• Download archiver programs for Windows 10. Which archiver is better. Are there any disadvantages

    Almost all Windows 10 users are faced with the problem that they do not have enough hard drive space. In this case, you can download an archiver for Windows 10 and zip most of the files. This is especially necessary for those who use a tablet or laptop with an SDD, because classic HDDs allow you to store terabytes of information.

    Download archiver for Windows 10 - solving disk space problems

    There are different ways to solve problems with insufficient disk space:


    • Buy an additional hard drive;

    • Delete information from the disk;

    • Compress information and reduce file size;

    Each option has its own advantages, but compression of information and reduction in file size do not have any disadvantages. In the case of an additional disk, you will have to spend money. In the case of deleting information, which is the most drastic way, you will lose information. And only archivers for Windows 10 allow you to free up treasured megabytes on the HDD for free and without loss of information. In some cases we are talking about gigabytes of free space.

    Free archivers

    There are both paid archivers and archivers that you can download for free. We did not find any significant difference in paid and free products, although we personally tested most modern archiving programs. Therefore, in this section of our website you can download only free and proven archivers. All of them are suitable for both Windows 10 64 bit and the 32-bit version of the OS.

    WinRAR is a commercial application for working with popular types of compressed files, running on the following platforms:

    • Windows, starting with MS-DOS and ending with Windows 10 32 and 64 bit;
    • popular Linux and FreeBSD distributions;
    • MacOS;
    • mobile Android and Windows Phone.

    The free version has no restrictions except for regularly appearing offers to purchase a license and will work for 40 days. From us you can download WinRAR in Russian for any platform with a key that will remove all restrictions.
    However, please note that using an activation code is a violation of intellectual rights, for which you may be held accountable. Although who is responsible for piracy these days? Thousands of movies and games are leaked online, and no one pays for it.

    What is an archiver

    Since 1993, when the first console version of RAR and the UNRAR unpacker were released, the development team at RARLab has not stopped developing and improving the product. The application provides comprehensive support for working with archives: creating them, unpacking them, opening them, encrypting them, splitting them, etc. We will look at all these functions later.

    The archiver is designed primarily to save disk space. A compressed file, depending on the mass of variables, can take up either several times less space than the original one or several percent. And even they, you see, are sometimes very valuable, for example, when sending documents over the network.

    Functions

    VinRAR allows you to compress any single file, their list or directories while preserving their structure into one archive. The following functions are available:

    • settings profiles – you can use ready-made presets or add your own;
    • archive format (can only be packaged in ZIP, RAR and RAR5);
    • compression method – compression level (without compression, you can simply add several objects to one archive for ease of sending over the Internet or uploading to a file exchanger/cloud;

    • dictionary size – the larger, the faster compression and decompression occurs, but more RAM is required;
    • update mode – select what needs to be done with documents that have the same name if they are already placed in the current archive (relevant when making a backup);
    • other archiving options.

    In the future, you can work with compressed data as usual, but with longer delays (it takes time to unpack the file you are accessing).

    Advanced settings

    The developers took care of the ease of use of the program. So, for example, if you are compressing something for archival storage, the original files after compression may be deleted from the computer. If you want to get a self-extracting archive (you don't need WinRAR or another archiver installed to unpack it, all modules are integrated into the compressed file itself).

    Also, archives are divided into parts for shipment or storage on CDs and their integrity is checked after compression is completed. In order to increase security, the developers have added a function to check the contents of the archive before it is extracted.

    With the development of the network, the need for file exchange is constantly increasing, and the archiver is able to facilitate this task in three steps:

    • it allows you to reduce the amount of data sent by compressing it;
    • large files are divided into several small fragments, which can later be put together on any other computer where the cracked VinRar is installed;
    • will encrypt their contents, thus increasing security and privacy.

    Recovery Tools

    WinRAR contains a broken archive recovery wizard that works with zip and rar. It can unpack archives with defects resulting from transfer, compression or storage on damaged media.

    Encryption

    Let's look at how to put a password on an archive using the WinRAR program; you can find out how to do this using a faster and more powerful competitor.

