Below are my favorite picks for these kinds of programs.
7-Zip
Reliable AES-256 encryption.
For personal or commercial use.
Heavy on system resources.
One thing I love about 7-Zip is that it integrates with File Explorer.
This means I canvery quicklypull files out of an archive by just right-clicking it.
Something else I like is that it doesn’t attempt to install extra software or toolbars during setup.
However, one downside is that there isn’t a portable 7-Zip available from the developer.
UnzipLiteis a similar program that’s based on the 7-Zip project, so it looks and functions nearly identically.
PeaZip
Integrates with Windows Task Scheduler.
In addition to decompressing files, PeaZip can create new archives in several formats.
Unzip-Online
No installation necessary.
Compatible with all browsers and operating systems.
Unzip-Online is an online archive file decompressor.
Also, password-protected files can’t be extracted with Unzip-Online.
I had no problem extracting files from the dozens of archives I’ve uploaded to this site.
jZip
Intuitive interface.
Adds jZip.com links to new archives.
Tries to install adware on setup.
Password-protection is supported if you’re creating a new archive, with either ZipCrypto or 256-bit AES encryption.
Drag and drop archives into jZip or just right-click a supported format and choose to extract the contents.
It’s really that easy to unzip an archive with jZip.
CAM UnZip
Fast and lightweight.
No full-context menu integration.
CAM UnZip is a free compressor and file extractor that works with ZIP files.
It supports drag and drop to quickly open a ZIP file and can create password-protected archives.
This can greatly speed things up if you’ll be extracting lots of setup files.
Zipeg
Thumbnail previews of zipped images.
Moderate to high resource consumption.
This program doesn’t allow the creation of new archives, but it handles unzipping files just fine.
While this isn’t very common, it is helpful when you run into an archive like that.
RAR File Extractor
Simple to use.
No ads or pop-ups.
Only supports RAR files.
This is a free archive unzipper that (can you guess?)
will extract RAR files.
Just selectExtractto get the files.
Zipper
Online help document.
Fixes damaged and incomplete files.
Zipper is another free archive decompressor that can open and create ZIP files.
IZArc
Multilingual interface.
Extensive file format support.
No customizable compression configs.
The program is easy to use because it can be integrated with the right-click context menu in Windows.
you’re able to use this menu to quickly open or extract any of the supported unpacking formats.
Archives created with IZArc can be password-protected with 256-bit AES encryption or ZipCrypto.
A portable download called IZArc2Go is also available on the download page, plus acommand linetool.
ZipGenius
Full-context menu integration.
Another free archive extractor and compressor for Windows only is ZipGenius.
Several formats are supported for both creating and extracting archives.
Free Zip Wizard
Step-by-step compression configuration.
No longer supported by the developer.
Speed varies based on compression configs.
Free Zip Wizard is a clean and easy to use free file decompressor that supports ZIP files only.
TUGZip
Extracts files from disc images.
Creates self-extracting .exe files.
No context menu integration with Windows 7 and later.
Slow at extracting larger archives.
TUGZip is a free archive decompressor that integrates with Windows, making extracting archives much faster.
ALZip
Multilingual support.
Novel EGG format facilitates Unicode support.
Heavy use of system resources.
EGG compression is painfully slow.
ALZip is a free archive compressor and extractor for Windows and Mac.
It can extract files from 40 archive formats and create new archives in over five different formats.
After installing AlZip, you must enter this freeserial numberto use it: EVZC-GBBD-Q3V3-DAD3.
Filzip
Detailed help file.
Add hidden files to archives.
Doesn’t display elapsed and remaining time for extractions.
Limited file format support.
Filzip is an old program that hasn’t been updated in quite some time.
