The 7-Zip Theme Manager can then be used to change the interface of the program itself as well as the icons in Windows Explorer. Each 7-Zip theme comes with a preview image of how the interface would look like if it would be applied to 7-Zip. Between 30-40 different themes are available ranging from graphically stunning themes like Vista Inspirat to playful themes like Star Wars or Futurama.

A click on the Activate Theme button will activate that theme. It is important that 7-Zip is closed during the procedure to avoid complications. 7-Zip will automatically use the activated theme from then on. More than 10 different filetype icons are available as well in the theme manager that can replace the original 7-Zip icons in Windows Explorer. The name of the theme or icon, the creator, license and website are listed below the theme preview window.

7-Zip Default:

7-Zip Vista Inspirat Theme:

The default 7-Zip theme and icons can be activated in the 7-Zip Theme Manager as well to undo the changes. The theme manager contains one additional button that will look for a new 7-Zip and theme version on the Internet.

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Of course you can do the same thing, quickly, from the command line. But, for many, the choice between a user-friendly GUI tool and the command line is a no-brainer.

With File Roller you can both create archives and unpack archives. File Roller deals with the following types:

• .tar
• .tar.gz
• .tar.bz2
• .tar.lzma
• .jar
• .ar
• .cbz
• .zip

File Roller also does automatic archive typing, so when you are opening an archive you do not have to declare the type.

Running File Roller

File Roller Main Window

From the GNOME main menu you will find File Roller in the Accessories sub-menu of the Applications menu. When File Roller opens you will be presented with a fairly blank window.

From the main window you can either open an archive for unpacking or create a new archive. When you create a new archive what you are doing is first creating a folder that will contain all of the files, and then File Rollers packs everything up for you automatically.

Let’s create an archive for example’s sake.

Creating An Archive

The first thing to do is click the New Button. When you do this a File dialog will open where you will name your archive. This window can be deceiving because it looks like it wants you to select a file. That is not the case. What you want to do is enter the name of your new Archive in the Name text field. Once you have done that select the type of archive you want to create. After you have taken care of those two options, click the Create button.

At first glance you might think nothing happened. Look again at the title bar of the File Roller window and you will notice the file name of your new archive (see the image to the right).

TEST.tar.gz

Now it’s time to add files and/or folders to your archive. To add a file(s) click the Add Files button. To add multiple files at once click and hold the Ctrl key as you select files. Once you are satisfied with the files you have added click the Add button. What you will see now is the main File Roller window with your files included.

Your Archive Is Ready

You don’t have to save your archive. Once the files are added, the archive is ready. You can check your home directory and you will find it waiting for you.

Don’t think, however, the only thing you can now do is unpack your archive. With this archive open you can add more files or directories. simply go through the process again to add more.

Extracting an Archive

Extracting an archive is very simple. Open a new session of File Roller, click the Open button, select the archive you want to extract, and click the Open button. Once the archive is open you will see the entire contents of the archive. That doesn’t mean the archive is unpacked. In order to unpack the archive you have to hit the Extract button. Once you do that you will have to select a location to extract the contents to. This is a nice feature because, without this step, you could easily fill your ~/ directory with the contents of the archive.

Final Thoughts

I have always been a fan of the command line, because I was weened on Linux with the command line. But for those who do not have the time or inclination to learn the command line, tools like File Roller are ideal for accomplishing every day tasks like unpacking archives.

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Pismo File Mount Audit Package can mount zip files but also iso, compact iso, compact file set and private folder files as virtual folders on the system. That’s an excellent way to access and execute the contents of a zip file without having to unpack it first.

The software supports a wide range of Windows operating systems including Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista both in 32-bit and 64-bit editions.

It integrates itself nicely in the Windows Explorer right-click menu and becomes available only on supported file extensions. Files can be mounted from all available locations including network devices and removable media.

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It still looks like a normal 42 Kilobyte archive after the download but the surprise begins when the user tries to unpack that file. What they did was basically pack a 4.3 Gigabyte file consisting only of zeros. That packed file was replicated 16 times and packed again, and again, and again, and again. Or, to use their own words:

The file contains 16 zipped files, which again contains 16 zipped files, which again contains 16 zipped files, which again contains 16 zipped, which again contains 16 zipped files, which contain 1 file, with the size of 4.3GB.

You could basically unpack the 42 Kilobyte file into 4.5 Petabyte of uncompressed data if your hard drive storage space would be enough to do that.

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Extract Now was mentioned in the comments. I did write about it earlier actually but forgot completely that it would have that feature. As the name suggests its main purpose is to extract archives and since I do not pack files regularly I decided to make this my main application to handle archives. Extract Now supports many major file types such as zip, rar, 7z, iso and img, all in all 17 file types are supported.

Two ways are provided to communicate with the program. The main interface supports drag and drop which is probably one of the coolest features in an archiver that I have seen for a long time. Just drop a folder into the interface and Extract Now will scan it plus all subfolders for supported file types. The files will then be added and can be extracted automatically.

Several options can be configured that customize the output like retaining the archive folder structure or to extract archives into their own name folder.

Extract Now can also be added to the right-click context menu to extract files this way. This comes in handy if you want to extract just one file and not multiple ones. I have to admit that I’m so impressed by Extract Now that I made the switch from IZarc to it.

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Copying a large zip file, in this case a 11-Gigabyte one, caused the Windows Vista explorer to freeze. “It seems that Windows Vista file explorer (by default) attempts to recurse into any zip archives in a direct subdirectory, allowing users to view the contents of the zip file directly in the sidebar.”

This means that even though you are using another software to unzip files Windows Vista uses the build in zip support to access that file as well which does not make sense at all. It would make sense if you would be using the build in zip functionality of Windows Vista but not if you use a third-party application like Winzip.

The solution was posted as well. The internal zip file support of Windows Vista had to be disabled. This can be easily done with a software like ShellExView from Nirsoft.

The screenshot below shows which items have to be disabled to get rid of the large zip file problem in Windows Vista.

If you actually experience this problem right now you might want to kill the explorer process and load it afterwards again. This can be done by pressing Windows R and typing in explorer.exe.

Read More:

Prevent Explorer from Freezing With Large Zip Files on Vista
Shellex View

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What I really like about IZArc is that it opens really quickly and seems to unpack files at least as fast as WinRar. I did not benchmark anything here so this is just my opinion. IZArc offers all the usual features that archive programs offer these days such as shell integration, drag and drop support, self-extracting archives and multi-volume archives.

IZArc can also be downloaded as a mobile version called IZArc2Go and a command line add-on for the main program that supports batch processing is also available at the official website. I don’t think the users that already use 7-zip will make the switch because of their program offering basically the same features.

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Auto Zip Attachments does exactly what the name applies. It adds an AutoZip button to Thunderbird which adds all attachments to an compressed archive, removes the files from the list of attachments and adds the compressed file instead to it. The AutoZip icon will be visible in every compose mail window in Thunderbird. You may override the default behavior of the extension and customize it to suit your needs.

Instead of compressing all attachments into one file you may choose to compress them in separate files or group files of the same type in the same zipped files. It is possible to activate the option to zip files automatically when sending and to prevent that certain file types get zipped at all.

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