    1. Open the application and select the data to be packaged with the left key.
    2. Click “Add” or select the same command from the context menu.

    If necessary, we set the remaining options, in particular the degree of compression.

    1. Click “Set password”.

    1. We enter the code and remember it, otherwise gaining access to the data will not be easy, and in the case of a complex password (it is recommended to use it), almost impossible.

    If you want to hide file names, check the box to encrypt document names so that no one knows what's inside.

    1. Click “OK” and wait.

    We managed to password protect the archive. When you try to open or unzip a document, you will be asked to enter a key.
    Advanced options allow you to effectively manage backups and backups.

    Unpacker

    The Russian version of the program supports compression only into three types of files (zip, rar and rar5), but it can unpack almost any common archive (including outdated formats like uha, tar, arj), application installer or image (iso, img).

    The search function inside archives (except for password-protected ones) will help you find a text document based on a fragment of text located in it, or a file by its exact name or mask.

    The converter will turn any supported type into one of the three above, advanced command line options are a truly powerful tool for working with compressed data for advanced users.

    Convenience

    The application interface is very outdated, but support for official and third-party skins (themes) will brighten up this drawback. Adding the necessary commands to the Explorer context menu, which speeds up calling the required dialog box and packing data on the PC.

    The function of WinRAR associations with certain file types will help you open them by double-clicking without first launching the program and going to the desired directory.

    The wizard will help any beginner update, create or decompress compressed data through simple clicks in dialog boxes.

    New compression algorithm

    A new format has been added to the latest version of the program - RAR5. Although it has the RAR extension, it is fundamentally different from the usual format and is incompatible with it (the previous one is now called RAR4).

    1. The new type of archives allows you to create files up to 8.6 * 10 9 GB in size.
    2. Comment support has been removed.
    3. Test and multimedia compression algorithms have been improved.
    4. New naming scheme for multi-volume archives.
    5. The dictionary size limit has been increased to 1024 MB.
    6. Using the advanced AES-256 algorithm, which has been used by competitors for a long time.
    7. BLAKE2 hashing technology is used to check integrity, replacing CRC32.
    8. The new version supports longer file paths (up to 2048 characters).

    After installing the operating system, users usually lack a program to extract files. Such programs are called file archivers. And often before the version of the Windows 10 operating system, users had to look for third-party programs to be able to unpack archives. A lot has changed in Windows 10, from the ability to use high-quality archivers from the app store to the archiver built into Explorer.

    In this article, we have selected the best archivers for Windows 10. All archivers that need to be downloaded from official sites will also work without problems for users of the Windows 7 operating system. And all applications installed from the store are suitable only for the Windows 10 operating system.

    Windows Explorer

    Not many people know that Microsoft has finally introduced support for Zip archives into Explorer. Which is very convenient when you need to open or create a regular Zip archive. Of the minuses, it is worth noting that only the Zip archive format is supported.

    To use the archiver built into Explorer, you just need to click the item in the context menu Open with > Explorer. To pack files into an archive, select the required files and click the button in the context menu Send > Compressed ZIP Folder.

    7-Zip

    • License: free
    • Official website: 7-zip.org
    • There is

    7-zip is an excellent program for working with archives. It can create and unzip not only familiar formats, but also its own 7z format. Therefore, if you need to open a 7z archive, then you cannot do without this archiver. 7-zip allows you to create archives by pre-compressing them. There are also many functions available to the user for working with archives.


    • License: trial period (40 days)
    • Official website: rarlab.com/download.htm
    • Portable version of the program: There is

    WinRAR is a powerful archive management program because it allows you to work with large archives. It supports all popular operating systems, from Windows to Android. WinRAR remains so popular because even after the trial period ends, it allows you to use all its features.

    Top archivers for Windows 10

    The previous archivers are definitely very good, but don’t forget about applications from the Windows 10 store. Because you can already find many high-quality and free analogue programs there. Here we have selected the best archivers from the Windows 10 app store. All applications on our list can be downloaded from the store absolutely free, which makes them really good competitors to the WinRAR archiver.


