 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.

Download WinRAR 3.71 in Softonic

Ozum is a powerful newsreader/Usenet file downloader optimized for images, sound & video. Only it lets you preview and listen to individual parts of a multipart audio/video file before downloading and assembling the whole file. Includes a built-in viewer for images, programmable automatic news scanning robot and freeware autoposter.

Features of Ozum:

• Cross-group search and active binary groups directory
• Peek inside RAR files before downloading
• No need to download millions of article headers
• Programmable autoscan
• Extensive filters
• Easy and familiar drag-and-drop interface
• Double-click thumbnail sheets
• Unlimited number of projects
• Unlimited number of servers
• Unlimited number of subscribed newsgroups
• Unlimited number of articles in a group
• Designed and developed for work with multimedia posts
• Save your time, preview media files before downloading them
• One of very few really multithreaded newsreaders
• No need for .nzb files, Ozum finds file parts automatically
• Automatic decoding of yEnc encoded files supported
• Automatic processing of .rar, .par and MasterSplitter files
• Automatic decoding of binaries (images, audio, video, software files)
• Supported encoding formats: MIME base64, uuencode, xxencode, binhex, yEnc
• Automatic, with manual override, assembling of multipart binaries
• Automatic constructing and posting image indexes when posting image collections
• The number of parallel jobs is limited only by the number of connections that your servers allow

Download Ozum 4.12 in Softonic