When comparing 7-Zip vs Clover, the Slant community recommends 7-Zip for most people. In the question“What are the best free file managers for Microsoft Windows?” 7-Zip is ranked 4th while Clover is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose 7-Zip is:
7-Zip is licensed under GNU LGPL, and the *.7z format has support across all major operating systems. There should be no trouble opening the archives under any operating system, and no need to deal with messages bugging you to register or pay for the app. Source code can be found [here](http://www.7-zip.org/download.html).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Free and open source
7-Zip is licensed under GNU LGPL, and the *.7z format has support across all major operating systems. There should be no trouble opening the archives under any operating system, and no need to deal with messages bugging you to register or pay for the app. Source code can be found here.
Pro High compression .7z format
Their own file format .7z that ships with 7-Zip is one of the best compression formats. 7z file format is usually more compact than Zip.
Pro Lightweight
Starts quickly.
Pro Explorer right-click menu integration
Makes it easy to open any archive file, or create new archives, without having to go open another program first.
Pro Very fast compression/decompression
7z is muli-threaded, allowing it to do very fast compression and decompression.
Pro Unobtrusive
No nag screen.
Pro Adds Chrome-esque tabs to Windows Explorer
Pro Lots of themes from Chrome
Cons
Con GUI looks dated
Could use a new fresh user interface.
Con XZ/LZMA2 format inadequate for long-term archiving
LZMA2 is unsafe and less efficient than the original LZMA. Use: 7Z LZMA Non-Solid, RAR 5 LZSS/PPMd Non-Solid, or ZIP Deflate. See here.
Con Does not support data recovery
It's not possible with 7-zip to add data recovery records to the archive which could repair minor integrity errors.
Con Screen scaling issues with 4K displays
It's not recommended to be used on computers with a 4K display as it will cause many scaling problems even in other applications.
Con Ads
Con Bugs and no support
While it's overall performance is good, the tool overrides Windows Explorer by force which can result in bugs, crashes and screen freezes that can only be solved by stopping the task. Sometimes it crashes the explorer all together which can leave you without access to the windows toolbar.
Con VirusTotal finds adware and possible viruses
More than 40 online antivirus/anti malware scanners reports issues. Do try it your self if you think this is a competitor trying to give Clover a bad rep. I used it before, but now I've abandoned it. Especially because the installation etc. are in Chinese so you don-t stand a chance to know what you're doing.
Con Installing and uninstalling is in Chinese
Con Win 10 Quick access bar break
It breaks the win 10 quick access bar, options stop working.