So for now, it seems that WinZip still has a role. The other observation I made is that using 7zip to create a zip file is slower and produces a zip file that is much larger than what WinZip creates (at least using whatever settings I used). And since it is free, it's easy for anyone to download and use, and doesn't have any trialware nag windows to deal with. However, I have noticed that a lot more people are now e-mailing RAR files out (and Microsoft is distributing VHDs in RAR format) without any problems or confusion, so maybe 7zip won't be such a leap for people. The one obvious drawback to the 7z file format used by 7zip is that it isn't as well known or universally supported as the zip file format. I haven't yet tried unzipping my 7z files to ensure that they don't have any errors, but I'll gladly spend some time testing it if it will save me 10-15% space on my backup and archive disks. I'm now a 7zip convert when it comes to compressing large files. Both took roughly two hours, so I didn't compare their actual times, but given the improved compression, I'd gladly use 7zip even if it took a few minutes longer. WinRAR brought the file down to 10.4 gigabytes, while 7zip shrunk it to 8.9 gigabytes. Impressed, I then tried a 29.2 gigabyte VHD file. Not only was 7zip faster, but it's native 7z compression was better than WinRAR.ħzip shrunk the file down to 443MB in 9 minutes 23 seconds, while WinRAR got down to 485MB in 10 minutes 45 seconds. I had a 1.67 gigabyte Outlook PST backup file, so I decided to start with that. Since I like WinZip's convenience and speed, and I'm a big fan of WinRAR's compression performance, I was skeptical that this free tool could compare with both WinZip and WinRAR, but I decided to give it a try. Apparently most of my friends and colleagues had heard of it, and one has been using it for quite a while. Well, a few weeks ago I randomly stumbled across a reference to a free, open source compression software utility called 7zip. Between those two products, I thought I had the compression category pretty well covered. And I have used WinRAR for years for larger files, like SQL Server backups and VHD backups. I've used WinZip for eons for situations where I have to e-mail files to people (yes, I even paid for a license!). I like to think that I'm generally aware of new tools and technologies, but sometimes good technology slips by in areas where I'm not looking.
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