File Compression Programs

The most popular file compression formats are ZIP and RAR. The best file compression programs for these formats are WinZip, WinRAR and 7-Zip. However, you should be aware as to how to compress a file, before you start using these programs.

WinRAR

WinRAR; one of the best compression tools, is a 32-bit program and is excellent for multimedia compression, because it chooses the best file compression methods. WinRAR lets you change directories through the 'Folder Tree Panel'. The RAR format compresses files by 8 to 15 percent better than the ZIP format. RAR extractors are also easily available for free downloads. WinRAR has virus scanning built-in. However, the decompression speed is slower than the ZIP format. WinRAR also decompresses files from TAR, ACE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, and ZIP formats. WinRAR has Unicode support for international characters in file names, and also supports long file names. WinRAR repairs corrupted RAR files. WinRAR supports archive locking, to prevent modification of archive, so others cannot change the content or the comment in the compressed files. WinRAR allows creation of self-extracting files, which end with the EXE extension, so that the end-user doesn't need decompression software to extract the files. WinRAR has an option to encrypt files using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), to ensure the security and privacy of files. WinRAR provides a way to wipe or delete temporary files. WinRAR has a feature for authenticity verification, which adds information about the creator to the archive. WinRAR can search for text in archives.

WinZip

WinZip offers the Wizard interface for new users, and the Classic interface for experienced users. It allows for lossless compression of JPEG images. JPEG itself is used to compress images in BMP format, and WinZip compresses it further by 20 to 25 percent without any loss in quality. The WinZip Camera Wizard automatically compresses pictures, video and audio from your digital camera into a ZIP file. The model of the camera should be supported by WinZip, and all you have to do is connect the camera to the computer. WinZip also deletes all the files that were zipped from the camera. WinZip has a Smart View feature that shows the thumbnails of the images in a ZIP file, without extracting them. Smart View shows the directory tree of folders and sub-folders in Windows Explorer style. WinZip offers an image viewer to see slide shows, rotate, resize or delete photos without extracting them. You can rename files and folders in a ZIP file without extracting them. Winzip allows security features like setting a password for the zipped files. System administrators can pick the minimum length of the password (which is usually 8) and the types of characters that the password contain (which can be upper case, lower case, numeric, and symbol characters). WinZip supports 128-bit and 256-bit AES encryption and decryption. WinZip supports Internet file formats such as 7Z, RAR, BZ2, TAR, Z, GZ, TAZ and TGZ by being able to extract files in these formats, but cannot create them.

7-Zip

7-Zip can both create and extract files in 7Z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR formats. It can extract but cannot zip or compress files in ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z formats. 7Z format is 40 percent better than the ZIP format. However, compression needs more processing power than ZIP format. 7Z supports solid archives, which are much smaller in size, but is not good enough, if you want to update or access the individual files often. 7Z also offers self-extracting archives, which includes a stub that extracts the file without needing 7-Zip. 7-Zip has four compression levels: Fast, Normal (default), Maximum, and Ultra. 7-Zip also has a command-line version called p7zip for Unix and Linux operating systems. 7-Zip allows testing of an archive after creating it, to check the integrity of the archive and ensure it is not damaged.

Now that you know the file compression programs, you can use them more efficiently to compress music, images and videos. You can also use them to compress email attachments and backup data.