Bye-bye WinZip & PKZIP, Hello 7-Zip
You’re sitting at your PC and find that you need to open or create a compressed ZIP file. You can download the FREE trial of WinZip to solve your problem. After you use WinZip until the end of the FREE trial period, WinZip wants you to pay for the software - a very reasonable request. If you don’t WinZip will keep reminding you that your trial version has expired over and over and over again - when you continue to use the software.
I’m all in favor of paying for software that I use. When software has a price, however, my first step is to look for open source or freeware alternatives in order to make sure that I’m not paying for something that is already available at no charge - without pirating fee-based software, that is.
In the case of WinZip, here’s a doubly whammy. First, a single user license will cost you $29.95. (The leading competitor’s product, PKZIP, costs, $29.00 for a single user license.) Second, that does not include the capability to create self-extracting compressed files - so the recipient of your compressed file will need to find a way to open it. The self-extractor capability costs an additional (yes, additional) $49.95.
The alternative? An open source file compression software - 7-Zip. It’s FREE. It supports multiple compression formats including ZIP files It claims to compress certain types of files better than WinZip. Best of all, 7-Zip enables you to create self-extracting archive files (what 7-Zip calls an SFX file) - so that the recipient will not need a compression software to uncompress (extract) the files. The recipient clicks on the EXE file and the compressed files contained in it uncompress on their own.
The compressed SFX files are executable (EXE) files. So, very few mail programs or even company email servers will let someone receive and open an EXE file. Either the file will be stripped off the email or the email will be rejected. The only ways that you can use these self-extracting files is if you’re (1) putting it on a CD, DVD, or USB memory stick or (2) uploading it to a file sharing server from where the other person will download the file.
(WARNING - Do not open EXE files unless you trust the person who gave it to you and you’ve checked it with a virus scan software.)
My quick comments on using 7-Zip… without having to read the instructions. (1) If you need to create a file in the ZIP format, make sure to select “Zip” with the “Archive Format” menu. (2) If you need to create a self-extracting compressed file, you have to select “7z” with the “Archive Format” menu and then check the box that says “Create SFX Archive.” (When a file is self-extracting, the file format doesn’t matter since the recipient does not need a program to uncompress it.)
In my next blog entry, I’ll explore a reliable, easy to use, and FREE (or inexpensive if you need a lot of storage or download capacity) hosted file storage application. This will work well with your newly downloaded 7-Zip software.
All is well.
