If you are looking for an alternative to the windows xp build in unpacker you might want to take a look at 7-Zip. I was always looking for an unpacker besides the big two Winrar and Winzip who are both not free, after some researching I found 7-Zip which handles the most used file formats like zip and rar without problems.
7zip is an Open Source archiving software that handles all popular compression formats with bravura. It supports zip, rar, gz, its own format 7z as well as other popular formats on the unpacking side, and 7z as well as zip, gzip and a few other formats on the compression side of things.
The program integrates nicely into the computer. It is for instance possible to assign the file formats to 7-zip so that they are opened automatically with the application, or integrate commands into Windows Explorer’s context menu to create or unpack archives directly without opening the program interface first.
The integration is setup during program installation, and then accessible in the program options. Here it is possible to add or remove context menu entries or file associations.
The interface is minimalistic. The files of the current directory or archive are displayed in the program, along with the path to the file or folder, and controls at the top. Files can be dragged and dropped from the interface, to either add them to an archive or unpack them from an archive.
The controls are used to add or extract contents with the built-in file browser. There are also options to test archives, to delete files or copy and move them. It is alternatively possible to right-click and use the context menu to perform the operations.
The software supports keyboards to perform operations faster. It is for instance possible to create favorite folder shortcuts to open those folders directly in the 7-zip program, or perform actions like copying or extracting files with the help of these shortcuts.
7-zip is one of the best free packers for the Windows operating system. It is feature rich and compatible with all popular archiving formats.
Head over to 7-zip.org do download this excellent freeware.
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