Author Topic: Favorite ZIP/RAR application? (Read 106998 times)

zridling · « **on:** August 17, 2005, 12:03 AM »

For the fun of it, and out of curiosity, what is your favorite archiving/compression application? The following seem to be the most popular, among over 100 different ZIP/ACE/7z/RAR apps I could find:

(01) 7-Zip
(02) ALZip
(03) IZArc
(04) PKZip
(05) PowerArchiver
(06) PowerZip
(07) QuickZip
(08) TUGZip
(09) WinAce
(10) WinRAR
(11) WinRK
(12) WinZip
(13) ZipGenius
(14) ZipMagic Deluxe (aka StuffIt)

Yours may not be on the list, but also tell us why you like it; for example, archive speed; ease of use; deploys favorite format; free; or whatever.

jpfx · « **Reply #1 on:** August 17, 2005, 05:29 PM »

I have registered versions of winrar and powerarchiver. Powerarchiver is IMO a crock with little depth, good for a couple of files here and there and for supporting many algorithms but not for heavy duty work.
The best zip utility for me is command line: info-zip's zip and unzip http://www.info-zip....pub/infozip/Zip.html which I use with my fav windows file manager http://www.fileviewer.com/ for zipping using a custom menu item. View and unzip being built in (for rar too).

jpfx · « **Reply #2 on:** August 19, 2005, 05:18 PM »

Just tried to zip 70000+ 2-3kb text files with powerarchiver and got nowhere even on the mildest compression settings.
Dl'd winzip and after taking a breath, it jumped straight in and was done in no time.
I have to do a lot of this sort of thing and PA professes do be able to do 100,000s but can't, try a few thou' MAX.

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** August 19, 2005, 05:33 PM »

i also sometimes zip up or extract big cd sized directories.
once feature that would be nice (not sure if any have this), would be a "pause/unpause" feature.

zridling · « **Reply #4 on:** August 19, 2005, 06:38 PM »

WinRAR, WinAce, and 7-Zip all have pause buttons in their compression dialogs. Highly convenient when creating those DVD-sized archives.

skywalka · « **Reply #5 on:** August 23, 2005, 09:14 AM »

I used 2 use ZipMagic. It is by far the simplest 2 use because it integrated zips into the windows shell as folders. I totally forgot that it was running. The problem is that it doesn't run with XP.

http://www.allume.com/win/zipmagic/

Darwin · « **Reply #6 on:** August 23, 2005, 09:33 AM »

Allume has just re-released ZipMagic and it runs on XP. However, it is (AFAIK) simply a "re-badged" version of Stuff-It 9 i.e. they are both the same product. From what I gather, in future there will be no Stuff-It for Windows - there'll be Stuff-It for Macintosh and ZipMagic for Windows.

skywalka · « **Reply #7 on:** August 23, 2005, 09:45 AM »

So it displays zips as folders?

Did Stuff-It have this functionality?

Darwin · « **Reply #8 on:** August 23, 2005, 01:58 PM »

Hi Skywalka,

Good point... unfortunately, I can't answer that question. I've had Dopus installed for ages and set up as my default File Manager. It offers this feature (treating zip and some other archive files as regular folders) so I never even noted that feature in ZipMagic/Stuff-It 9, which I uninstalled a week or so ago. However, according to Allume one of the new features of Stuff-It, actually listed under a section called "ZipMagic", is that it will allow the user to treat zip files as folders.

One thing I should make clear, is that I was talking about what Allume is calling "ZipMagic Deluxe" (as opposed to ZipMagic 4), which you can view here: http://www.stuffit.com/win/zipmagic/. According to the website,

"ZipMagic Deluxe 9.0 and StuffIt Deluxe for Windows 9.0 have exactly the same features, so if you are currently using StuffIt Deluxe 9.0 you do not need to upgrade to ZipMagic. You already have the ZipFolders technology and the JPEG compression features that are available in ZipMagic. While Allume will continue selling products on Windows under the StuffIt brand, ZipMagic will become the new brand for Allume's compression products in retail. "

Mike

mouser · « **Reply #9 on:** August 23, 2005, 02:06 PM »

powerdesk and directory opus both also display zips as folders.
maybe all file explorers do this?

Darwin · « **Reply #10 on:** August 23, 2005, 03:07 PM »

Yeah, I've got both Directory Opus (Dopus) and Diskjockey File Viewer Deluxe installed and they both do this... It's such a useful feature, I'd be surprised if a file manager DIDN'T do this... Does Windows Explorer do this in XP, given XP's native support for zip? I have to ask because one of the first things I did when I got XP was to turn OFF the native zip support - seemed irrelevant with Dopus and PKZip installed.

