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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- Backup files can be stored in standard Zip (Zip64 for archives greater than 4GB) format. - Strong encryption (AES 128, 192, 256 bit). - Also allows copying folders without compression (synchronization). - Supports inclusion and exclusion of files by wildcard mask as well as by exact file name. - Supports backup of in-use and open files. - Provides detailed logs of all backup operations. - Intuitive user interface for beginners and advanced options for experts. - Has its own scheduler supporting unattended auto-backup and scheduling of any specific time or date, day of the week or month.

- Plug-ins allow creation of archives in ANY other format (WinRar, ARJ, JAR, etc.) - e-mail notification for backup results, incremental backup, multiple backup file versions, an option to run the program as a network service.

Home and office users who needs backup folders and files to hard drive, flash drive or to FTP server.

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Project Backup Manager is the most smart, simple, light and small software with full features. Which need small amount resource (Processing, Memory and Hard disk).

Project Backup Manager is useful for users who construct projects using: MS Visual Studio, 3DMax, JBuilder, Flash, Photoshop..etc

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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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To decompress a file, you simply drag and drop them into RarZilla Free Unrar, double click on it or right click on "decompress" in the menu context shell. To speed-up the process, RarZilla Free Unrar has the option to define a default output folder or a default password or both. Remember that before you do any of this though, you need to specify an output directory or else you'll end-up searching high and low for your files. Simply go to the folder that contains the RarZilla.exe, use notepad to create a text file named "folder.txt" and put one line in it with the path your desired default output folder (e.g.: F:\Media)

The only annoying thing is that RarZilla Free Unrar's password prompt dialogue keeps popping up and usually you don't want to set a password. However, this can be deactivated by following instructions in the documentation.

RarZilla Free Unrar is a better looking alternative to WinRAR although doesn't offer any major advantages.

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Backups are increasingly important in an age of huge hard drives and large amounts of data that if lost, could be disastrous.

The best thing to do is automate backups so that you don't have to worry about them anymore. JaBack allows you to make automated backups of your important data, files and folders and save them immediately in ZIP format. The advantage of this is that you don't need any special software to unzip backups - you can simply use WinZip or WinRAR. Alternatively, the program supports the backing up of files to a remote location via FTP or options to Email it to your mail server. You can schedule backups so you don't need to worry about remembering to backup your more important data.

The danger of this however is that if the backup fails, you may not be made aware of the problem. Fortunately, the program e-mails you if this happens so you don't have to worry about bad or half done backups. You can change the date and time of filenames for archiving plus also copy files and directories using wildcards on schedule. This is useful if you need to specify a specific date for a backup that has to be performed on the same date or day every week or month.

JaBack is a fairly decent backup solution although there's no option to backup anything online and backing up can be a little slow to begin with. However, the fact that backups can be opened with a simple unarchiver make it very attractive for those looking for flexibility.

Scheduled backups and compressed output files that can be opened in any ZIP application make JaBack is a solid backup solution.

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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.

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Neither the download managers that come bundled with Firefox or IE are particularly impressive so it's a good idea to add a third party downloader or plugin, like Fresh Download.

Fresh Download claims it can "turbo charge" downloads to make them download in less than half the time they would normally. Fresh Download is a program that works with both FTP and HTTP protocols and gives you a whole range of control over how downloads are completed. Included is a pause and resume feature which is very useful for broken downloads or those downloads that suddenly and annoyingly time out. Fresh Download achieves such high speeds due to its ability to connect to multiple connections and it works across most major browsers. If you don't want to carry out downloads immediately, you can also schedule them on Fresh Download for a later date and it can even download links that you've copied to your clipboard or dragged into the main interface from your desktop. If you're downloading zip files, Fresh Download can also decompress them automatically with it's own Zip extractor although note that it's not particularly powerful or fast - you'd be better using WinZip or WinRAR.

Although you won't notice huge download speeds, you will notice an improvement and besides, this is a much easier way to manage downloads.

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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 has the essential basics like extract, add and test, as well as copy, move and delete functions 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. 7-Zip 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 as 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. Unfortunately, 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.

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.

Infinitely more flexible than its most famous rivals, 7-Zip is a great file compression tool.

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Unlike other compressors such as WinZip or WinRAR, Hamster Free ZIP Archiver features a very stylish interface that makes use of transparency and blurring effects, thus making you focus attention on certain areas.

Hamster Free ZIP Archiver is also very easy to use, with support for dragging and dropping files, and easy, colorful buttons for the program’s various options: compression level, archive splitting and password protection.

That said, the truth is that Hamster Free ZIP Archiver is a bit slow in comparison with other similar tools, and also quite limited as regards supported formats – it only works with ZIP and 7Z.

Hamster Free ZIP Archiver is an attractive – thought somewhat limited – file compressing tool that’s simple enough for everyone to use.

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Apart from anything else, the best thing about ZipItFree is that it is completely free - no annoying registrations or fees to pay. That said, the installation process is very aggressive, with ZipItFree offering you bunches of extra software and changing the way it is presented in the hope that you'll slip up and install it. The program is fully functional with Vista and Windows 7, although the interface isn’t quite up to speed with similarly modern programs.

The key point of ZipItFree, 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. This is so efficient, in fact, that ZipItFree is a serious rival to the giants of the file compression world, like WinZip and WinRAR.

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 one of the less utilized compression ratios that should mean it's less liable to attack.

Apart from the fact that ZipItFree handles multiple formats with ease, you can also leave comments on your archives describing what the archive contains so you don't have to go to the hassle of unzipping it all to look inside. If you can overlook the ugly packaging, ZipItFree is a file compressor to be reckoned with.

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

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It's pretty easy to fill up your computer with stuff nowadays. Even if you have a huge hard drive, there's still the risk of running out of space in short order. Good thing there are file compression programs like WinRAR Unplugged to help you make some room.

Much like other file compression programs like PeaZip and WinZip, WinRAR Unplugged's main goal is to give you more space on your computer. It does this by compressing files to make them smaller. Easy to use and navigate, WinRAR Unplugged's interface may not be much to write home about, but it gets the job done.

The program is also portable, meaning you can save it to a USB drive and take it with you on the go. You can compress files with WinRAR Unplugged virtually anywhere you go. In addition, the compression rate's second to none with this tool. You can also choose to make use of the non-portable but still highly popular version just called WinRAR.

WinRAR Unplugged is a great little file compression tool you can take with you anywhere you go.

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Backing up files is a tedious task. One-click BackUp for WinRAR solves this problem because it automatically backs up your files on a daily basis.

This software is capable of producing three kinds of back up formats that attend to different needs. The first RAR format is for recovery. It allows you to restore files, even physically damaged ones such as scratched discs.

The second format is a ZIP format for an easier access when you need ZIP files for compatibility. The third one is an EXE format to provide maximum compatibility because it does not need any external program to extract the files you archived.

Archived files can be stored on your hard drive, FTP server or burned to a disc. One-click BackUp for WinRAR has other features for personalization such as compression level, password protection, target location, recovery record and more.

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