Note: This article was originally written in October 2011 and is now over 13 years old. Despite that, I still use the latest version of 7-Zip nearly every day.

Another tool that I install straight away on new PCs is 7-Zip. I’m still amazed to see IT pros using unregistered (or dodgy) versions of WinRAR and WinZIP. 7-ZIP is better, faster, and free (open-source).

It can handle lots of formats, including ISO files, which I sometimes find handy.

7-Zip’s main features, as per their website. I’ve highlighted some of the formats that I regularly use 7-Zip with:

  • High compression ratio in 7z format with LZMA and LZMA2 compression
  • Supported formats:
    • Packing / unpacking: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP and WIM
    • Unpacking only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR and Z.
  • For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2-10% better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
  • Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats
  • Self-extracting capability for 7z format
  • Integration with Windows Shell

Where: https://7-zip.org/
Licence: GNU LGPL - https://7-zip.org/license.txt

Update 2024: 7-Zip continues to outperform commercial competitors in benchmark tests, maintaining better compression ratios while being significantly faster, especially when using multi-threading with the LZMA2 algorithm. Recent comparisons confirm that 7-Zip remains the best option for maximum compression efficiency.

Security Advisory: In 2024, a critical vulnerability (CVE-2024-11477) was discovered in 7-Zip that could allow remote code execution. Users should ensure they’re running version 24.07 or later, which patches this security issue. Since 7-Zip lacks an automatic update mechanism, manual updates are necessary to stay protected. Always download 7-Zip only from the official website (https://7-zip.org/) to avoid malware.

Outdated Information:

  • 7-Zip now officially supports Linux natively since version 21.01 (alpha)
  • The software has added support for additional archive formats since 2011
  • Modern versions offer improved multi-threading performance on newer processors