Edvard · « **Reply #11 on:** August 24, 2005, 11:41 AM »

7-zip is what I use. Fast, small, efficient, can make sfx, 64-bit zips, doesn't include kitchen sink

Only creates 7z, tar and zip but can read most other formats. I'm not a zip "power user" so sfx options and such aren't really what I look for. 4.26 beta FINALLY supports right-click drag-n-drop. You should have SEEN the forum discussions about this one simple function that wasn't included because the Author claimed to never use it. Some guy even wrote a patch for ver. 4.13 to force right-click d-n-d. Arguments for it went from 'it's convenient' to 'every other zip app in the universe does it, so get with the program'. Arguments against it went from 'I don't use d-n-d' (author) to 'I'd rather have killer compression ratios and expanded compression formats support before I boo-hoo about drag-n-drop'.
Anyways, great zip app.

mouser · « **Reply #12 on:** August 24, 2005, 11:53 AM »

the idea of not supporting right-click drag-n-drop is insane.
it's probably the feature i use the most in an archive management program.

Edvard · « **Reply #13 on:** August 24, 2005, 05:14 PM »

Insane? Well, the author was many times accused of various degrees of incompetence. One guy even said he was 'retarded'. I would hardly associate in-depth knowledge of various data compression/decompression algorithms with mental disability. Igor (the author) is also very helpful in the forum if you really need help.
I agree that right click d-n-d is a very useful function, but the level of bile that it's lack inspired was truly alarming. (did that sentence just almost not make sense or what?)

mouser · « **Reply #14 on:** August 24, 2005, 05:57 PM »

i hear really good things about 7zip but it's definitely a feature i personally consider one of the most important.

zridling · « **Reply #15 on:** August 25, 2005, 12:28 AM »

Ah, so mouser's pulling the old "ease-of-use" card out of the deck. I reach for it a hundred times a day. Although 7-Zip is [too] slowly being developed and enhanced, I think its appeal is its sheer simplicity. It doesn't do much, so it's not intimidating and there's no learning curve. Zip. Unzip. Done.

That's my biggest gripe about freeware (and all shareware) is that there always 1-3 missing features that would make it suitable, but without them, users usually end up consistently frustrated.

imtrobin · « **Reply #16 on:** August 25, 2005, 01:50 AM »

i'm just wondering, is there an application to display rar files like a folder. I find rar compression much better than zip, and thinking of converting all my zips to rars.

zridling · « **Reply #17 on:** August 25, 2005, 09:02 AM »

Lots of Explorer replacements such as ExplorerPlus, PowerDesk, xplorer2, and tweaking programs like X-Setup Pro offer this feature. WinRAR also has a Flat Folders view (CTRL+H) that lets you toggle between a folder view of an archive and a detailed list of all an archive's files view.

imtrobin · « **Reply #18 on:** August 25, 2005, 11:38 AM »

Okay, I mis expressed myself. I'm looking for a program like how WinXP zip folders work. Explorer can open the zip file like a normal window. Is there one for rar files?

Edvard · « **Reply #19 on:** August 25, 2005, 01:02 PM »

i hear really good things about 7zip but it's definitely a feature i personally consider one of the most important.

*ahem*

4.26 beta FINALLY supports right-click drag-n-drop.

c'mon give it a shot...

Sentinel · « **Reply #20 on:** August 25, 2005, 04:21 PM »

I've been using RAR since forever, but 7-Zip has been getting so good since version 4.X I'm pretty certain that as soon as they add Reed-Solomon archive recovery and split archives I'm likely to switch completely.

As for the competition, ease of use is all well and good, but give me high compression any day of the week.

zridling · « **Reply #21 on:** August 30, 2005, 01:24 AM »

I'm curious. Has anyone heard any complaints about the 7z format? I've read several vague ones from a few programmers, but I can't nail them down on what exactly they dislike.

Sentinel · « **Reply #22 on:** August 30, 2005, 01:33 AM »

The only 7z issues I have heard is that it is relatively slow and memory intensive compared to other formats, though arguably these are more LZMA features rather than container issues.

I guess the fact that the 7-Zip app (and therefore the format) is still in beta and is relatively immature compared to the competition, with quite a few bugs still being fixed may also play a part.

vamp07 · « **Reply #23 on:** August 30, 2005, 11:02 PM »

For some programs this can be a real problem. I am thinking of installers that are looking for their zip files and are told by the OS that they are not there and instead those names it is looking for are folders. I remember I put zipmagic on a clients machine and he ended up going through hell trying to install soemthing. Never put it on another machine since.

powerdesk and directory opus both also display zips as folders.
maybe all file explorers do this?
-mouser (August 23, 2005, 02:06 PM)

pseudolus · « **Reply #24 on:** August 31, 2005, 09:45 AM »

i have been using servant salamander as my preferred file manger for several years now. it has