PowerArchiver Review

A product by ConeXware

Download

Overview

PowerArchiver comes with an interface in Office style and you will feel familiar with it. Features are spread over the interface, arranged in tabs. Besides archiving and compression, this program has additional features like a FTP client, a backup module and disc burning.

File compression interface provides a variety of options and is easy to use.

Compression Speed
4.87/10

PowerArchiver isn't the fastest, but provides a decent speed when you want to create a new archive.

Compare Compression Speed (higher is better choice)

PowerArchiver

8.39

8.10

7.13

4.87

4.85

4.39

4.23

3.17

2.94

2.41

Extraction Speed
10/10

The program is very fast when is extracting files from an existing archive. Through right click context menu you can choose to extract files in the same location, in a folder or choose a specific location from hard drive, without moving the source file.

Compare Extraction Speed (higher is better choice)

PowerArchiver

8.63

8.39

8.36

6.75

6.65

6.52

6.26

6.15

3.51

Compression Formats
7.78/10

PowerArchiver is also great regarding the number of compression formats. It supports all popular types of archives such as .zip, .zipx, .7z, .tar.gz.

Compare Compression Formats (higher is better choice)

PowerArchiver

7.78

6.41

6.27

6.01

5.23

5.16

5.10

4.90

4.77

3.99

Extraction Formats
7.44/10

It supports extraction from all well known archives (.zip, .rar, .7z, .zipx, .tar.gz) and more.

Compare Extraction Formats (higher is better choice)

PowerArchiver

9.09

8.36

7.58

7.56

7.50

7.44

7.42

7.39

7.36

7.35

Features
8.89/10

It has a large number of options. It allows to choose between different compression formats (deflate, LZMA, BZ2..), send automatically the archive by email, FTP or burn it to a disc (CD/DVD/Blu-ray). It provides different encryption algorithms to choose from when you set a password for an archive.

You can add files with drag&drop or browse on specific locations on computer, create self extracting (SFX) archives with .exe file extension instead .zip, .7z and so on.

It provides a search function to search archives on your computer, convert archives from one format to another, create archives in batch mode (create multiple archives in a single operation) and extract multiple archives in the same time.

It allows to create .rar archives through its interface, only if you have WinRAR already installed on your computer. There are only a few programs that allow to create .rar archives, because the license to build this type of archive is paid. This may be a reason why .zip extension is more popular than .rar. All free programs can create .zip archives, but no one can create .rar.

From Configuration you can change a lot of settings such as change right click menu options, associate file extensions to be opened by PowerArchiver when you double click, create custom profiles for compression, change default compression format, change the look of toolbars and more.

Compare Features (higher is better choice)

PowerArchiver

8.89