winrar Vs 7zip

[stevvie]

I use winrar for all my compression needs.
Now my question is, What is 7zip like for a COMPLETE solution at handling rar's, zip's,7zip's ?
I know that 7zips are smaller, thats not what I'm asking, I want to know what 7zip is like instead of winrar. I used 7zip in the past but that was a few years back and it's matured alot since then.
Thanks

 

[hclarkjr]

i use both, problem solved

 

[Nothinman]

i use both, problem solved

Actually not at all. He's asking how the usage of 7zip is compared to WinRAR, saying to use both isn't even close to a comparison of the two.

 

[lxskllr]

I can't compare, but I use 7zip for everything. I heard some people say they've run into .rars it won't open, but I've never had that issue.

 

[skulkingghost]

7zip seems to be much faster at compressing if you are using a 64bit operating system. I also seems pretty snappy at unraring and unzipping files, HOWEVER, I miss winrars "open files in explorer" button to open the folder when you are done unzipping, so there is that drawback, but 7zip seems faster to me for unzipping, so I use it as my main program, and use winrar for backup, and the occasional rar that 7zip wont open.

 

[Red Squirrel]

7zip is great, I use it as well, and best of all it's 100% free so no licensing or nags about buying etc.

 

[pcslookout]

For some strange reason I notice winrar extract files faster than 7zip. Not sure if it is really the case but it seems like it. Will have to do some tests to see or find some benchmarks done online. Hope I am wrong.

 

[Sam25]

I use winrar mainly but no complains with 7zip really.

 

[0roo0roo]

no real need to use rar program these days.
7zip is enough.

 

[Czar]

used to use winrar for everything, now its 7zip for everything

 

[AnonymouseUser]

I haven't used winrar in years so I can't compare the two. 7zip does everything I've asked it to do.

 

[ShawnD1]

I think WinRAR has a nicer file explorer thingy when you double click on a file.

I use 7-zip for everything, but I still have WinRAR installed because I really like the icons. The WinRAR icons stand out well because they're purple on a white background. I think 7-Zip's crappy icons were white; they look like ever other file icon.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
I think WinRAR has a nicer file explorer thingy when you double click on a file.

I use 7-zip for everything, but I still have WinRAR installed because I really like the icons. The WinRAR icons stand out well because they're purple on a white background. I think 7-Zip's crappy icons were white; they look like ever other file icon.

I think they changed their icons at some point. I did something(can't remember what), and the icons became different :^D

They're still ugly, but it's easy to see what's what.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/1811/7zicons.jpg

 

[ShawnD1]

Those look pretty awesome. Which version did they start using those? I'm still using "4.58 Beta"

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
Those look pretty awesome. Which version did they start using those? I'm still using "4.58 Beta"

I'm using V4.64

 

[tcsenter]

7-Zip can decompress/extract many non-ZIP InstallShield executable packages like those often used for drivers. I don't know if WinRAR is able to do them.

 

[LuDaCriS66]

I've never really given 7-zip much of a chance but I decided to give it a go because of this thread.

One thing that seems odd is that if I double click on a large archive with images, a loading window comes up as if it was extracting. It seems to go through the archive before the main screen comes up. It's as if the contents are extracted to a temporary folder before it can be shown. I don't recall WinRAR doing this or maybe WinRAR just loads up a lot quicker but I thought this seemed odd.

Other than that, it can't compress to RAR but I suppose 7z could work just as well.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: LuDaCriS66

One thing that seems odd is that if I double click on a large archive with images, a loading window comes up as if it was extracting. It seems to go through the archive before the main screen comes up. It's as if the contents are extracted to a temporary folder before it can be shown.

I've never done it that way. I always use the right click context menu.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I've never had a problem with 7-zip, and was elated when they finally put in drag-n-drop functionality.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

the only problem i have with 7zip is once in a while when i right click a rar the 7zip thing isnt there. So ill have to open 7zip and navigate from there. Besides that its fine though

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
7-Zip can decompress/extract many non-ZIP InstallShield executable packages like those often used for drivers. I don't know if WinRAR is able to do them.

That is a nice feature.

 

[Rottie]

what happened to WinZip? Is it dead?

 

[StormSide]

Originally posted by: Nvidiaguy07
the only problem i have with 7zip is once in a while when i right click a rar the 7zip thing isnt there. So ill have to open 7zip and navigate from there. Besides that its fine though

You can manually associate r01 001 files with 7zip. Right click on a file with
the extension. Go to properties and next to open with there is a change button.

 

[imported_dlb]

Originally posted by: Rottie
what happened to WinZip? Is it dead?

Nope, they are still developing it. Last year they added LZMA compression. Doesn't work well because it's unsuitable for zip structure. And guess how many programs can open such zips...

That's why you don't hear about them recently. They are just not worth mentioning.

Myself, I can't wait to see a FreeArc relese. It's gonna be the next king.

 

[Scooby Doo]

The only real problem I had with 7zip is you can't extract to "." folder (current folder) It doesn't like it, however winzip uses it.