Comments on: Your Favorite File Compression Tool on Windows http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/14/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/ I will not fix your computer. Tue, 04 Aug 2020 22:34:33 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.26 By: EdHoro http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/14/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-10229 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:35:40 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/05/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-10229

We just had this discussion today at the office. We built a new Windows Terminal Server for processing data through this proprietary piece of software dictated that we use it by our industry. The primary network Admin insisted we were stupid for paying for WinZip licenses until i asked him if he would field all the calls pertaining to how to zip/unzip and use encryption by just using the Zip feature built into Windows.

I suggested and pushed for 7zip. Me being the Programmer Analyst on this project it is being left up to me to make the final decisions on what compression software we install due to programming for automation tasks.

In the end, we were both overruled by the Natl Director for IT in that he didn’t want all the help desk calls asking where is WinZip. He also didn’t want to spend the time training the “users” who are supposed to be developers but obviously are not how to use 7Zip. He also cited the rather few client demands that we compress and encrypt their data using Winrar which used to be my favorite compression tool until I discovered 7Zip.

Long story short, we purchased 25 standard Winzip licenses, 2 Winzip Pro licenses, 2 Winrar licenses, and installed 7zip on everyone’s profile.

So besides fighting the battle of “WinZip being what everyone knows”, the benefit of 7zip, and the uniqueness of some of our clients that demand WinRar we spent roughly $700 on compression utilities for 26 users of a box that only runs a proprietary set of applications that are extremely disk I/O intensive and the files that get processed on this beast of a server will be decompressed before even reaching the server in the first place.

After all of that happened, the National Director of IT liked what I showed him about 7zip and the benefits of it despite slight speed hits. He issued new rules for our archive procedure across the company that all files being archived by the DVD +/-R or BluRay process be compressed in 7zip only using the “ultra” setting in 7zip for the .7z compression type.

My only regret was convincing him of this without thinking of my poor coworkers that answer the help desk tickets having to train people on how to use 7zip. Some of our users are supposedly very technical have nothing but trouble when it comes to change on a Windows machine. These are all people that have been in the industry for 15+ years and came from a Main Frame environment. And the fact that we just wasted all that money on the licenses for WinZip and Winrar when he choose the 7zip route for everything else after the meeting.

*** Sorry for the long comment post.

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By: ha3rvey http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/14/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-8244 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:14:04 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/05/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-8244

Izarc. it’s the only way to fly

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By: jon http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/14/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-8145 Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:24:25 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/05/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-8145

Its funny most people leaving comments on their favorite Windows compression tool are using Linux, but that’s off-topic ;)

Using Linux myself, there are an array of *free* tools out there, including Ark, Unrar, 7zip, etc. However, one of the *few* things I miss about Windows is Winrar. It does everything, and does it quick! Also, I think it had the most intuitive interface of any compression program (although in the Linux environment, most of time I simply use the terminal)… I think in comparison, Winzip is a bit slower, and compression isn’t as tight.

But looking to the future, we live in an increasingly open-source world, so I suggest checking out what else is out there. I just wish they made Winrar for Linux (Linrar?) :)

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By: Obed http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/14/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6267 Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:51:35 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/05/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6267

For years I was a WinZip slave until Izarc freed me. Once I discovered that there’s no need to go broke to afford the computer software that does the work i started discovering a whole new world out there. For office tasks I went from MS Office to Open Office. Then I went from Photoshop to Gimp for graphics. And latelly I’ve even been coming out of the shadows of Windows!!! Now I’m enjoying a new environment: Ubuntu Linux…and I heard that there are many other environmental “flavors” that I can try if the one I’m enjoying is not satisfying enough.

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By: jambarama http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/14/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6205 Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:01:50 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/05/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6205

I’ve been with 7z since before it supported rar, ace, and other formats. It does everything I need: multi archive support, command line parameters, and it has terrific compression options (break into sizes, depth of compression, mode of compression).

That said I’ve used IZarc (it was on the school computers for a time) and it reminded me of winrar. It doesn’t really do anything winrar doesn’t, so no reason to change if you’re on winrar already, but it is a pretty good non-nagware version of winrar.

I know a few Mac users that, when using Windows, are lost without Stuff-it. Kind of surprising given OSX can also read zip folders just fine without stuff-it, but for some reason S-IT is pretty Mac standard. Anyhow, from what I’ve seen it is another pretty good Windows compression program out there.

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By: Luke Maciak http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/14/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6203 Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:54:57 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/05/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6203

I remember using ARJ in addition to pkzip. Tons of games obtained via less than legal ways (ie. copied from a guy who copied it from the guy who had a modem and knew how to get on this awesome BBS) were packed with arj. :mrgreen:

Oh, and the self extracting packages are of limited use in office environment because Outlook will block them by default. So whatever convenience you gain by not requiring them to have a winzip installed used to be lost explaining how to un-block the files in Outlook.

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By: Starhawk http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/14/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6201 Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:37:58 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/05/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6201

Ditto on the open source stuff Luke!

“I grew-up on pkzip, so WinZip in natural for me.”

Yep you and me both Craig. Still a little nervous unless i have pkzip and unzip floating around somehwhere on my dos/win machines.

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By: Craig Betts http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/14/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6200 Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:09:40 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/05/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6200

I always liked WinZip. People are familiar with it so there is little support needed by me. I also like the self-extracting executable method. I still have Win2K users that need files occasionally. WinZip also does winders with all my *nix collections (.tgz, .tar, .gz, .bz2).

I grew-up on pkzip, so WinZip in natural for me.

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By: Ricardo http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/14/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6199 Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:55:03 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/05/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6199

WinRar has always been my choice. I used to use rar.exe command line tool during DOS and Windows 3.11 times and I just loved its compression rates, and features (plus the IU introduced for DOS later was great!)

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By: Fr3d http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/14/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6198 Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:50:47 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/09/05/your-favorite-file-compression-tool-on-windows/#comment-6198

For a business I’d recommend WinRAR, as (so far) I haven’t found anything it can’t open :)

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