After installing the operating system, users usually don’t have enough programs for unpacking files. Such programs are named file archivers. Often, before the version of the OS Windows 10, users had to look for third-party programs to be able to unpack archives. In Windows 10 much has changed, ranging from the ability to use quality archivers from the application store and ending with a built-in explorer archiver.

In this article, we have selected five archivers for Windows 10. All the archivers that you need to download from official sites, without any problems, will suit users of the Windows 7 OS. And all applications installed from the store will be suitable only for the Windows 10 OS.

1.      WinRAR.

WinRAR is a powerful program for operating the archives, since it allows you to operate with large archives. It supports all popular operating systems, starting with Windows and ending with Android. WinRAR remains so popular because even after the end of the trial period allows you to use all of its features.

You can download WinRAR and exploit it as WinRAR is free up to a 40-day period, after which it will start unobtrusively reminding that it would be worth buying a license: but it still works. If you don’t have the task of archiving and unarchiving data on an industrial scale, and you resort to archivers once in a blue moon, you may have any inconvenience from using an unregistered version of WinRAR.

Main features:

1. Supporting most common archive formats for decompression.
2. Allows to encrypt the archive with a password, create a multi-volume and self-extracting archive.
3. Adding additional data to restore corrupted archives in its own RAR format (it can work with archives that have lost integrity), which can be useful if you use it for long-term data storage.

2.      7-Zip.

The 7-Zip archiver is a free open-source archiver and the only free program for working with archives that we can safely recommend.

Almost any archive that you will find on the Internet, on old disks or somewhere else, you can unpack in 7-Zip, including RAR and ZIP, 7z own format, ISO and DMG images, ancient ARJ and much more (it’s far from being a full list).

In terms of the formats available for creating archives, the list is shorter, but sufficient for most purposes: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, XZ, BZIP2, TAR, WIM. At the same time, for archives 7z and ZIP, the password for the archive with encryption is supported, and for archives 7z – the creation of self-extracting archives. Working with 7-Zip shouldn’t cause any difficulties even for a new user: the interface of the program is similar to the usual file manager, the archiver also integrates with Windows (you can add files to the archive or unzip it using explorer’s context menu). You can download 7Zip on the official site.

3. HaoZip.

This is a free archiver, which allows you to open fifty different formats of compressed files. The application can create self-extracting containers, split libraries into parts and protect them with a password, keep the history of archiving and restore corrupted packed objects, contains the function of scanning suspicious files using online antivirus. When processing a large array of data, the utility uses the full potential of multi-core processors.HaoZip can extract information from 50 different types of archives, but only a few types of containers are available for compression – 7Z, ZIP, TAR. A common RAR format isn’t supported when creating libraries, this can be considered the main disadvantage of the utility.

It also has the availability of additional tools. Among them – the function of combining MP3-tracks, the converter of archives and the option of emulating optical drives.

The appearance of the application resembles the popular WinRAR archiver, it is possible to change the design of the interface through skins. The program menu is translated into different languages, but the help isn’t localized – it is only available in Chinese, it is not possible to change its language even for English.

4. Bandizip.

It is a utility for unpacking more than 30 kinds of compressed libraries, including RAR. Using Bandizip, you can create regular archives in the formats TGZ, TAR, ZIP, ISO, LSZ, 7Z, and also generate self-extracting containers, which can be extracted later without the help of third-party software. If desired, you can encode the contents of libraries using the modern algorithm AES 256 Bit. When processing data, the program uses all the cores of multiprocessor systems, which can significantly reduce the time to create large-sized containers.

The developers of the utility tried to make the interface of their product as convenient as possible – it was translated into different languages, you can extract objects from the archives by simply dragging the mouse into the specified folder, there is a function to preview the contents of the container.

Advanced Bandizip users respond positively to the methods of encoding the file names used in the program. In their opinion, Bandizip is one of the few archivers that correctly saves the names of objects even if then the archives will open in a different operating environment (for example, Linux).

5. IZArc.

Multifunctional archiver IZArc allows you to fully work with packed files of various formats, can repair damaged libraries and open protected archives. The utility allows to perform additional actions with compressed files – add new objects, search, view and write comments. The program supports multi-volume libraries and is able to create automatically unpacking executable files.

The main functions are controlled from the context menu of the explorer.

The special function of IzArk – the ability to work with images of optical discs created in the popular formats ISO, BIN, NRG, CDI. And, if necessary, you can re-encode one type of image into another. Such an option, as a rule, is found only in specialized software.

Main functions:

• free archiver;
• opening of a huge number of compressed library formats (7-ZIP, RAR, ZIP and others);
• support for 256-bit data encryption algorithm;
• reanimation of damaged archives;

• work with images of optical media.