This is one of the most powerful compression and decompression tool files I ever used in the past, with a nice browsing feature to browse the file inside the archive.

But unfortunately this GAOTD is the STANDARD LIMITED version of the main program, which is better than nothing of course!! For this reason, as already occurred for similar offers given away in the past, I can neither review nor make any suggestion to the developer in order to further enhance his software, simply because this is NOT the full version of his flagship program.

BEST (and BETTER) FREE ALTERNATIVES

* HaoZip 3.0 (==> My Personal First Choice)
Amazing FREE archive manager and compression software with the highest compression speed on the market, when compared to other traditional compression utilities out there!

Key features:

- Full support 7Z/ZIP/TAR files compression and decompression, can create sub-volume compressed files, self-extracting files, also supports the encryption of the compressed file.
- Supports decompressing about 50 formats (RAR, ISO, UDF, ISZ, ACE, UUE, CAB, BZIP2, ARJ, JAR, LZH, RPM, Z, LZMA, NSIS, CHM, DMG, HFS, WIM, DEB, MSI, CPIO, XAR etc...), while supporting a variety of self-extracting file to decompress.
- Supports internal image viewer, so that you can directly watch a picture inside the compressed file without extracting image preview
- Supports custom skin, so as to customize your favorite software icons
- Supports multi-threading technology and multi-core CPU, in order to improve the speed of compression and decompression operations dramatically
- Supports virtual CD-ROM mounting and MD5 comparison function
- Supports a powerful dual-core Trojan horse checking engine with a superb ability to repair damaged zip file.

Overall I found it far better than similar shareware & award-winning programs out there like WINRAR, just to mention the most popular one!!
And in my view it puts this GAOTD in the dust (supports 50 formats vs 20 of this GAOTD). Why this terrific tool is FREE is a big mystery, but honestly who cares?? LOL!!!

http://www.haozip.com/Eng/index_en.htm

Screenshots:
http://www.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/HaoZip-Screenshot-186779.html

* (Portable) Bandizip 2.07
Superb lightweight and very fast Archiving Software, providing with 100% Unicode support. It supports ZIP, 7Z, RAR, ALZ, EGG, TAR, BH, LZH, GZ, BZ2, ISO, CAB, WIM, XZ, ARJ, and Z archives files, giving users the ability to create self-extracting .EXE files and multi-volume split archives files. Unlike many other file archiving and compression tools out there, it extracts compressed files to the targeted folder directly rather than to the temporary one, thus increasing the extraction speed dramatically.
Cool, isn't it?

http://www.bandicam.com/bandizip/

* ZipGenius (==> Softpedia Editor Pick)
Awesome FREE Zip compression program with an impressive array of advanced features missing in most similar products out there (and in this GAOTD too), such as the ability to send your archive files via e-mail by using your default mail client. With this tool users can backup their files, convert a compressed one into a multi-volume archive, add comments, insert date and time, as well as opt to decompress all the files, only the selected ones or even by a certain format. It can process password protected archives and it's also able to work with CD-R/RW drives. Supports more than 20 compressed archive types (ZIP, RAR, 7Z, EXE, TAR, CAB, ISO, NRG, XPI, LZH etc..)

http://www.zipgenius.com/

* Explzh
Very powerful user-friendly explorer-like Japanese file archiver, which can extract, compress, encrypt (AES), view, edit, delete, rename and create almost any kind of archive with ease.

http://www.ponsoftware.com/en/

Screenshots:
http://www.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/Explzh-Screenshot-217767.html

* KGB Archiver 2.0.0.2
This is a pretty unknown but terrific FREE compression tool with an unbelievable high compression rate: it can compress 1 GB file to 10 MB file ==> Simply amazing dudes!! The compression level can be set from minimal to maximum and obviously it takes much more time for maximum compression level. So it's a great solution to cut down your archives in size, but at the price of a long waiting time in case of very large files to be compressed. However, since it's FREE of charge, you have nothing to lose and all to gain!!

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Compression-tools/KGB-Archiver.shtml

* 7-Zip 9.20 (==> Softpedia Editor Pick)
Excellent Open Source file archiver with an impressive compression ratio and a powerful file manager to browse files stored in archives effectively. Supports RAR, ZIP, TAR, GZ, LZH, LZA, ARJ, ISO and of course 7z. Unlike other file compressors out there it comes with the checkum calculator and the Benchmark function, in order to verify the integrity of any downloaded package and test the performance of your PC.

http://www.7-zip.org/

* FreeArc
Very powerful Open Source compression archiver, with an efficient and fast compression rate and rich set of features. Supports 11 compression algorithms and filters (compared to 3 in 7-zip and 7 in RAR), as well as AES/Blowfish/Twofish/Serpent encryption with keyfiles and the ability to chain multiple ciphers.

http://freearc.org/

* B1 Free Archiver
Excellent free file archive manager software with a great compression ratio speed, which lets you work with your archives just like with regular folders. With this FREE app you can choose to split an archive when creating it or select the compression mode, according to your own preferences. So in the end it's more than just a simple tool for archiving files or extracting RAR, ZIP and 7Z packages. Version for ANDROID coming soon!!

http://b1.org/features.jsp

* ArcThemALL!
This is a handy multi-compressor of files and folders, which includes:
- an intelligent UPX compression mode
- the support to self-extracting archive creation and the encryption/decryption of archives
- the extraction of several archive formats (7Z, ARJ, BZIP2, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, GZIP, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, TAR, UDF, UPX, WIM, XAR, Z and ZIP)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/arcthemall

See also:
http://www.freewaregenius.com/2012/03/05/the-best-free-compression-zip-program-a-comparison

Giovanni's Final verdict: Oh Yeah, this is another pretty much darn SATURATED field, meaning there's no need to pay anything anymore especially if you deal with STANDARD & LIMITED version of the main programs offered here...get the drift dudes? LOL!

Enjoy!!

Giovanni  –  12 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+143)

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Hello everyone,

I would like to know which version this is because there's literally dozens of them on the web. I'm also wondering because I read that there's a few of them that are free (at least from v13.0 and up). Also the download size is almost twice the size, why is that?

The version number for ALL programs offered here should ALWAYS be added to the description. Just my opinion.

Have a nice day everyone and God Bless. :-)

Weezie  –  12 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+96)

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Tested in a virtual environment. > Look inside your registry, it's blowing it up. I told it not to register itself to filetypes BUT it did so you would have to work some time to have your system YOU would like to have it. I would say this is aggressive software and need to be passed.

ballyhoo  –  12 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+84)

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I expressly unchecked the automatic association of files with this program, also within the options in the program itself. Nevertheless, zip files are listed in explorer as associated with this program. This type of behavior should not happen, and it definitely undermines my trust in the product.

Eli  –  12 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+64)

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For a comparison of present-day's archivers in general, look here: http://www.raymond.cc/blog/best-archiver-even-better-than-7zip-and-uharc/

Corno  –  12 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+63)

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