Considered to be the third most widely used and best reputed file compression software, PeaZip is actually at the very top of the open-source/free file compression software list. This tool can read and extract nearly all existing archive file formats and create new compressed files both in its own format (PEA) and in some of the most common ones, ZIP and 7Z included.
Why PeaZip appears below WinZip and WinRAR on the above-mentioned list is simply beyond me. Those two not only ask for a license fee to unleash their full potential, but they also lack the functionality that PeaZip offers you for free. They are all secure, efficient, and reliable, but, amazingly, some users still prefer to pay for roughly the same functions they could enjoy free of charge. If curious, you can take a look at some of the benchmark tests available, and you’ll find that PeaZip can compress and decompress a ZIP file faster than WinZip itself...
PeaZip has been around since 2006, and it is considered by experts to be the file compression tool with the best file support rate. It is, by far, the program that can read and open more archive formats – over 150, a figure that no paid or free competitor can beat. It can also create ZIP, 7Z, ARC, TAR, and WIM archives (among others), and offers you its own high-quality compression algorithm and format, PEA, with AES256 EAX authenticated encryption. All the most highly rated encryption standards are supported for 7Z, ZIP, ARC, and PEA files, and even for RAR if it happens to be installed on your system. And the great thing is that being an open-source development, PeaZip improves its numbers on every iteration, especially regarding processing speeds and RAM usage.
What I love about PeaZip is that on top of performing as the high-end compression tool that it is, it comes with a plethora of other utilities. And I’m not referring just to PeaUtils, useful as this set of tools is, but to its archive converter, its password manager, its secure random password creator, its archive analyzer, its duplicate file finder, its file splitter and joiner, etc. The list is too long to reproduce here, so – being a free tool – I’ll leave the rest for you to discover.
PeaZip is, undoubtedly, everything you need to open and create archive files with the best compression algorithms and the highest level of security. And if that is not enough to make you download and install it on your desktop, think of the wealth of other utilities and features that come with it at no cost whatsoever.
v5.8 [Oct 5, 2015]
Release 5.8.1 can now handle (browse, extract, create) archives with UTF-8 filenames, single and multiple file renaming was improved, and 7z backend was updated to 15.09 (on Windows), adding support to virtual machines' disk image formats VMWare's VMDK (single and multi-volume), Oracle VirtualBox's VDI, QUEMU's QCOW2, and for ext2, ext3, ext4 formatted IMG disk images.
"Free Software compliance" directive can now be set in configuration (Options > Advanced) or hardcoded at compile time, in order to ease the enforcement of policies regarding Free Software usage for system administrators and software distributors.
A total of 188 file extensions can now be managed by PeaZip.
BACKEND
(Windows) Updated to 7z 15.09
FILE MANAGER
Improved file rename
- added option to mass-rename adding timestamp
- easy rename clicking already selected item
- rename dialog shows quick editing options: lowercase, uppercase, add timestamp
Various aspect improvements
- more elements follows the system color scheme
- improved aspect of Address and Search bar
- added reset search button in Search Bar
EXTRACTION and ARCHIVING
Improved UTF-8 support in Windows
- can now correctly browse 7z-backend supported archives with UTF-8 characters in path/file name
- can now drag and drop (from filesystem and from archives) to target with UTF-8 characters in path name
- can now perform all delete operations (send to recycle bin, fast delete, zeroing, secure delete) on files/folders with UTF-8 characters in path/file name
- can now copy and move files with UTF-8 characters in path/file name
- cannot yet copy directories, or copy file over itself if UTF-8 characters are involved in the command
188 file extensions supported
Added support for EXT2, EXT3 and EXT4 filesystem image files (usually IMG extension), and multi-volume VMDK disk images.
Mall Creeps
