IZArc 4.5

★ Winner of Best Archiver in 2017 and 2014.

Overview

IZArc is a freeware application designed to manage your compressed files easily and fast. It supports many archive file formats including 7-ZIP, ACE, B64, CAB, ISO, JAR, ZIP, RAR, TGZ and many more. With it you can edit an archive to add, delete and extract its contents, as well as to test the archive itself for corrupted data or convert it to a different format. You can also encrypt the archives to keep them safe from being viewed by others.

Installation

Before installing, you should know that although IZArc is 100% clean, some antivirus programs might detect it as being infected. This is because it offers additional software to install during setup. Fortunately these 3rd party software are optional and you can uncheck their installation.

As soon as setup starts, you will be prompted to install IncrediBar toolbar and make IncrediBar MyStart the default search engine and homepage in your web browsers. Untick the two checkboxes at the bottom to avoid making those changes if you don't need them. A few steps afterwards you will be asked to install one more add-on, Nitro PDF Reader. This is the final step and the main installation is next.

IZArc is supported by Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista and 7, whilst there is a version for iOS available.

Interface

The interface is very simple and you will not have a problem using the program. When you open an archive it is shown on the folder bar and its files are shown on the right. The contents may be displayed as icons, small icons, list or details. In the toolbar you have a few buttons for creating or opening an archive, testing it, adding new files to it or extracting the existing ones. In the menu bar you can find the rest of the features. That’s it, there’s nothing that could make this program complicated.

Pros

IZArc can integrate with the following archive file types: 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BIN, BZ2, BZA, C2D, CDI, CAB, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA, HA, IMG, ISO, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MBF, MDF, MIM, NRG, PAK, PDI, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XPI, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO. It also has drag and drop support for opening archives, as well as for adding files inside them.

You can convert archives from one format to another easily and fast. In addition, archives which become unreadable due to corrupt download or hard disk errors can be repaired as well.

From an archive you can create an executable file that will extract its contents as soon as it’s launched. This self-extracting package is a handy way to share compressed files without requiring that the receivers have an archive utility installed.

If you wish to prevent unauthorized viewing and editing of the compressed file’s contents, you can lock it by adding a password. This way you don’t have to worry about someone messing with those files anymore.

Cons

It has all the important features that this kind of program should have, plus even more that make it a top choice. The list of supported formats is so big that it’s bizarre. No problems in this program whatsoever.

Alternatives

The most popular archive managers are Winrar (shareware), Winzip (Win, Mac) (shareware) and 7-Zip (freeware), however there are other, less known software for manipulating archives such as Universal Extractor and PeaZip (32-bit, 64-bit, Portable, Linux), both of which are open-source applications. Universal Extractor allows you not only to extract files from a simple zip file, but from an installation program or even a Windows Installer (.msi) package.

Conclusion

If you want a free archive utility with a lot of features and an insane list of supported archive formats, then IZArc is the solution. You won’t ever need anything more than what it offers.