Winrar 3

Is the fastest. I use it with Powerarchiver.


I use Powerarchiver's .cab to compress since on average I get the highest compression with it's .cab.

I use .rar to compress when .cab doesn't compress the files as much as .cab does which isn't often.


So

Extract: Winrar
Compress: Powerarchiver


I use Winzip only to view Installshield files that neither Winrar/Powerarchiver cannot or if Winrar/Powerarchiver are not installed.

WinRAR 3. It's very fast to compress, extract, and browse files with.

My new favorite is Iceows because it works great, isn't a resource hog, and is free.

Winrar is the best You can do practically everything you want without opening the actual program (via right click menus), and it gives you an awesome progress bar when its unpacking

Also it doesnt bug you with those stupid "buy winzip now" type boxes when you do things via the right click menus

Winace bites...and that woman in the installation is annoying.

I don't think I started using Winzip until 1994? Was using Pkzip from 90-94.

Uses DOS rar during that time and DOS rar kicked pkzip's butt but of course wasn't as wide spread.

I dislike Winace as well, but it is a decent format.
I prefer WinRar all the way, my main archiver.

Winzip and other ZIP format utilities are good but I prefer the RAR format for compressing my files and since it incorporates ZIP functionality it makes it the perfect choice.

Im in the same boat as Dosfreak. I like WinRAR but orignally started using Pkzip 2.04r and DOS rar.

Now i will only use WinRAR it is the best program hands down.

Winzip:
Is hands down my favorite archiver. It has a clean interface, decent performance (PKZIP for windows is faster), and is rock solid. I'm also very familiar with the classic interface, because I've used Winzip since about 1993 (okay so I might be biased :), but I do have 3 honorable mentions.

Mijenix Zip-It:
Has good self extractors, you can have your own icon, message text, and title. There are also options to select Windows 3.x, Windows 32, or Dos extractors. I use this regularly in my program distributions, because it came with systemsuite 2000/3.0 and is the best stable free (since I own it) option for self-extractors that I know of.

ACD Zip:
Was very intuitive, fast, and small. You are able to delete and folders to archives in a file manager type behavior.

Quick Zip:
This program has a gorgeous interface and supports 19 different file formats. However it's very slow and unstable. All the same I was impressed at what you can get for free.

Hi AlecStaar,
You're making me want to try PowerArchiver, I love Delphi apps. When I was a kid my dad bought delphi 1.0 which I still have. I never learned it though, because my dad lived in a different state, so we couldn't copy it and besides he only had one book . Anyways, I have definetly noticed how much faster and more stable Delphi apps can be. Net Vampire (www.NetVampire.com) is the fastest and most stable download manager out there. Although I haven't used v4.0 yet. Anyways you might give that a try. How are the self extractors in PowerArchiver?
Thanks,
Christian

AlecStaar,
I'd also like to mention that Quick Zip 2002 is written in Delphi. I just found that out. I was reading his Docs. Boy does he need some help with testing.
-Christian