Pretty much every system out there has a way to open ZIP files, and using 7Z files means people actually need to install 7-Zip or another third-party app that supports them to work with the files. The main reason for this is compatibility. They also support ridiculous file sizes-theoretically up to 16 billion GB!ħ-Zip is one of the more popular compression tools out there, but most people use it to open or create ZIP files rather than using the more proprietary 7Z files.

RELATED: How to Password Protect Files and Folders With EncryptionħZ files make it easy to send and download files from the internet and help free up space on your hard drive with their high compression rate used when archiving. 7Z is similar to other archived formats, such as ZIP, TAR.GZ, RAR, and ISO, but uses a higher compression ratio, along with AES-256 encryption. 7Z is the file extension used for an archived file created using 7-Zip, a free, open-source file compression tool. Invoke the version of 7Zip you are using by entering 7z for P7Zip (7z.exe), or 7za for 7Zip for. Download Latest Version for Windows Quick and easy file compression 1/9 7-Zip is one of the most popular file decompression and compression tools available online.

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