WinRAR, WinZip, etc. Which program?

[SyncroScales]

Hi. I don't know which forum to place this in.

I am considering buying WinRAR. I was wondering if there is another program or a freeware/open-sourced software program that does the same thing. Pay or free.

I am mostly using these programs for opening and uncompressing files. There are times where I might compress files, but not as much.

I was wondering if there is a need to have the most up to date unzipping, unraring, etc software? Do the files, extenstions or compression/uncompression processes change? Eg: If I had old zip or rar, etc files from 10 years ago, will they be recognized in the newer versions of the software?

Thanks.

 

[BSOD BSTD]

get winRAR, you dont have to pay for it it just does a popup everytime you open it. It will open most types of archives, very versatile.

 

[Alabalcho]

If you are gonna pay for it - hands down - WinZip. I am upgrading every other version, and there is nothing it cannot uncompress (.zip, .rar, .7z, .tar/.tgz).

WinRar has very ugly user interface, and tries to go everywhere without asking.

 

[SyncroScales]

I ended up going with BandiZip. I bought BandiCam for screen capture. I also bought two licenses since I found BandiZip and it's free, I was not sure if I could buy or needed another license for my laptop, but I went with it.

I found out about 7zip which is freeware and open-sourced software.

PeaZip, JZip, TurboZip, etc on cnet.com - dwonloads: http/download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=unzip&platform=Windows%2CMac%2CiOS%2CAndroid%2CWebware%2CMobile%2CLinux&tag=srch&searchtype=downloads&platform=Windows%2CMac%2CiOS%2CAndroid%2CWebware%2CMobile%2CLinux

Thanks BSOD BSTD and Alabalcho.