When it comes to saving and managing our disk drive space, we have several solutions to turn to. Among them, many users opt for the use of programs known as file compressors . These can be used for a multitude of very useful tasks, including PeaZip, a program that we will talk about.
These file compressors that we refer to have been accompanying us for many years. Of course, over time its features and functionality have increased, for the better. As their name suggests, these applications offer us everything we need to gather and compress files to save disk space . All this can be very useful to carry out tasks such as saving space, sending a set of files, or storing them.
It is for all this that in these same lines we are going to talk about one of the best known proposals of this type, such as PeaZip . This is an open source multi – format file compressor that packs a lot of features in this regard and supports over 200 file types. To say that this is also a program that we can use both on Windows-based computers and on Linux.
Download and install the PeaZip compressor
Therefore, this is a program that is installed on the computer like any other, it is enough that we download it from the official website of its developers. This is something that we can do, completely free of charge, from this link . At the same time it is worth noting that here we are going to find 32 and 64 bit versions to choose the one that suits the architecture of our equipment. We can also choose here between an installable and a portable version, depending on the needs of each case.
Of course, we must take into account and be attentive to the fact that, in the process of installing PeaZip, the wizard offers us to install two other programs. Specifically we refer to the Avast antivirus, and the Internet browser Opera . It is very likely that if what we need at that time is a file compressor, we do not want to add any of the two commented, so we recommend that you pay attention to the messages that appear in the installation. Also at the end we can specify the file formats that we want to associate with the compression application.
How to take advantage of PeaZip on your PC
Once we have it installed on the computer, it is worth mentioning that as normally happens with this type of program, it can be used in various ways. We say this because at first we will be able to run the application and access its main interface in a conventional way. But at the same time PeaZip is integrated into the Windows context menu so that we can use it more quickly and comfortably.
In the first case, through its interface, say that we have a clean user interface with the units installed on the computer. This allows us to directly access the path where the contents we want to work and compress are located. In the same way, we have the possibility of adding content with which to deal with the drag and drop function, all on this desktop of the program. Then a new window will appear that allows us to configure the compression process as such.
Configure and customize compression in PeaZip
One of the highlights of this program are the enormous facilities that it offers us when using it on a day-to-day basis. And not only that, but it also tries to make all the work with it as fast and functional as possible. A good example of this is the configuration screen that appears as soon as you choose a content to compress . We tell you this because from it we have the possibility to customize everything necessary to create the new compressed file.
In this way, in this section we are talking about, we can specify the output format, the compression level that we are going to use, or if it is a new file . And it is that we can continue adding content to one created previously, or indicate if we want to delete the originals, and even send the resulting directly by mail. But that’s not all, but in the upper part of this same window we find a series of menus.
Additional functions offered by the program
Among the many functionalities that we can use here, we will highlight the possibility of adding a password to the new file. Thus, before creating the tablet as such, we can protect its content, both with our own password , and with one that PeaZip generates randomly.
To all this we can add that from here we can use another user account for compression, schedule the process for later, etc.
Use PeaZip from the context menu
At the same time, as we mentioned earlier, this is a program that is also added to the Windows context menu itself. This will actually allow us to be able to compress files or entire folders without having to access the program as such. Either from File Explorer or from the desktop itself, by right-clicking on a certain content , we will see the new option.
From the drop-down list that appears here, we can extract content, create new tablets in different formats, convert or open files. As we mentioned, all this will mean a significant saving of time, especially if we use this type of treatment regularly in Windows .
Alternatives to the open source compressor
- WinZip: this is one of the most popular proposals of this type in the world that you can download from here . It has been with us since 1990 and allows us to compress and decompress files of all kinds. In the same way, it has functions to protect, manage and share them in a simple way. It is compatible with most of the current formats of this type.
- BandiZip: here we refer to another file compressor that we can download from its official website . It allows compressing and decompressing files creating files in multiple formats of this sector such as Zip , TAR, 7Z, RAR , etc. We can also protect them with a password and multi-volume supporting the AES256 encryption algorithm.