There's a reason WinRAR won the best archive tool roundup at DonationCoder. In contrast, WinRAR is full-featured, powerful, and integrates seamlessly with the shell.

I particularly dislike the limited 'compressed folder wizard' I get by default in XP and Vista. Sure, ZIP support is built into most operating systems, but the support is rudimentary at best. WinRAR has become increasingly essential to my toolkit over the last year, so this month, I'm buying a WinRAR license. The countless number of options, as well as its versatility and ease, make it a must-have for any user.When I wrote Today is 'Support Your Favorite Small Software Vendor Day', I made a commitment to spend at least $20 per month supporting my fellow independent software developers. Winrar is probably the best compression tool out there. Finally, you can also protect files using Rijndael (AES-128) encryption system, digital signature or protect it against modifications. Plus, Winrar offers a very good compression ratio (above the average), which means that the files you compress will be smaller than compressing them using other programs. Then, choose whether to unpack it or run the files without having to unpack it previously. Just double-click the icon and the content of the file will appear on the screen.

Regardless of the compressed file's format, you can unpack more than 40 different formats, including CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, ACE, UUE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, RAR, Zip or 7Z. You can also add a password or a comment. The program integrates itself perfectly in the right-button menu, so you can easily create RAR and ZIP files. Winrar is a free app that lets you compress and unpack any file in a very easy, quick and efficient way.

Win rar zip file