7-Zip

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Version 24.09 Released 29th November 2024

I have used this free and Open Source file archiver for years, and still use it daily to backup my files to DropBox and USB flash drives. I also use it to archive my website so that my site’s visitors can download the entire site and browse it when offline.

Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available from the official download page where you can get the installer without any nonsense with malware or PUPs.

Bugs can be reported on the 7-Zip Discussion forum.

Changes in Version 24.09

• The default dictionary size values for LZMA/LZMA2 compression methods was increased
• 7-Zip now can calculate the following hash checksums: SHA-512, SHA-384, SHA3-256 and MD5.
•  APM and HFS support was improved.
• If an archive update operation uses a temporary archive folder and the archive is moved to the destination folder, 7-Zip shows the progress of moving the archive file, as this operation can take a long time if the archive is large.
• The bug was fixed: 7-Zip File Manager didn't propagate Zone.Identifier stream for extracted files from nested archives (if there is open archive inside another open archive).
• Some bugs were fixed.

Changes in Version 24.08

• Some optimizations for displaying file icons in 7-Zip File Manager and in "Confirm File Replace" window.
• Some bugs were fixed.

Changes in Version 24.07

• A bug was fixed: 7-Zip could crash for some incorrect ZSTD archives.

Changes in Version 24.06

• A bug was fixed: 7-Zip could not unpack some ZSTD archives.

Changes in Version 24.05

• New switch -myv={MMNN} to set decoder compatibility version for 7z archive creating.
  {MMNN} is 4-digit number that represents the version of 7-Zip without a dot.
  If -myv={MMNN} switch is specified, 7-Zip will only use compression methods that can be decoded by the specified version {MMNN} of 7-Zip and newer versions.
  If -myv={MMNN} switch is not specified, -myv=2300 is used, and 7-Zip will only
  use compression methods that can be decoded by 7-Zip 23.00 and newer versions.
• New switch -myfa={FilterID} to allow 7-Zip to use the specified filter method for 7z archive creating.
• New switch -myfd={FilterID} to disallow 7-Zip to use the specified filter method for 7z archive creating.
• Some bugs were fixed.

Changes in Version 24.04

• New menu item in 7-Zip File Manager: “Tools / Delete Temporary Files...”
  This menu item opens a window showing temporary folders and files created by 7-Zip in the user's “Temp” folder on a Windows system.
  In this window, the user can delete temporary files.

Changes in Version 24.03

• 7-Zip now can use new RISCV filter for compression to 7z and xz archives.
  RISCV filter can increase compression ratio for data containing executable files compiled for RISC-V architecture.
• The speed for LZMA and LZMA2 decompression in ARM64 version for Windows was increased by 20%-60%.
• 7-Zip GUI and 7-Zip File Manager can ask user permission to unpack RAR archives that require big amount of memory, if the dictionary size in RAR archive is larger than 4 GB.
• new switch -smemx{size}g : to set allowed memory usage limit for RAR archive unpacking.
  RAR archives can use dictionary up 64 GB. Default allowed limit for RAR unpacking is 4 GB.
• 7zg.exe (7-Zip GUI): -y switch disables user requests and messages.
• 7-Zip shows hash methods XXH64 and BLAKE2sp in context menu.
•  -slmu switch : to show timestamps as UTC instead of LOCAL TIME.
•  -slsl switch : in console 7-Zip for Windows : to show file paths with Linux path separator slash '/' instead of backslash separator ‘\’.
• 7-Zip supports .sha256 files that use backslash path separator '\'.
• Some bugs were fixed.

Changes in Version 24.01

• 7-Zip now can unpack ZSTD archives (.zst filename extension).
• 7-Zip now can unpack ZIP, SquashFS and RPM archives that use ZSTD compression method.
• 7-Zip now supports fast hash algorithm XXH64 that is used in ZSTD.
• 7-Zip now can unpack RAR archives (that use larger than 4 GB dictionary) created by new WinRAR 7.00.
• 7-Zip now can unpack DMG archives that use XZ (ULMO/LZMA) compression method.
• 7-Zip now can unpack NTFS images with cluster size larger than 64 KB.
• 7-Zip now can unpack MBR and GDP images with 4 KB sectors.
• Speed optimizations for archive unpacking: rar, cab, wim, zip, gz.
• Speed optimizations for hash caclulation: CRC-32, CRC-64, BLAKE2sp.
• The bug was fixed: 7-Zip for Linux could fail for multivolume creation in some cases.
• Some bugs were fixed.
• The page "Language" in 7-Zip's menu Tools/Options now shows information about selected translation, including the number of translated lines.
• Some bugs were fixed.

