Winzip VS. WINRAR VS. WINACE? Which is the BEST?

[defense]

I think it's pretty obvious WINZIP is a joke compared to the other two...but what does everyone else think? I like WINRAR because of its ability to read most compressed formats, and NOT just "zip" like winzip.

[hoola_loop]

winrar hands down. like ya say opens anything you can throw at it. the repair is more successful than other compression progs. i have friends who use winzip *dunno why* and winrar lets me zip a file if need be so they can access it.

[SteveSH]

Yeah Winrar is definitely the best. Not only is it one of the best compression programs with the most features and ease of use, it also has the .rar format which gives the best compression out there.

[marvel2020]

Ditto...


Winrar kicks ass.


For me, Winace cause's to many problems and winzip, well the less said about that the better


So my vote go's for Winrar

[DivXExpert]

I use winzip to open zips. I compress my own things with Rar.

[Faustus]

I use Winzip for zip files because reguardless of what many say its a awsome program, I've been using its a VERY long time. But for everything else I use Winace, I've found that if you have problems opening very large RAR archives in Winrar then winace can do it fine, so I cut out the middle man and dumped winrar.

[vitualis]

Actually, as above.

I use WinZip for ZIPs. I use RAR/WinRAR for my own archival. Don't know why. Just used to WinZip I think (and it has a better looking icon)...

Regards.

[Vejita-sama]

I actually just use M$ build in codec for zip files, and winrar for all 'non-zip files' that I d/load or need to generate. I've d/loaded some winace files with super compression (like 85:1) but I have NO IDEA how they did that.

[defense]

(and it has a better looking icon)... lol...that's funny...and VERY TRUE! WinRar's icons look like some Library books while Winzip's icons show you that vice or whatever it is..squeezing a file.

[DivXExpert]

I like the zip icon.

[sterno]

I've never known anybody who used WinAce. I think I've only even heard of it two or three times in the past 5 or 6 years.

WinRar has decent capabilities, but they tend to break compatibility and force you to get a newer version (or to get WinRar instead of using somebody else's program) to extract the files somebody sent you.

Zip is a de facto standard format (even Java jar files are zip format). There are lots of tools to extract zip archives, and several of them clone the WinZip interface these days. Off the top of my head I think WinZip, WinRar, and PowerArchiver all look exactly alike, and they all open the same archive formats. There is really no compelling reason to use one instead of another, liking one set of icons is as good a reason as any.

Not that I compress files much on Windows.... When I do I'm more likely to use tar+gzip or tar+bzip2 for my own use, better compression than zip and easily extracted with free (really free, not unpaid 30 day demo free) tools on about as many platforms.

[mysticgohan17]

winzip sucks ass. WinRAR has opened so many of my broken zip files. WinRAR is king. winace is ok. not one of my favorites.

[housepig]

used to run WinRAR, but have been running WinACE for about a year.

I can't really explain why I like it better, it just feels better.

(aside from the fact it's handled every format I've ever had to unzip).

ah well.. to each their own.

- housepig

[jaeshin]

WinRAR is very capable.
Have you heard about AlZip though? I handles everything including Zip, RAR, ACE, arc, arj, cab, lha, lzh, tar, tgz... over 20 I think.
Personally I use both WinRAR and Alzip, WinRAR for RAR specific archives and Alzip for others. I think WinRAR is a bit faster.

8)