Looking for Compression Program

I am in the market for a compression program and I am wondering what my choices are as well as the pros and cons of the different programs available.

As it stands right now, I am only aware of WinZip and WinRar and would appreciate any and all comments on these two as well as possibly some other suggestions.

Basically I need the program to be able to send virus samples in password protected form to others as my ISP has just started scanning incoming and outgoing email.

My main criterion are ease of use, compatibility with users of other compression utilities and the ability to password protect the contents of the archive.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

WinRAR >> All.

It uses the highly regarded and compatible .rar format, which offers great ratios & performance. It will also fit your needs as it uses AES 128 encryption for .rar password protected archives (also an option to encrypt all file attributes inside the archive to completely stealth it). Has a simple GUI.

It's seriously that good, and comes with a lifetime license..

 

Good question, I will download WinZIP in a few and test this. I imagine most would decrypt them with the passphrase, as most provide some sort of encryption themselves.

WinRAR also provides SFX support, so you can create self-extracting archives, which I know for a fact supports the encryption/decryption

 

Apparently WinZIP doesn't have support for modern archives, only older archives such as .zip .gz and .cabs. So no, that program would not work. WinAce, which has .rar support, did decrypt/extract just fine though.

 

Thanks very much for the reply....reply.

I appreciate all the info you provided and I also appreciate you taking the time to download and test WinZIP to see if it would open the password protected archive created by WinRAR.

I would just like to get clarification on one issue. If I create a .rar archive and I need to send it to someone who has WinZIP for example, I can create a self-extracting archive that is password protected? Is my understanding correct?

Thanks again and thank you also to LowWaterMark for posing that question.

 

Yes, the self-extracting .exe will work on all versions of Windows (except 16bit Windows 3.1, hehe), and it will also let you encypt it with AES 128. It will ask for the password upon execution.

If you can't send an .exe by email, WinRAR also creates generic .zip archives, which WinZIP will obviously support, and you can stick the .exe inside of that. The .zip format does have password protection, but it is an old weak proprietary thing.

I recommend downloading the demo so you can try it first (www.rarlab.com). The only thing crippled in the demo is the authenticity feature which next to no one ever uses.

WinRAR also decrypts (only) other archives such as .zip, .ace, .gz, .tar, .cab, .iso, .arj, .lzh, .jar, .bz2, .uue.

 

Awesome. It looks like for my purposes, WinRAR is the way to go.

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my questions. Much appreciated.

 

Some alternatives to look at

Powerachiver
Ultimatezip
IZarc
7zip
Zipgenius
Filzip

All of which are superior to winzip and handle more compression types


About the rar format, I believe only winrar can create such archives. Altough, many (those in the above list) can decompress (but not create) rar files.

 

Thank you very much JayK for posting some alternative suggestions for me to consider.

I have tried WinRAR and I must say, it is very easy to use. It allows for the creation of both .rar and .zip archives and decompresses many, many different file types.

I will look into the programs you have listed and I very much appreciate you taking the time to post and offer me these other choices.

 

I just found this site that defines the best compression program based on what is being compressed. It has some cool un zippers.
The main site:
http://www.maximumcompression.com/

The comparison page:
http://www.maximumcompression.com/programs.php


More on compression:
http://www.directory.net/Computers/Software/Data_Compression/

http://compression.ca/

http://datacompression.info/



That should keep you busy!

 

Well, that certainly was an understatement.

I never realized there was so many compression utilities out there!

Thank you so much zappa for posting some excellent links, filled with useful information. Given all the info, I should be able to make up my mind just in time to buy one of them for my Christmas present.

Thanks again!

 

I want to add my vote for Winrar. I have been using it for years, and it always keeps up with the competition, and in most cases leads it. I do believe it has the ability to decompress more compression types than any other program, with the possible exception of Winace, but I haven't seen any recent versions of that program.
Winzip used to be the king, but it slipped.

 

I myself, use UltimateZip, Its free, only problem I have with it, is the sponsor message, but not a real big deal, it does unzip .rar but will not create them, however, it does create: .Zip .Cab .Jar .Tar .Lha and .bh - I have never gotten a Zip file I could not open with it ...

 

i use alzip from estsoft.. it can handle more archive types than winzip and winrar combined:rar, tar, tgz, uue, war, xxe, z, zip, zoo, 001. enc,
gz, ha, hqx, ice, jar, lha, lzh, mim, pak, ace, alz,
arc, arj, b64, bh, bhx, bz2, cab, ear
and it's free full version.
http://www.alzip.com/

try this before you buy anything

 

Thanks very much root for giving me some more valuable feedback on WinRAR.

In my trials so far, it is by a long shot my favourite. I find it both easy to use and highly "flexible" in that it decompresses so many different file types and creates both .rar and .zip archives.

I will have a look at the free programs mentioned by Comp01 and illukka but as I am so comfortable with WinRAR, I think it's fairly safe to say this is the program I will ultimately end up choosing.

I would like to extend my thanks and appreciation to everyone who has participated in this thread. You have all provided me with lots of suggestions as well as some good solid information surrounding compression itself. Much appreciated.

 

WinRAR tutorial link

Hi,

Thanks to the posters at DSLR-software-forum (link here)

Here is a nice Tutorial for WinRAR:

http://users.pandora.be/soulmaniacs/winrar.html

 

Hey Root

About Winace:

I see in the Helpfile of WinRAR:
"Additionally to complete support of RAR and ZIP WinRAR provides basic operations for CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, ACE, UUE, BZ2, JAR and ISO (CD image) files created by other tools: view contents, extract files, show comments and archive information".

Now I have to admit that I'm a bit confused ~grin~ :
Is Winace the same as ACE?

Cheers from your friend, Jan.

 

Re:WinRAR tutorial link

Thank you FanJ for posting this link, I found it very helpful.

I have decided to go with WinRAR as I feel very comfortable using it and it meets all of my needs.

Thanks very much to all who posted, enabling me to decide on the program that is right for me.

 

Hi Jan. I believe originally zip, rar and ace started out as DOS only programs. They were renamed to WinZip, WinRar, and Winace when they became 16 bit programs that ran on Windows.
I will say my memory is a little fuzzy on whether there was a rar for DOS, but I believe in its original form, it too was DOS only.

Winzip, I think was the first to be ran from Windows, thus in the early days it was by far the leader.

WinRar is a winner and one of the few programs worth every penny you pay for it. Of course, that could all change next week, but I doubt it.

 

Hi Root

Thanks for your info !!

I myself had already WinZip, but needed WinRAR recently.
After installing the trial version I too decided to go for that one too and bought it.