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Latest news

12 Jun 2007: Version 4.5.7 of 7-Zip released with some speed optimisations and bug fixes

05 Aug 2006: Compressit v1.94 released featuring some bug fixing and minor improvements

Links:

• Compress It
• 7-Zip

Compression Utilities

Ever since the early days of computing when information was exchanged using large 5 ¼ inch floppy disks there has been a requirement to compress data files so that they occupy as small a space as possible.

Many text files and database actually contain a lot of space so the secret is to compress the file as small as possible without losing any information. Nowadays the need is more to decompress files being sent over the internet; in fact people are selling decompression software just to speed up the internet connection (I would take care about the claims being made). A good broadband connection is likely to save you far more in the long run. Nevertheless, anyone who uses a PC for any length of time will come up with a need for reliable and versatile compression software.

WinZip

In the early days of DOS, the market leader was PKZip and then when Windows took off it became Winzip. Of course Microsoft has now bundled decompression software as part of XP and I guess most people will be happy to leave it at that. However, certainly in the early days there were performance problems with this, so I de-installed the XP software and went back to Winzip. This was not totally suitable because after a few weeks I kept on getting the annoying front screen suggesting that I pay them some dollars.

Compress it

I knew there was very good decompression software written in Delphi (Borland object Pascal). So I had a look and from the numerous free applications I chose to download Compress It. I am currently using version 1.94 and would recommend this because it covers a very large range of file types, including zip, lzh, tar, gz, cab uue and more. It also has an encryption facility if you need more security. The only small drawback is the unimaginative screen design, but no doubt this will improve. Go for it! it's free, packed with features and very efficient. There are many others, so you could try a few of these, the only thing you can lose is time.

7-Zip

7-Zip is a file archiver that is now worth watching as it has a very high compression ratio making it attractive for archiving your own personal files.