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When comparing 7-Zip vs 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 Explorer++ is ranked 8th. 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 Open source
GPLv3.
Pro Supports the standard Send To menu
It supports the standard Send To menu which helps to install extentions which rely on the Windows API only.
Pro Supports bookmarks
Pro Tab design
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 Has some issues with context menu integration
Some context menu integrations work, others don't. git-bash and cmder don't seem to work, for example, but kdiff3 does.
