Sending multiple documents over the internet can be a tedious especially if you have over 100 files to send. Moreover, email clients such as Gmail and Hotmail do not allow folders to be attached. They only allow files to be sent.

7-zip allows you to compress multiple files or folders into one file. Afterwards, it becomes much easier to either send the file via email or store it in a removable storage device.

Decompressing must be done in order to retrieve the individual files and folders that had been stored in the compressed file.

With 7-zip, however, there’s a lot more than simply compressing and decompressing a file. Windows operating systems usually have their own utility software that handles compression and decompression of files.

The problem with Windows’ compression software is that you can’t choose the format in which you wish your file to be compressed to.

There are several formats for compressed files with the common ones being ZIP, RAR, 7-ZIP, and TAR. Windows’ compression software only allows you to compress and decompress ZIP files.

7-Zip, on the other hand, allows you to compress files into all these formats and also decompress files that come in this format.

Its user interface is similar to most of the other file archiving applications, but it comes with excellent features to help you password-protect your compressed file, split it into equal parts, or even create a self-extracting archive.

It is a great alternative to WinRAR, a popular rival app that does almost everything that 7-Zip can handle. This is because 7-zip is free and open source software while WinRAR isn’t.

Pros and Cons

Pros

- Works with popular archive formats

- Can split an archive into desired sizes

- It’s free

Cons

- Its method of encryption is poor since you cannot choose the type of file encryption

- It lacks some important tools such as a file repair tool and a virus scan feature