7-Zip

About this release

This is a very small download that ends up doing more work than almost anything else on a machine. It reads and writes its own high ratio format along with zip, tar, gzip, bzip2, xz and wim, and it opens close to everything else that has ever been used to package files, including installer images, disk images, firmware containers and formats whose original tools no longer run on a current system.

The compression ratio is the reason it displaced most of the alternatives. On mixed content it typically beats standard zip by a wide margin, and on text, source code and uncompressed data the difference can be enormous. Compression level, dictionary size, word size and thread count are all adjustable, so a slow archive that squeezes the last few percent out of a large folder is a matter of one dialogue.

It integrates without getting in the way. The shell menu handles extract here, extract to a named folder, add to archive and test, all without opening the main window. The file manager component browses inside an archive as though it were a folder, so a single file can be pulled out of a very large archive without extracting the whole thing.

Everything else is practical rather than decorative. Split archives across a size limit, self extracting archives for people without an archiver, strong encryption on archive contents and names, integrity testing, and a command line binary that behaves consistently enough to build scripts and scheduled jobs around.

What it does

Very high compression ratio

The native format regularly beats standard zip by a wide margin on mixed content.

Reads nearly every format

Archives, installer images, disk images and legacy containers all open, even where the original tool is long gone.

Shell integration

Extract, compress and test straight from the right click menu without opening the application.

Archive browsing

Step inside an archive like a folder and pull out a single file without extracting everything.

Split and self extracting archives

Break large archives across a size limit or produce one that unpacks with nothing installed.

Command line binary

A consistent command line tool for scripts, scheduled jobs and build pipelines.

Changed in this version

• Faster compression on processors with high core counts.
• Extraction speed improved on large solid archives.
• Additional container formats handled on extract.
• Better memory behaviour with very large dictionary sizes.
• Fixes for edge cases in archives produced by older tools.

System requirements

Install order

1. Run the installer and pick the 64 bit build unless the system is 32 bit.
2. Choose which formats it should associate with during setup.
3. Open the options panel once to enable the shell menu entries you want.
4. Set the default compression level if you regularly work with very large folders.

Worth knowing before you start

File details