Bandizip is a free file archiver and compressor for Microsoft Windows, developed by Bandisoft. Key features for Bandizip include the ability to preview archives from the right click context menu, selectively compress files based on high compressibility versus poor compressibility, and create multiple archives from multiple files and folders automatically.

Features

• Supported Input Formats: ZIP, RAR
  RAR (file format)
  RAR stands for Roshal ARchive. It is a proprietary archive file format that supports data compression, error recovery, and file spanning...
  
  , 7z
  7z
  7z is a compressed archive file format that supports several different data compression, encryption and pre-processing algorithms. The 7z format initially appeared as implemented by the 7-Zip archiver. The 7-Zip program is publicly available under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public...
  
  , ARJ
  ARJ
  ARJ is a software tool designed by Robert K. Jung for creating high-efficiency compressed file archives. ARJ is currently on version 2.85 for DOS and 3.15 for Windows and supports 16-bit and 32-bit Intel architectures.ARJ was one of two mainstream archivers for DOS and Windows during early and...
  
  , LZH, TAR
  Tar (file format)
  In computing, tar is both a file format and the name of a program used to handle such files...
  
  , GZ
  Gzip
  Gzip is any of several software applications used for file compression and decompression. The term usually refers to the GNU Project's implementation, "gzip" standing for GNU zip. It is based on the DEFLATE algorithm, which is a combination of Lempel-Ziv and Huffman coding...
  
  , BZ2
  Bzip2
  bzip2 is a free and open source implementation of the Burrows–Wheeler algorithm. It is developed and maintained by Julian Seward. Seward made the first public release of bzip2, version 0.15, in July 1996.-Compression efficiency:...
  
  , JAR
  JAR (file format)
  In software, JAR is an archive file format typically used to aggregate many Java class files and associated metadata and resources into one file to distribute application software or libraries on the Java platform.JAR files are built on the ZIP file format and have the .jar file extension...
  
  , ISO
  ISO image
  An ISO image is an archive file of an optical disc, composed of the data contents of every written sector of an optical disc, including the optical disc file system...
  
  , EGG
  EGG (file format)
  The EGG file format is a compressed archive file format that supports for Unicode and intelligent compression algorithms. EGG format is created by ESTsoft and was first applied in their file compression software ALZip....
  
  , CAB
  Cabinet (file format)
  In computing, CAB is the Microsoft Windows native compressed archive format. It supports compression and digital signing, and is used in a variety of Microsoft installation engines: Setup API, Device Installer, AdvPack and Windows Installer.Though Cabinet was originally called Diamond, its .CAB...
  
  , WIM, Xz
  Xz
  xz is a lossless data compression file format incorporating the LZMA2 compression algorithm. Like gzip and bzip2, concatenation is supported to compress multiple files, but the convention is to bundle a file that is an archive itself, such as those created by the tar or cpio Unix...
  
  , and Z archives
• Support unicode to display international characters which display for filenames in archives
• Files with poor compressibility are merely added to archives without compression when using the High Speed Archiving function.
• Files can be directly extracted to a destination folder, which bypasses a temporary directory, when using the Fast Drag & Drop function. This results in less drive accessing and writing and decreased wait time during extraction.
• Create self-extracting
  Self-extracting archive
  A self-extracting archive is a computer application which contains a file archive, as well as programming to extract this information. Such file archives do not require a second executable file or program to extract from the archive, as archive files usually require...
  
   file (.EXE) and multi-volume
  Volume (compression)
  A volume is a term in data compression for a file that has been compressed and split into different parts.There are many advantages in having a compression utility with the ability for compression into volumes. First, it allows an individual to download the file in segments at his or her own pace...
  
  (split) archives
• Context Menu access to archives from windows explorer
• Encrypt archive using ZipCrypto
• Create or extract multiple zip files simultaneously from windows explorer.
• Archives can be previewed via right click context menu, which is useful for determining whether an archive can be extracted to the current folder or a subfolder.

Limitations

• Does not support LZMA compression and more advanced compression methods.
• Only supports Deflate compression.
• Speed potential of High Speed Archiving is marginal to non-existent.
• Bandizip has less than adequate compression speeds (compared to 7-zip) when using the default normal compression preset, even when using Bandizip's High Speed Archiving function.

External links

• Official Bandizip website