What 7-Zip does
7-Zip is a free, open-source file archiver for Windows and Linux, developed by Igor Pavlov and distributed under the LGPL license. It compresses and extracts archives for everyday tasks such as bundling project files, reducing storage usage, and packaging software for distribution. The application's native format is 7z, which uses the LZMA and LZMA2 compression algorithms and consistently produces smaller archives compared to ZIP for most file types. 7-Zip can create archives in 7z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ, and WIM formats. For extraction, it supports a much wider set, including RAR, ISO, CAB, DMG, ARJ, LZH, Z, CPIO, and RPM, making it a practical single tool for unpacking archives received from a variety of sources. AES-256 encryption is available for both 7z and ZIP archives, allowing password-protected packages with strong encryption. Large archives can be split across multiple volumes, which is useful when distributing files across storage media with size limits. Filenames using Unicode characters are fully supported, covering a broad range of languages and scripts. On Windows, 7-Zip integrates directly into the right-click context menu in File Explorer, so common operations like compressing a folder or extracting an archive require no extra steps. A separate command-line executable is also included, enabling scripted and automated workflows. On Linux, the tool is available as a command-line application. The installer on this page is the complete standalone offline installer sourced from Igor Pavlov's official GitHub repository. No additional downloads are required during setup. For safety, always verify the download comes from the official publisher and the domain shown on this page.
