7-Zip

Overview

7-Zip is the archiver that quietly wins on the numbers. Its own 7z format with LZMA2 compression consistently produces smaller archives than the commercial alternatives at comparable settings, and it does so with a solid block mode that treats many small files as one continuous stream, which is where the ratio advantage becomes dramatic on source trees and document folders.

Format coverage is the other half of its reputation. It creates 7z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ and WIM archives, and it reads a much longer list including RAR, ISO, CAB, MSI, DMG, RPM, DEB, VHD, NSIS installers and a range of firmware and disk image containers. In practice, when something will not open, this is the tool people try next, and it usually works.

The shell integration is deliberately restrained. A single cascading context menu entry with extract here, extract to a named folder, add to archive and the test and hash operations, plus drag and drop out of the archive window straight into a folder. The file manager itself is a two panel view that can walk into nested archives as though they were folders, which makes pulling one file out of an ISO inside a ZIP a matter of double clicking twice.

Encryption uses AES with 256-bit keys, with optional header encryption that hides the file names as well as the contents. Volume splitting produces multipart archives at any size for transfer across media, self extracting archives can be produced for recipients without an archiver, and the whole thing includes a command line binary that is a staple of build scripts and scheduled jobs everywhere.

Key Features

• 7z format with LZMA2 compression and solid blocks for the strongest ratios
• Creates 7z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ and WIM archives
• Reads RAR, ISO, CAB, MSI, DMG, RPM, DEB, VHD, NSIS and many container formats
• Two panel file manager that walks into nested archives as though they were folders
• AES-256 encryption with optional file name header encryption
• Multi volume splitting at any size for transfer across media
• Self extracting archive creation for recipients without an archiver
• Archive testing and CRC and SHA hash calculation from the context menu
• Command line binary for build scripts and scheduled jobs
• Multi threaded compression scaling across every available core

What Changed in This Build

• Compression throughput improved on high core count processors
• Additional container formats added to the read only list
• Large archive handling improved past the four billion entry boundary
• Context menu rebuilt for the current shell menu model

System Requirements

Processor	Any x86, x64 or ARM64 processor
Memory	512 MB, more improves compression at higher dictionary sizes
Storage	10 MB
Operating system	Windows 7 through 11
Permissions	Administrator rights only for the shell integration

Release Details

Full title	7-Zip
Version string	26.02
Publisher	Igor Pavlov
Category	Utilities
Licence	Free for any use including commercial
Platform	Windows 7 through 11, 32 and 64-bit and ARM64
Interface language	Multilingual, 87 interface languages
Archive size	1.84 MB
Mirrors	4 active, all reporting online
Listed	refreshed 6 days ago, checked again 40 minutes ago

Installation Notes

• Raise the dictionary size for better ratios on large archives, but remember decompression needs comparable memory to the setting used.
• Solid mode gives the best ratio but means extracting one file reads the whole block. Turn it off for archives you will pick through.
• The context menu integration can be trimmed in options if the cascading list is longer than you need.

Before You Start

Read the notes above before running setup. Most of the problems people write in about are covered there, and almost all of them come down to an older version of the same software still being installed, a graphics driver that predates the release, or a security suite quarantining part of the package mid install.

There is no archive password on this or any other entry in the library. If something you downloaded elsewhere claims to come from here and asks for one, it did not come from here. Nothing on this site is behind a survey, a shortener or a countdown either.

If the entry does not match what the page describes, say so on the contact page and include the version string from the release details table. Reports naming a specific version get checked first because the checker can reproduce them straight away.

Frequently Asked