Best windows RAR/ZIP decompressor

[86 5.0L]

Used to use winrar, switched to 7zip for the portability and no frills interface(which I almost never see)

 

[drdeutsch]

Been using 7-zip for years. No need for anything else.

 

[Veilrap]

Used to use winrar, switched to 7zip for the portability and no frills interface(which I almost never see)

I'd have to second this - I've seen 7zips UI a countable number of times. Great context menu which just works.

 

[shade91]

Paid: WinRAR
Free: IZArc

IZArc does more compression types than 7-zip and has a better/simpler user interface. It is also faster than 7-zip.

 

[MikeTrike]

I've never had a problem with 7-zip, we have it pre-loaded on every server and workstation in our company. As well as my personal systems at home, it's simple, lightweight, supports many popular formats, it's free, has simple context menu's and does not f*** up a system by installing a f***tillion registry keys.

 

[RedTalon19]

another vote for 7zip. slowly over the years i've migrated from one program to another, but for the past several years i've used 7zip and havent found a need to switch.

 

[DaRuSsIaMaN]

I know this is an old thread, but to address the OP's question of fastest decompression software (for RAR extension compressed files). I have found 7-zip (~11 minutes) to be substantially faster than WinRAR (estimated at over an hour by WinRAR) to decompress a 6 file (spilt into 1.5GB files) compressed archive, decompressed size = ~70GB (90% compression achieved in archive). Original compression program used was WinRAR using FAST compression option.

That's pretty interesting.... huge difference....

But I myself have been using IZArc for years because when I first found it, it supported archive formats that I needed to extract but which other archive programs did not support (including both winrar and 7-zip, I believe).

 

[SmartDriver]

I've only known WinRAR all my life.

Haven't given me any problems.

But I'm not a heavy user of WinRAR, it's probably for noobs like me.

 

[Imaulle]

I still vote ExtractNow.. If you are a heavy torrenter/usenet user it's a must

 

[lassiterb]

Free: 7zip
Paid: WinRAR

The file manager built into 7zip has also proven handy when network users create paths that are too long for windows to handle, 7zFM handles them with no problem and can be used for renaming or relocating them.

 

[ilnli]

Try online RAR to ZIP converter.

 

[ilnli]

I use online rar to zip converter, which works well for me.

 

[swatbat]

Personally I am a fan of winrar but since I have to support a lot of workstations I use 7zip. I can load it for free on every system without issue.

 

[Cmustang87]

7zip here.