Create an archive

Quick add

Right-click files or folders in Explorer and choose Add to “<name>.zip” or Add to “<name>.7z”.

The Create archive dialog

From Home, choose Create archive…, or use the Add to archive… right-click command. The dialog is a single page with two settings columns.

1. Enter the File name and choose an extension in the adjacent box: .zip, .7z, .tar or .exe for a self-extracting archive made from 7Z.
2. Choose Save to, using Browse… to select a folder.
3. Select one of the three format cards: ZIP, 7Z, TAR.
4. Choose a Profile: General, Maximum compression, Fast or Store.
5. Adjust the two columns below if needed, then click Create archive. Click Cancel to close the dialog.

The defaults are ZIP, compression level 5, Deflate, no splitting and no encryption.

Compression settings column

• Compression level: Store or 1–9; Normal is 5 and Maximum is 9.
• Method: ZIP offers Deflate/Store; 7Z offers LZMA2/LZMA/Store; TAR uses Store.
• Dictionary: adjust for the compression method.
• Split to volumes: No split, 100 MB, 700 MB, 4 GB FAT32, or Custom with a number and MB/GB units.
• Solid compression: for 7Z.
• Self-extracting (.exe): for 7Z without split volumes, using the official 7-Zip SFX module.

Security column

• Encryption: ZIP supports ZipCrypto or AES-256; 7Z supports AES-256.
• Enter the Password and Confirm password; use the eye buttons or Show password to check them.
• Encrypt file names (7Z): protects the file name list in a 7Z archive.

Comment and verification

Comment opens a separate comment editor, available only for a single-file ZIP archive without split volumes.

Enable Verify after compressing to test the newly created archive using the same password.

Follow progress

After compression starts, the progress window offers Run in background, Pause/Resume and Cancel. Run in background minimizes the window and shows the percentage on the taskbar icon. This button is in the progress window.