Data compression for creating local backups has lost a bit of relevance due to the large size of available drives, but if you want to send multiple files over the Web, there's nothing better than storing and compressing all content into a single file. With that in mind, we arrive at the portal of the classic 7-Zip, the free and open-source compressor par excellence, which has just announced a new stable version for 32 and 64-bit systems.
Some programs receive updates with a very aggressive and irritating frequency for the end user, but there are still isolated cases that stand out for having reached a fairly solid point of stability. One of them is the 7-Zip compressor, a classic replacement for the inexhaustible WinRAR, and one of the best in its category.
On my main computer I still use version 19.00 of 7-Zip, which besides working perfectly, never showed a pop-up to get updates. However, one of my feeds confirmed the recent release of version 21.07, and I immediately downloaded a copy.
Download 7-Zip 21.07
The changes to its general interface are practically nonexistent: Its main commands remain the same as always (Add, Extract, Test, Copy, Move, Delete, and Info), and with a quick visit to its Options menu you can activate the Spanish translation. If you want to associate 7-Zip with the main compression formats, you must run it with elevated privileges (otherwise, Windows will share its opinion on the matter) and go to the System tab.
The most important novelty appears when compressing files. 7-Zip 21.07 offers a series of recommended parameters, but also allows us to define the amount of memory that will be used during the compression process. Previous editions only presented an estimated calculation, and a very aggressive selection of values could bring a computer to its knees due to the amount of memory consumed.
Among the more advanced changes for 7-Zip 21.07, it is worth mentioning support for decompressing VHDX images (the same ones used by Microsoft Hyper-V), and greater consistency in creating TAR files, in line with GNU TAR. 7-Zip 21.07 is available for Windows in 32-bit, 64-bit, and ARM64 systems.
Official site and download: Click here
