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Add to SafariWhen comparing 7-Zip vs Q-Dir (the Quad Explorer), 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 Q-Dir (the Quad Explorer) is ranked 9th. 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
Question 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 Highly manageable multiple windows
Every window can be separately customized. You can choose between different views from 1 to 4 windows, and every window can have multiple tabs!
Pro You can view 4 windows simultaneously
Pro You can use tabs in every window
Pro Portable
Pro Free
Pro Does not use a lot of RAM
Q-dir with 4 windows and with 4 tabs in every window uses only 39mb of RAM on Win10x64.
Pro Fast and stable
Pro Very customizable
Pro Q-Dir allows you to save folder combinations as a favourite to open any time
Up to 64 folder combinations can be saved in a favorite, since each of the four windows is equipped with tabs (ie 4 x 16 tabs 4 x Tree View plus 4 x Address Bar).
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 Sometimes may have bugs
Con Needs modern UI design
Con No search
Con Does not work with Quicklook
