The Right File Compression Tool For The Job
File compression programs have two main purposes: The first is to reduce the size of files on a computer system and the second to organize files in a better manner. Compressed files can be easily organized and stored using various internal and external storage devices such as hard drives, zip drives or even DVDs and CDs.
The many file compression tools available are also not limited to just .zip files, many can unzip files such as .gar, .rar, gzip, outlook email files, raster images, PE files, NTFS files and folders, tar, 7-zip, pdf (Adobe files) and the like.
Most of these programs come with a graphical user interface which makes it easy to compress and uncompress. Advanced users can also use some of the tools from the Windows command line.
Another aspect of file compression tools is that many of them can also make .exe files from just about any zip file archive, so that they can be opened on another computer simply by running the archived .exe file itself.
Dozens of file compression software programs and tools are available on the market which cater to different audiences. There are some that are more popular than others. Here is a short rundown.
One of the most popular file compression applications is Winzip. It has grown since the late 80s to a market leader. One of the things that is keeping Winzip down is its shareware nature and the lack of support of additional file compression formats.
The Windows operating system has a built-in zip compression tool that can unzip zip files automatically. It is basically a very run down version of Winzip without many possibilities and functions that tools like Winzip offer.
These are some of the other types of file compression tools and software, for your information and usage, if you should desire.
I have limited my research to only the Free versions as well as those running on Windows XP only, due to the numeral amount of compression programs out there and the allotted amount of wordage I can use for this article.
A list that contains only four and five star rated programs includes the following file compression programs: PeaZip Portable 2.4.1 (5-star), Bzip2 1.0.2 (4-star), Zip Pro 1 (4-star), WinShrink 1 (5-star), HandyBits Zip&Go 5.5 (5-star), ALZip 6.7 (4-star), 7-zip version 4.65 (5-star), ZipGenius Standard Edition 6.0.3.1150, (5-star), Quick Zip 4.60.018 (5-star), ZipWiz 2005 5.0 (4-star), JustZIPit 135 (5-star) and FilZip 3.06 (4-star).
The file compression programs are widely available on the Internet. Not only are they offered at their developer’s websites but also at so called download portals that list software programs that can be freely downloaded there as well.
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