PowerArchiver 2006: The New King of Compression? The Nuts and Bolts of Compression with PowerArchiver Wayne Kawamoto
Compression: The Nuts and Bolts
PowerArchiver offers support for almost any compression standard you can think of. This includes: ZIP, CAB, LHA (LZH), TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, BH, XXE, UUE, yENC, and MIME. There's also read-only support for: RAR, ARJ, ARC, ACE, and ZOO (the program can only read files compressed in these formats).
PowerArchiver also offers support for the Deflate64 method and 7-Zip, a new format that is based on an open-source architecture. Beyond the standards,
PowerArchiver can create compressed ZIP files of unlimited size and from an unlimited number of files, and can span files across multiple discs, with no
limit in span sizes.
For security, PowerArchiver supports the new ZIP AES standard and proprietary PAE standard with five encryption methods that include Blowfish (128-bit), DES (64-bit), Triple DES (128-bit), AES 128-bit, and AES 256-bit. If you like, the program's password manager will save your frequently used
passwords so you don't have to recall them.
As the name implies, the convert tool adequately translates compressed files between supported formats and converts multiple files and folders at the same time. If a compressed ZIP file has been corrupted, a repair tool does its best to fix it. It's the tool of last resort when problems occur and before you resort to back-ups (you did back it up, right?).
Write/merge multivolume tools allow you to split ZIP files into different volumes, as well as merge several into a single file. There's a batch tool that can be configured and used to compress files into separate archives in a single process. And a multi-extract tool allows you to extract multiple archives at once.
While PowerArchiver effectively bridges the barrier between different compression standards, it also bridges the language barrier. The program comes in versions for 11 different languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Slovak, Czech, Ukrainian, Russian, and more.
Beyond Compression
WinZip and PKZIP dominate the compression world and both cost ten dollars more than PowerArchiver. But PowerArchiver is more than up to the job of replacing and exceeding the capabilities of WinZip and PKZIP, so it's definitely worth a look. You can try all three for free to see which one best meets your needs.
If you're a current user of PowerArchiver, version 9.26 or the upcoming PowerArchiver 2006 is probably worth the upgrade to integrate the latest compression and security-related improvements. For advanced users, PowerArchiver comes in a command-line version that supports most popular compressed file formats. And there's an Outlook Plug-In version that allows you to access PowerArchiver's features from within Microsoft Outlook (versions 2000, XP and 2003).
PowerArchiver costs $19.95 for a single license and ConeXware offers a business license arrangement that allows you purchase multiple seats. And with PowerArchiver 2006 on the way, expect to hear more from PowerArchiver in the near future.
Date of Review: October 24, 2005
Pros: Excellent features for power users; attractive, easy-to-use interface for novices; less expensive than primary competition (WinZip and PKZIP); 7-ZIP compression/decompression support; full skinning support
Cons: Not as well known as WinZip and PKZIP — faces an uphill climb for market share
