Password Protection – With archiving software, you can secure a file or a group of files using passwords (and encryption), which may not be available for that specific file type.Organized Files – Creating containers of files also help in keeping the computer more organized.This can be very helpful is moving, copy-paste of such small files. Create Containers – This is the most important use of archiving software, it lets you pack multiple individual files into one big package.Uses of Archive Managers / Compression and Extraction Software So, you definitely need an archive software to use other famous archive file formats such as RAR (.rar), 7Z (.7z), etc.

Plus, Windows only recognises the ZIP (.zip) file format. There is no dedicated file manager for archives, which lets you use advanced tools such as test archive, repair archive, etc.

You can neither create encrypted archives nor decrypt them. There is no option to set passwords during creating compressed archives. Windows has the zip (compression) and unzip (extraction) functionality since the release of the Microsoft Plus! 98 pack but it’s always been very basic in nature. Best Free File/Folder ZIP RAR Compression and Extraction Software (Archivers) / Best Free WinRAR & WinZip Alternativesīy default, Windows provides minimal support for archiving file formats.

Free rar extractor for windows 10