The Best Free Windows Zip Program

This is going to be a very short review because there is, in my opinion, one Windows zip program that really stands out from the crowd. That program is called 7-Zip.

What makes 7-Zip the best of the best?

Here are a few reasons why 7-Zip rocks...

• 7-Zip is very easy to install
  
• It's very simple to use whether you are a beginner or advanced techie dude like myself
  
• 7-Zip is totally free
• 7-Zip's compression ratio is incredible and far exceeds that of other zip programs such as WinZip, PKZip, etc.
  
• You can easily password-protect your compressed files
• It makes sense when you are using the application. It's not complicated at all to make it do what you want it to do
  

7-Zip can compress files into various formats. The 2 most common formats are the 7z archive format and the ZIP format. If you have a file that you want to compress, just Right-Click the file and you then choose the 7-Zip submenu and from there you can choose your compression choice. The 3 choices that you will have will be either 7z, zip or archive compression. The menu screenshot above shows what you would see if you chose the archive compression option. Notice the compression level is set at Normal. Instead of Normal, you can also choose a higher compression (such as Maximum or Ultra), although it will use more of your system resources and the decompression will be slower. I recommend using Normal compression for best overall performance.

Also on the above screenshot, you can see the Encryption box (on the right side) where you can enter a password to protect your compressed file. Another really cool feature is you can split your large files onto multiple CD's or DVD's. I like that feature when you have really big files that are beyond a single media's capacity.

7-Zip will also decompress tons of different file formats which include ISO, rar, cab and exe files.

I highly recommend 7-Zip and I have never found anything at all that I do not like about the program. Once you try out this program, you will wonder why you ever tried any other zip programs.

With all this in mind, 7-Zip easily gets the 5 of 5 stars award for the best Windows Zip program. 7-Zip can be downloaded at 7-Zip's website. Give it a try. It's the one I use. Also 7-Zip can be installed on computer running Windows 98 and above.

I would love to hear your feedback. Thank you!