There's Always Room For Compression!

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/archive-zip-compression,2572.html' target='_blank'>http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews...ssion,2572.html</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"There are plenty of software options available for storing, compressing, and archiving data in different ways. These tools no longer simply reduce file size and merge your input files into a single, manageable archive. They also support automatic downsizing of images, virus-checking, content-checking to avoid unnecessary compression of files that already are compressed, splitting, encrypting, and more."</em></p><p>The importance of compression has flucuated over the years.&nbsp; Back in the days of dial-up access, compression was vital.&nbsp; Anything you downloaded usually came in the form of a zip, lzh or arc file.&nbsp; With ample storage and faster bandwidth, compression may not be quite as important, but it has become ubiquitous in the form of image and video codecs.&nbsp; Still, there are many uses for compression, such as encrypting files, collecting a group of files together and yes, even shrinking large files into more managable chunks.&nbsp; Tom's Hardware does a good comparison, and I think what should be of note is that there are viable free programs&nbsp; that can be used for your archiving needs.&nbsp; There has been more than a few times where I have helped people out who think that for any application, one has to buy it.&nbsp; For lots of applications, that is just not true.&nbsp; Personally, I favour 7-Zip.&nbsp; It is free, but I find it works quite well, and more importantly, it is really easy to use.&nbsp; What is your choice?</p>

[Andy Dixon]

7-zip is my choice of compression program too. As you say it is free, but it also handles a variety of different compression formats too, such as rar, zip, cab etc as well as encryption. It's one of my must have pieces of software.

[c1oudrs]

I like the portable app 'PeaZip Portable'. Its another free one available at Portableapps, (in fact 7zip is also offered as a portable app there). I prefer portable apps for the easy migration. I prefer the PeaZip over 7Zip because it seems a little more intuitive to me, though its a mild personal preference and I am not a power user.

So I download book and cover art from Baen Books Webscriptions (a no drm, fair use, scifi book company--not free--though they have a free library) , archive the cover art and text in zip format using pzip. Then I can read the ebook and view the cover art in ubook without ever unzipping again. I open up Ubook and the seperate cover art is shown along with the rtf file. (Ubook is also not free and the newest versions seem to be experimental but the 2009r1 version for Windows worked fine with the ebook 'antique' skin being the one to download for my preference.)

Anyway, I highly recommend either PeaZip or 7Zip in portable app format.

[Hooch Tan]

Anyway, I highly recommend either PeaZip or 7Zip in portable app format.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the Portable versions do not provide Windows Explorer integration? One of the reasons why I like 7-Zip so much is the right click options it provides. I find that WinRAR does provide a few more context menu options which are useful, but 7-Zip is good enough that the cost of WinRAR is greatly diminished.

[ptyork]

I like the portable app 'PeaZip Portable'.

I agree with Hooch that it would seem that using a portable app would greatly reduce the ability of the app to integrate.

However, I had not tried PeaZip (non-portable) before. I think I do like it better than 7-Zip. At least from a pure interface perspective...for the first five minutes of using it...

Anyway, thanks for opening my eyes to another alternative.

[Jason Dunn]

I guess I'm old-school, but I still like and use WinZip, buying the upgrade every few version. :)

[c1oudrs]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the Portable versions do not provide Windows Explorer integration? One of the reasons why I like 7-Zip so much is the right click options it provides. I find that WinRAR does provide a few more context menu options which are useful, but 7-Zip is good enough that the cost of WinRAR is greatly diminished.

Nope. You are correct, the downside to portable archiver versions is that they do not integrate, so you don't have the 'right click always-on option'.

On the other hand, I can take it with me in a portable usb format and use it on another computer. Or alternatively I can also copy/paste the portable systems to an external hard drive (or an internet hard drive solution like pogoplug). When it comes time to change computers I can just plug in the old hard drive to the new computer and have the app--instead of having to reload yet another program into the windows operating system. I suppose my prejudice for the hot-swappable/copy-pasteable /skirt the windows registry programs are pretty extreme.

[Hooch Tan]

When it comes time to change computers I can just plug in the old hard drive to the new computer and have the app--instead of having to reload yet another program into the windows operating system. I suppose my prejudice for the hot-swappable/copy-pasteable /skirt the windows registry programs are pretty extreme.

The appeal of portable programs is very tempting. I have not had an opportunity to try PeaZip, but like ptyork, I will gladly give it a shot. If anything, I am not opposed to having one for the portable toolkit and one for my workstation. :)