    Program WinZip Universal supports 26 different formats, including Zip, 7z, Rar. It is possible to open archives directly from Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and others. The only downside is the availability of English, but thanks to the intuitive user interface there will be no problems with navigation.


    Rar Zip Extractor Pro is more suitable for computers with touch screens because it has large interface buttons to control the program. There is support for all popular formats, and the ability to create and extract archives in formats such as 7z, ZIP, RAR, CAB, TAR, ISO and others. One of the disadvantages of the program is the presence of intrusive advertising, which compensates for the fact that it is completely free.

    9 Zip

    9 Zip is an excellent program for working with archives directly on your computer or tablet running Windows 10. The archiver supports all popular formats. It has a convenient journal with which you can open the latest files so as not to have to search for them in the system again. Like all free products, it has built-in advertising.

    Today, in the days of Windows 10, it’s hard to believe, but for another 15 years archivers were one of the most popular programs installed by users on their computers. Those were the days when 100GB of hard drive space was the ultimate dream, and the only available removable storage was a floppy disk with a capacity of only 1.44 MB. Such figures are quite capable of clarifying to the younger generation why archiving programs were used. With their help, PC users tried to save at least a little data storage space. It would seem that today, when even a 32 gigabyte flash drive can surprise few people, the time of archivers has finally passed. However, this is not entirely true. Of course, now these programs are not as popular as they once were, but they are still used.

    In fact, even an archiver for Windows 10 may be needed in many cases:

    • To unpack any program. There are fewer and fewer of them, but they exist.
    • To create one archive with documents and files when sending them by email.
    • To protect files from strangers. The fact is that this program allows you to set a password for the archive. Only the owner of this password will be able to access the data.
    • For some, saving space is still important. This is especially true when compressing a large number of text files.

    Of course, in times of large and affordable storage space, archivers have become less in demand, but they are still needed. Personally, I use such a program on my computer and, moreover, I install it one of the first. At the same time, it now seems ridiculous to me to pay for an archiver. Companies that sell their archivers, of course, continue to stay afloat. But now they are changing their priorities somewhat: no one will pay money just for creating archives in the era of Windows 10. Today, along with functionality for creating archives, they offer cleaning and optimizing computer performance, working with backups, protecting images with watermarks and much more. But we just need an archiver, right?))

    Perhaps the most famous in the world free archiver, fully compatible with Windows 10, is 7-Zip. This free file compression program has, in my opinion, a number of advantages:

    • Completely free.
    • It is open source.
    • Updated regularly.
    • Supports all the most famous archive formats.
    • Works quickly and without failures.
    • With all this, 7-Zip is very lightweight (only 1.31 MB - the same Win-Zip weighs 77 meters).

    Interestingly, the compression ratio of the ZIP format with 7-Zip is even 2-10% higher than that of the Win-Zip program itself. In some international ratings, this free archiver outperforms its most famous paid competitors in its main functionality (compression percentage). In general, it’s not without reason that, according to six-year-old data available in Wikipedia, 7-Zip has been downloaded approximately 110 million times from its official website. The only drawback of Seven-zip is the lack of support for the RAR format for compression. This cannot be considered critical, since the free 7-Zip program can still unpack RAR archives, and you can save it in the increasingly popular ZIP format.

    For me personally free archiver 7-Zip is the best option for Windows 10. Therefore, I recommend downloading and installing this program on your computers with its official website. 7-Zip has a version for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. If you don’t know which one to choose, I recommend reading my article “”. The most convenient way to create and unpack an archive in 7-Zip is by right-clicking on the desired object and selecting the appropriate item. For example, if you click on a folder or file and select “Create FILE NAME.zip”, then after a short time you will have an archive with the selected content. To ensure greater compatibility when creating an archive It's better to use ZIP format rather than 7z.

