I received an email from reader Christ T (CT) which had insightful things to say about a number of freeware titles written by Dirk Paehl. CT kindly allowed me to use his mini reviews as a posting.

He has a LOT of nice SMALL programs, notably:

• SimplyZip: 2.22 MB Multi-Archive Tool, with GREAT Encryption ability, spanning/multi-zip, supports Many, MANY Archive types, and it can even run Portably! It’s directory looks like “Universal Extractor”, but it can Create as well as Extract, and more – Very Nice! (screenshot above).
• DP MediaInfo: 0.54 MB, kind of like “GSpot”, only much more comprehensive, IMHO! [Note: for a full Freewaregenius review of the related MediaInfo, go here].
• IndexMaker: 187.28 KB (yes, ’KB’!) & CDtoHTML, 208.35 KB – Which create HTML from Files & Folders and from CD’s/DVD’s (respectively), very handy for cataloging.
• UPXG [UPX Graphical]: the reason I found his site, only 372.55 KB (with Docs & Uninstaller); It’s a Single-File GUI for UPX, but with the UPX 3.03 ’Engine’ BUILT-IN to the single 351 KB ’EXE’ file, Totally Stand-Alone or with optional Shell Integration, plus many other options – I still haven’t figured out how the heck he did it, UPX is 265 KB by itself! Maybe his brain thinks at Machine-Language Level? Beats “UPX Shell”, “UPX Front End”, or “UPX Tool+” – Scary Efficient!

I really like UPXG & SimplyZip particularly, and have been using them a lot lately, with no problems at all.  SimplyZip and Pismo File Mount are working beautifully together.

[Mr Paehl] has many more, not as many as Nir Sofer [NirSoft], but close, and because he speaks German, some documentation takes re-reading/interpretation, but TRULY worth a good look! This guy honestly compares to Nir Sofer or SysInternals software!”

It is also worth noting that Dirk Paehl is involved with the Amok group, who have their own site full of good freeware programs. (See my review of Amok DVD Shrinker; also noteworthy is Amok CD/DVD Burning - a portable full featured “Nero Replacement” type CD/DVD burner.

Go to Dirk Paehl’s Freeware page. Also go to the Amok freeware page.

Version tested: 1.0.0.36791

Jzip is based on the open source 7-Zip, which delivers the 2 most important features you would want out of a compression program (a) very high compression ratios, meaning that your compressed files created with this program will be as small or smaller in size than many comparable compression programs out there, and (b) excellent compression speed. (For comparisons of a number of archive programs see this great comparative review of zip utilities on Donationcoder).

The most consistent criticism of 7zip has always been its rudimentary interface, and Jzip offers the kind of user friendly interface for managing files/archives that 7-Zip’s interface lacks (and that is offered by many archive utilities); such as:

• Display folder trees on the left-pane, explorer-style.
• Create folders/subfolders and drag files into these from within the Jzip interface.
• Switch between icon, thumbnail, list and detail view, explorer style.
• File sorting. Also supports sorting by clicking on column headers in detail view.
• Wildcard select (e.g. select all .jpg files within an archive)
• The ability to view compressed files without having to extract them from the archive first.

Where jZip and 7Zip do not differ:

• Both will compress and extract archives in 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR formats and will extract RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS formats.
• Both will extract multiple archives into their respective folders through the context menu.  
• Drag and drop files to/from the interface available in both
• Right click context menu looks exactly the same. Altogether not a bad thing since it is very simple and functional, although I would have liked the ability to customize it.
• That wonderful simplicity. Part of the reason why 7Zip is so popular, apart from its performance, is its economical simplicity. I am glad to report that Jzip retains that feeling even when it enhances the user experience.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better):
For a program whose entire reason for being is to deliver a better interface, it makes sense for Jzip to offer the following:

• Skins
• The ability to customize the context menu.
• Provide zip icon alternatives. The one Jzip provides actually looks really cool, although I’m not too sure about its yellow-ochre color. Would have preferred more orange/red color myself (note: if you would like to change your deault zip icons or the icons for any file type, you can use Icon Phile).
• That wonderful simplicity. Part of the reason why 7Zip is so popular, apart from its performance, is its economical simplicity. I am glad to report that Jzip retains that feeling even when it enhances the user experience.

How to install Jzip: choose the CUSTOM INSTALL option and uncheck the Yahoo toolbar and other things that come bundled with Jzip. If you do not choose custom install it will install Yahoo toolbar and possibly some other browser plugins by default.

The verdict: You can say that this program is just 7Zip with a better interface, and that would be good enough for me. Fantastic!

Compatibility: WinAll; Mac and Linux versions coming soon.

