PowerArchiver - a utility whose main task is to decompress or, conversely, compress data. When it comes to such programs, it is quite challenging to come up with something new that would be in demand and have no analogues on the software market.
Nevertheless, alongside such information compression giants as WinRAR and 7-Zip, new, no less interesting applications are emerging. And while the former focus on improving compression algorithms, the latter have turned their attention to multi-format support and the improvement of existing data archiving technologies.
One such program is PowerArchiver from California-based developers at ConeXware.
It would be pointless to start listing all formats that PowerArchiver can open. It's hard to find a format that PowerArchiver can't handle.
If you ask yourself: “Why do I need PowerArchiver if I already have WinRAR or its equivalents installed, especially since I use the most popular formats that WinRAR supports?”.
Well, the functionality of PowerArchiver is not limited to a larger number of readable formats. The program can also work with virtual disk images and has a module for burning them; the utility is also designed for backup, which is another significant checkmark when comparing these two programs.
PowerArchiver is the first archiver to use a ribbon interface, where options change depending on the tab you are on. One of its features is streaming file viewing without prior decompression.
The 2012 update of PowerArchiver introduced the ability to highlight files in an archive with different colors, so that at a glance you can determine which file types need to be extracted or simply sorted.
Additional features of PowerArchiver:
- A file backup tool;
- Burning discs without the use of third-party applications;
- Creating ISO images and then burning them to disc;
- A customizable password manager.
PowerArchiver boasts rich functionality and a wide range of settings and will become a reliable assistant on your desktop. This utility is not just an archiver, but something more — a full-fledged suite for working with files, whether archives, images, or virtual disks. The only "but" is that you shouldn't rush to install every offered update. The developers are always in a hurry to delight loyal users with something new, skipping the testing phase.