Main features of 7-Zip

• 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: AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, IHEX, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, QCOW2, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, UEFI, VDI, VHD, VMDK, 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
• Split archives for storing large files on FAT drives, or smaller chunks for uploading to cloud storage, sending by email, etc.
• Integration with Windows Shell
• Powerful File Manager
• Powerful command line version
• Plugin for FAR Manager
• Localizations for 87 languages
• 7-Zip works in Windows 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista / XP / 2016 / 2012 / 2008 / 2003 / 2000 / NT.

Compression

Even in these days of enormous hard drives, flash drives with capacities measured in Gigabytes, and widely available high-speed broadband, file size is still a significant issue for uploading large files to web sites, and for those who pay for bandwidth or have slow connections, files sizes for downloading are also very significant.

7-Zip will compress most file types to its *.7z format better than standard Zip. Just how much better depends a great deal on the files being compressed. On the 7-Zip Home page, the program’s author, Igor Pavlov states:

“Compression ratio results are very dependent upon the data used for the tests. Usually, 7-Zip compresses to 7z format 30-70% better than to Zip format. And 7-Zip compresses to Zip format 2-10% better than most other Zip compatible programs.”

The file types that I need to compress are:

1. PagePlus and WebPlus files. 7z format is typically about 93% of 7-Zip’s Zip format.
2. Mixed file types including HTML and PDF. 7z format is typically about 85% of 7-Zip’s Zip format.
3. OpenType font files. 7z format is typically about 52% of 7-Zip’s Zip format.
4. Mostly HTML with some small images. 7z format is typically about 33% of 7-Zip’s Zip format. For plain text and HTML using the PPMd compression method yields better results than the default LZMA2 method, which is generally best for other files types.
5. Image files. Compressing image files such as JPG rarely saves space. It is only a convenient way to group a large number of images in a single folder. However, there is one notable exception — where many of the images are duplicates, the 7z format may be significantly smaller than ZIP. If you need to backup large numbers of very similar JPG files such as CCTV images, you might find that 7z compression has significant benefits. I have not been able to test this.

Drag and Drop

Double-clicking on an archive will open it in the File Manager. This is a convenient way to view the contents of an archive, to delete files, to view them in a text editor or image viewer, or open them in their associated program. Archives downloaded from the Web can be opened in the file manager before deciding where to extract the contents.

Files can be dragged from Windows Explorer and dropped into the file manager to add them to an existing archive, or to update the archive with more recent files.

Files can be dragged out of the archive and dropped into any folder in Windows Explorer to extract them from the archive.

Archives can be protected with a password too, but be aware that archiving the same file again directly from the right-click menu will remove the password protection.

The column headings can be rearranged or hidden from view.

7-Zip Options

The Tools menu of the file manager offers options for configuring the file types to associate with it, and a checklist of items to include on the Windows Explorer shell menu.

A text editor such as Notepad2 or Notepad++ can be assigned to edit files such as HTML instead of opening them in their associated application.

Any of 93 languages can be selected for the interface including Thai, Sinhala, Tamil, Vietnamese or Welsh, as well as the more usual choices.

Up to 10 folders can be added to your favourites with quick access keys Alt 0-9.

Shell Menu

When 7-Zip is installed, a submenu is added to the Windows Explorer shell menu, Right-clicking on a folder or on selected files will offer options for compressing them to an archive. Right-clicking on an archive will offer options for extracting the contents. This is the way that I usually work to compress folders or files to new archives.

It’s also a convenient way to inspect Serif files such as *.ppp or *.wpp files, which are just zip archives with a different extension.

There’s no need to change the file extension — just select the file, right-click, and from the 7-zip submenu of the context menu, select “Open Archive.”

This will open the file in the 7-Zip file manager, displaying its contents of folders, XML files, and images. Right-click again on an XML file to edit it on Notepad or your favourite text editor. Double-click a Preview.png to edit it in your favourite image editor. Save the edits, close the 7-Zip file manager and update the archive to save the changes to the Serif Application file.

Don’t mess up though, or you might not be able to open the file in its application.

The same method can be used to examine and extract the executable files that are used to install Serif programs. Extract the contents to any convenient folder and run Setup.exe from there to speed up installation and repair since the archive has already been extracted. Just running the *.exe file would first extract the contents to a temporary folder, then run setup.exe, then delete the temporary folder. Installing from a DVD it is even slower than running the *.exe file from the hard drive.

Conclusions

The 64-bit installer is just 1.54 Mbytes, and the 32-bit installer is just 1.26 Mbytes. Download and install it now to start saving time and bandwidth. The size of the download may be saved at once with the first set of files compressed using 7-Zip instead of the standard Zip format.

Many forums, including Serif CommunityPlus support the 7z format for file attachments. Use 7-Zip to compress large files and keep them below forum upload limits or use it to upload any file types that are not supported.

Serif application files are already compressed and won’t compress much more, but other file types like *.eps may compress to 5% or even smaller with 7-Zip. This large file compressed to a little over 4% using LZMA2 compression.

Page last updated on 25 December 2024