    For those for whom the 7-Zip program is not suitable for some reason, I can recommend two options: either download and install the well-known WinRAR, or install another completely free and open source archiver compatible with Windows 10. As for WinRAR, it is a paid program, its trial version can only be used for 40 days, but strangely, even after this period, this archiver continues to work, periodically complaining about the lack of a license. Read more about the program WinRAR I advise in Wikipedia. That's where I took link to the official website this archiver. If you are planning to download this program for your Windows 10, then download page select the file with the language localization you need (I assume Russian) and construction (32 or 64 bit). As for others besides 7-Zip, free and open source archivers for Windows 10, then I know of two more options: WinAce, IZArc. I haven’t worked with them myself, so I can’t say anything in more detail about these applications.

    Archivers, once created specifically for compressing files and saving hard disk space, are rarely used today for this purpose: more often - in order to compile a lot of data into one file (and post it on the Internet), unpack such a file downloaded from the Internet , or to . Well, also in order to hide the presence of viruses in the archived file from automatic scanning systems on the Internet.

    The 7-Zip archiver is a free open-source archiver in Russian and, probably, the only free program for working with archives that can be safely recommended (People often ask: what about WinRAR? The answer is: it’s not free).

    Almost any archive you find on the Internet, on old disks or anywhere else, you can extract into 7-Zip, including RAR and ZIP, the native 7z format, ISO and DMG images, ancient ARJs and much more (this is far from full list).

    In terms of formats available for creating archives, the list is shorter, but sufficient for most purposes: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, XZ, BZIP2, TAR, WIM. At the same time, for 7z and ZIP archives it is supported to set a password for an encrypted archive, and for 7z archives it is possible to create self-extracting archives.

    Working with 7-Zip, in my opinion, should not cause any difficulties even for a novice user: the program interface is similar to a regular file manager, and the archiver also integrates with Windows (i.e. you can add files to the archive or unpack it using Explorer context menu).

    You can download the 7-Zip archiver for free from the official website http://7-zip.org (supports almost all languages, including Russian, operating systems Windows 10 - XP, x86 and x64).

    WinRAR is the most popular archiver for Windows

    Despite the fact that WinRAR is a paid archiver, it is the most popular among Russian-speaking users (though I’m not sure that a significant percentage of them paid for it).

    WinRAR has a trial period of 40 days, after which it will begin to unobtrusively remind you at startup that it would be worth buying a license: but at the same time it remains operational. That is, if you do not have the task of archiving and unarchiving data on an industrial scale, and you resort to archivers occasionally, you may well not experience any inconvenience from using an unregistered version of WinRAR.

    What can we say about the archiver itself:

    • Just like the previous program, it supports most common archive formats for unpacking.
    • Allows you to encrypt the archive with a password, create a multi-volume and self-extracting archive.
    • It can add additional data to restore damaged archives in its own RAR format (and in general, it can work with archives that have lost their integrity), which can be useful if you use it for long-term data storage (see).
    • The compression quality in the RAR format is approximately the same as that of 7-Zip in the 7z format (different tests show the superiority of sometimes one, sometimes another archiver).

    In terms of ease of use, subjectively, it beats 7-Zip: the interface is simple and clear, in Russian, there is integration with the Windows Explorer context menu. To sum it up: WinRAR would be the best archiver for Windows if it were free. By the way, the version of WinRAR on Android, which can be downloaded from Google Play, is completely free.

    You can download the Russian version of WinRAR from the official website (in the “Localized WinRAR versions” section): http://rarlab.com/download.htm.

    Other archivers

    Of course, you can find many other archivers on the Internet - worthy and not so good. But, if you are an experienced user, you have probably already tried Bandizip with Hamster, and once upon a time you used WinZIP, and maybe PKZIP.

    And if you consider yourself a novice user (and this review is intended for them), I would recommend focusing on the two proposed options that combine excellent functionality and reputation.

    Once you start installing all the archivers from the TOP-10, TOP-20 and similar ratings, you will very quickly discover that in most of the programs presented there, almost every action will be accompanied by a reminder about purchasing a license or pro version, related products of the developer, or, What’s worse, along with the archiver, you run the risk of installing potentially unwanted software on your computer.

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