7-Zip (x32 Bit & x64 Bit)

7-Zip's remit is simple: it compresses and decompresses files. With hard drives and SSDs now larger and cheaper than ever, you might well wonder just why such tools are still needed. Two key reasons are the internet (compressing files means they can be sent and received faster) and security (compressed files can be encrypted and password-protected).

7-Zip is free, fast and tiny. As well as the all-important Zip format, there's support for the creation of numerous other types of compressed file including 7z, BZIP2 and TAR.

Things are even more impressive when it comes to 7-Zip's decompression support; the list is seriously lengthy: AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, IHEX, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, QCOW2, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, UEFI, VDI, VHD, VMDK, WIM, XAR and Z.

The fact that ZIP and RAR files are covered is reason enough to install 7-Zip right away – everything else is a bonus. Compression rates in the program's native format are particularly impressive.

If you need to be able to work with anything other than regular zip files, 7-Zip is ideal for the job. A tool that easily falls under the heading 'essential'.