Free File Compression with 7-Zip

If you download files, then you know the importance of file compression. Using compression techniques, most files can be shrunk to more than half their size, transferred over the net, and then uncompressed on the other side. This archiving technique saves bandwidth, time, and hard drive space.

However, front-ends that handle popular file compression techniques such as ZIP and RAR have also included a price tag. Fortunately, the 7-Zip development team have created a free open-source software application that can handle these archive types and many other well known formats. It even includes it’s own archival format called 7z that touts a 30-50% improvement over the well-known ZIP format!

7-Zip is a Windows-based application that can be downloaded from its project page on SourceForge.net. After a quick installation, 7-Zip integrates with the Windows explorer to provide right-click integration with any selected file or folder. This makes it simple to add files to an archive or extract a file from an existing archive.

If you’re not sure how quickly your computer will compress files compared to others, 7-Zip also includes a performance benchmark that will provide a rating for your computer in millions of instructions per second (MIPS). Different file sizes can be automatically compressed and decompressed to determine the most optimal system for archiving.

Try 7-Zip, and you may leave the other commercial archive systems behind!