Whether you back up files, store them (online) or send them as attachments: you prefer to keep them as compact as possible. Compressing (reducing) files can be done using compression tools. In this article, we'll help you get started with the best free compression tools and, among other things, take a closer look at how the popular software 7-Zip works.
Later in this article, we'll introduce you to some decent, free compression tools, but let's first take a look at what Windows itself has to offer. That is not impressive, but perhaps sufficient for those who sporadically compress a few data files. Here's how to get started.
Open the Explorer, select the desired files and/or folders, right click on your data selection and choose Copy to, Compressed (zipped) folder. The result is a zip file with the name of the file or folder you clicked. Extracting the zip archive is no more difficult than double clicking on it, at the top Unpacking to select, Unpack everything and specify the destination folder. The advantage of this approach is that you do not have to start an external tool and that almost every recipient knows how to use such a universal zip file.
The downside is that you don't have any further options – which some users will no doubt consider a convenience.
Best compression software
You may now be wondering what useful options a compression and archiving tool can offer you. For example, setting the optimal compression rate, choosing a particular compression algorithm and format, password-locking an archive file, automatically splitting an archive from a certain maximum size, and creating a self-extracting archive that the receiver can extract without a decompression tool. Such options are quite useful for those who frequently want to compress or archive files.
If that sounds like something to you, then you should look for alternative tools. Popular, reliable and free tools that (also) work within Windows include: Bandizip (also for MacOS), PeaZip (also for Linux) and 7-Zip (also for Linux).
If the speed of packing is of great importance, Bandizip is certainly worth considering. If you are mainly concerned with compactness, then you are usually well off with 7-Zip. Let's take a closer look at this last tool.
Download and install 7-Zip
Start by downloading the program. Depending on your Windows version (check this via Windows key+Pause and look at System type) is that the 32bit version (x86 processor) or the 64bit variant (x64 processor). With a single mouse click, the tool is ready for you and you will find 7-Zip File Manager in the program list.
Through Tools, Options, Language, Dutch you can display the interface in Dutch. It's even easier if you integrate 7-Zip into the context menu of the Explorer: you can do that via Extra options where on the 7-Zip tab you put a check on Integrate 7-Zip into the context menu.
Put it to the test right away: open the Explorer, select one or more files and right-click on that selection. The option 7-Zip appears with a number of possible actions, including Add to .zip and Add to .7z. This will create a compressed file, in zip and 7z format respectively. The latter usually results in more compact archives, but packing takes a little longer and the intended recipient must also be able to handle it.
Extracting an archive file with 7-Zip is no more difficult than selecting it in File Explorer and the context menu 7-Zip, Extract (here), or Extract to if you want to enter the destination path yourself.
Optimization
choose you Add to archive, then a settings window will appear in which you can set various parameters for the compression yourself, such as the Archive format (7z, tar, zip, …) and the Compression Level (Fastest, Normal, Ultra, …).
Other useful options are for example Create SFX archive (only available if you choose 7z): 7-Zip will then create a self-extracting exe archive file. With both 7z and Zip you can also enter a password with which you lock the archive file. With all sizes is also the option Split into volumes available, where you specify the maximum size of each subfile yourself.
There are a number of other institutions, by the way, including Compression method and Dictionary size, but they are already quite specialized and we will therefore not consider them further here. You are of course free to experiment with it yourself!
