7-Zip

About this release

7-Zip is the archiver almost everyone ends up using, and the reason is the compression ratio. Its own 7z format with the LZMA2 algorithm produces noticeably smaller files than zip on the same data, and it scales across every core in the machine while doing it. Dictionary size, word size, solid block size and thread count are all exposed if you want to tune a specific job, and the defaults are sensible if you do not.

Format coverage is the other half of the appeal. It creates 7z, zip, tar, gzip, bzip2, xz and wim, and it reads a much longer list including rar, iso, cab, msi, deb, rpm, dmg, vhd, squashfs and a pile of installer containers. That last group is quietly useful: you can open an executable installer as an archive and pull a single file out of it without running anything.

The shell integration puts everything in the right click menu. Extract here, extract to a named folder, add to an archive with the last used settings, test integrity, and a cascade for the less common operations. The file manager window is plain but fast, handles nested archives by opening them in place, and supports drag and drop in both directions so you can pull a file out of an archive straight into an application.

For anything scripted, the command line version is included and is the reason 7-Zip appears in so many build pipelines. Full control over compression parameters, splitting into volumes of any size, exclusion patterns, list files, and reliable exit codes. Archives can be made self extracting, and the whole program is small enough to carry around on a stick without installing.

What you get

• High ratio 7z compression with LZMA2 and full multithreading across every core
• Creates 7z, zip, tar, gzip, bzip2, xz and wim archives
• Reads rar, iso, cab, msi, deb, rpm, dmg, vhd, squashfs and common installer containers
• Opens executable installers as archives so single files can be extracted without running them
• Shell integration with extract, compress, test and a cascade for less common operations
• Built in file manager with nested archive browsing and two way drag and drop
• Split archives into volumes of any size for transfer across size limited media
• Self extracting archive creation with configurable extraction behaviour
• Command line version with exclusion patterns, list files and reliable exit codes
• Very small footprint that runs happily from a portable folder

Changes in this build

• Faster decompression on large solid archives
• Improved handling of archives with very long path names on Windows
• Additional container formats readable in the file manager
• Better progress accuracy on multi volume extraction
• Fixed a case where extracting to a mapped network drive could stall at the final file

Installation

Read the whole list before you start. Most of the reports that come into the desk about this title turn out to be a step taken out of order.

1. Extract the archive to a local folder.
2. Uninstall any earlier version first so the shell entries do not duplicate.
3. Run the installer for your architecture and let it complete.
4. Open the application, go to the options panel and associate the formats you want it to own.
5. Enable the shell integration entries you actually use and turn off the rest to keep the menu short.
6. Close and reopen any File Explorer windows so the new menu entries appear.

System requirements

Processor	Any x86, x64 or ARM64 processor, more cores compress faster
Memory	512 MB minimum, more for large dictionary sizes
Graphics	Not applicable
Storage	20 MB free plus space for your archives
Display	Any

Notes from the desk

Full details

Title	7-Zip
Developer	Igor Pavlov
Version	26.02
Category	Utilities & Tools
Release type	Full version
Operating system	Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7
Architecture	x86 / x64 / ARM64
Interface language	Multilingual
Archive size	2.6 MB
File name	7zip_26.02_x86_x64_arm64.rar
Shelf updated	3 days ago
Total downloads	154,862

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