AlZip unzips it al, um, all

by Ryan Carter Jan 25th 2007

I hate crippleware. I hate nag-ware, and all kinds of related vermin from the netherworld. Among them, WinZip for years has bugged the snot out of users instead of just providing a good product for free like the cool kids. Sure, they have their reasons, but those reasons are why you don't hear about WinZip anymore. They are old news. Now you hear about 7-Zip, which I do like, even better than WinRAR, for my many unzipping needs (on my computer at least).

Today, at least for me, a new little app enters the fray, called ALZip. AL has got some serious options built into the app, which makes it a bunch more customizable, and I suppose some would even say better. The goodness meter doesn't stop there, it keeps going.

Compression is simple, the interface is clean and looks like my four-year-old would like it and could run it. LifeHacker's Download of the Day is a keeper. Go unzip your AL!

Tags: ALZip, compression, ESTsoft, unzip, windows, zip

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ahoier said 9:32PM on 1-25-2007

7-Zip above all, at the moment anyways. It's open source, and free. I've only had ONE archive so far, that 7-zip couldn't open, and interestingly enough, Windows Compressed folder was able to open it...the same thing used to compress it...

Version4 said 9:43PM on 1-25-2007

Nothing beats 7-Zip

Kiddie Car said 10:50PM on 1-25-2007

Useless... it'll be swallowed up within a yr. What is the differentiator here anyway? Cute icons? YEst another proprietary format?

LordDaMan said 11:00PM on 1-25-2007

I have to agree with 7-zip comments. It may look bad, but it's small and fast.

Plus for the oddball formats I come across once in a while i use universal extractor
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Compression-tools/Universal-Extractor.shtml

Trevor said 11:32PM on 1-25-2007

i personally use ZipGenius its free and works everytime.

http://www.zipgenius.it/eng/index.php

Martin said 4:35AM on 1-26-2007

OT: What is the visual style you're using in your screenshot?

hhh said 9:54AM on 1-26-2007

IZarc is my favorite...

http://www.izarc.org/

lorddaman said 10:29AM on 1-26-2007

I have to agree with 7-zip. It may look bad, but it's far faster.

Plus I keep universal extractor around to handle the occasional oddball format i come across
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Compression-tools/Universal-Extractor.shtml

LordDaMan said 11:32AM on 1-26-2007

Sorry for the double post :D

@Martin,
That's the program itself. It always looks like that

Ken said 7:05PM on 1-26-2007

Two more very good, free replacements for WinZip exist that have not been mentioned above:

Filzip
http://www.filzip.com/

ExtractNow
http://www.extractnow.com/

I've yet to come across a free replacement for WinRAR that will repair damaged RAR files. :(

ningengenki said 1:11AM on 1-29-2007

Have you even used AlZip? It's one of the most easiest things I have used being free. (to the one who said AlZip won't survive their first year, i'm sorry to tell you but the Korean version has been out for around a decade)

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