Go to the program page to get the latest version (approx 2.22 megs).

Version tested: 3.4.0

TugZip is a poweful, full-featured 100% free compression/archiving program that supports all the major compression formats including ZIP, RAR, ACE and many others (see below).

TugZip is my definite choice for powerful, free compression program, for the following reasons:

• TugZip is a very powerful freeware compression tool rivaling 7-Zip in my experience.
• Allows you to extract multiple folders; each into its own folder or all in one folder.
• Can create self extracting archives (also includes a scripting tool for automated backups
• Allows drag and drop file compression/decompression.
• Supports all major compression formats; it can read AND write the following (7-ZIP, BZ2, CAB, LHA (LZH), SQX, TAR, TGZ, YZ1 and ZIP), and can read (only) the following: A, ACE, ARJ, CPIO, DEB, GCA, GZ, IMP, LIB, RAR, RPM, TBZ, and TAZ archives.
• The GUI looks pretty darn cool (this may seem like a minor point but to me it’s important).
• I really like the context (right click) menu commands, compared to way 7-Zip does it. There may be too many of these initially but I usually trim them for zip and rar support only (in options / configuration / system).
• Runs very fast and uses little resources (approx 10mb of memory used on runtime).
• Allows you to quickly browse compressed files in a nice explorer-like interface.
• Supports the Zip64 algorythm, which allows you to create archives up to 10 gigabytes in size (on NTFS partitions).
• Can repair corrupted ZIP archives.
• Can encrypt archives using 6 different algorythms (including Blowfish).

The following is a list of things that I could be changed to make this program even better:

• Upon first unstall it creates way too many context menu commands; thankfully this is easily changed in the program options as mentioned above.
• You will either really like or really disklike the TugZip default icons. I much prefer the alternative icon pack provided here, although for some reason they switch back to the original icons from time to time and I have to re-instate them.

I’ve tried numeous free compression programs including 7-Zip, IzArc, ZipGenius, QuickZip, ALzip and FilZip before finally settling on TugZip. If you are looking for a free WinRAR replacement that program will surely satisfy.

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the download page to download the latest version. The program home page.

I recently downloaded a 4GB DVD ISO saved under RAR format and split into multiple archives. I was using IZarc as my archiving software and was surprised when the extracting process failed. I assumed it was a bad archive and was going to delete the files and move on when on a whim I decided to install try 7-Zip. Sure enough, the extraction worked. Great, I thought, a makeshift test that I could use to test different free archivers (ZipGenius, Quickzip, IZarc, and Extractnow failed to extract the file, while TUGzip and 7-Zip were

successful).

Rating: 5 

Version tested:  4.42

7-Zip will compress and extract archives in 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR formats and will extract RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS formats. Although I dont use it (and am not planning to), the 7z (7zip) format is supposed to offer a higher compression ratio than either ZIP or RAR.

Cool things about 7-Zip: very simple interface, fast and powerful archiver, 2-10% better compression ratio for ZIP format (compared to Winzip and PKzip), many formats supported.

Not so cool: creates autoextract archives only for 7z format, no support for ACE format, could use more elegance/form factor, archive icon not very attractive (sounds silly but actually matters to me).

A free alternative to: Winzip, Winrar, PKzip, etc…

Go to download page for latest version.
The program home page. 7-Zip entry on Wikipedia.

Let’s say you want to keep the programs installed on you machine to the minimal possible number. You’re not interested in clogging your machine with all sorts of stuff that you do not need, and when it comes to compressing/archiving to zip you’re quite happy with the default windows support. Even the zipped folder icons look pretty cool straight off the bat on XP.

Rating: 4

Version tested: 4.29

The problem with this scenario, however, is that there is a proliferation of archive format on the net that you will come across and need to be able to extract, most notably the popular .rar format but also a handful of others.

Enter ExtractNow, a nifty little utility that supports the EXTRACTION (but not compression) of the most popular archive formats on the net. It also supports batch extractions so you do not have to do them one by one manually.
Here’s a feature list taken from the ExtractNow website:

• Supports ZIP, RAR, ISO, BIN, IMG, IMA, IMZ, 7Z, ACE, JAR, GZ, LZH, LHA, SIT archive formats
• Drag and drop files or folders from Windows Explorer to extract them
• Simple user interface and sleek design in a small package
• Recursively search through folders for archives (Just drag and drop them)
• Delete files or close program after extraction options
• Windows explorer file associations for all supported archive types
• Extract files into current directory, named folder, or favorite folder of choice
• System tray icon on Minimize and Always on top features Integrates with Windows Explorer via special context menu items

Download latest version here. The Developer’s ExtractNow Page.