PeaZip: Best Free Compression Tool for Netbook

PeaZip is a free file manager and file archiver application built for Microsoft Windows and Linux running netbooks. Other than its native support for PEA archive format (featuring compression, multi volume split and flexible authenticated encryption and integrity check schemes) and other mainstream formats such as 7Z, RAR, TAR and ZIP to experimental ones like PAQ/LPAQ family, with special focus on handling open formats, it supports around 123 file extensions.

PeaZip’s interface features an archive like browser with additional features like search and history for intuitive navigation through archive’s content. PeaZip supports creating archives with a wide range of compression and encryption standards, and allows to export job definition as scripts to bridge the gap between GUI and console applications, and let the user pick the best of the two worlds. PeaZip is available as installable package for Windows and Linux (DEB, RPM and TGZ, compiled both for GTK2 and Qt widgetset), and as natively standalone, portable application for both platforms. It is available also as PortableApps package (.paf.exe).

PeaZip allows you to apply powerful multiple search filters to archive’s content. Other very useful and notable features are to create and extract multiple archives at once, create self-extracting archives, export job definition as command line, save archive’s layouts, use custom compressors and extractors, bookmark archives and folders, scan and open with custom applications compressed and uncompressed files, etc. If you are concerned about security, then you these security features will be of great help are: strong encryption, robust file copy, split/join files (file span), secure data deletion, compare, checksum and hash files, system benchmark, generate random passwords and key files.

PeaZip’s simple user interface lets you edit, save and restore layout of archives (input files and folders list) to speed up definition of archiving and backup operations, save job definition, as plain text. The user interface is fully skinnable and uses customisable transparency effects.