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7Z files software: create, open, extract 7-Zip archives

Manage 7z files with PeaZip

PeaZip provide full read / write support for 7z format (create, open and extract 7z files) both for 7Z archives and XZ files, through the Open Source components from 7-Zip and p7zip projects (released under LGPL license, as PeaZip), and offers the same GUI frontend to create, browse, and extract 7Z archives under Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems.

7Z format features high compression ratio (superior to ZIP and in some cases RAR format) using by default LZMA2 compression algorithm - optionally LZMA, PPMd, BZIP2 and Deflate are available as alternative compression algorithms - and built in strong encryption based on AES256.

7Z compression and extraction performances

BZIP2, LMZA, LZMA algorithms provides multi-threaded compression, taking advantage of modern multi-core, multi-thraded CPUs, and BZip2 also provided multi-threaded decompression improving extraction speed on muticore architrectures.
Extraction, however, is significantly faster than compression for most algorithms, and is consequently more likely to be limited by disk speed rather than CPU speed.
RAM speed is especially critical when using highest compression settings, as largest statistical models and widest data samples are kept in memory.
For more information and comparative test results see the File Compression Benchmarks section.

Create 7Z files

To add files / folders to a new archive or into an existing .7z file

Create 7z files from system file explorer

Context menu entry PeaZip > Add to archive, shows archive creation screen, to set compression settings, output destination, encryption (password protection), and other archiving options.

As alternative, context menu entry Add to .7Z, starts compression without further interaction

Create 7z files from PeaZip

Use Add button (or Add context menu entry) to show archive creation screen

Drag and drop files / folders from the system to a PeaZip instance; if you are browsing an existing archive you will be asked if you want to add files to current archive or create a new one

7z compression options
From archive creation screen it is also possible to apply AES256 encryption to password-protect the archive, and to split file - create multiple volumes smaller than desired maximum output size.
From "Advanced" tab, it is possible to further fine-tune compression settings; faster-than-zip compression is posible with Tino Reichardt's plugins for Brotli, FLZMA2, Lizard, LZ4, LZ5, and Zstd algorithms, supported by PeaZip, selecting one of those compression methods in Advanced tab.
In this way however the resulting archives will not be compatible with 7z archive managers not supporting those new compression algorithms, as notably vanilla 7-Zip, so using BZip2, LMZA, LZMA2 or PPMd is recommended if you intend to preserve interoperability with other archiver utilities.
On Linux and macOS, in order to enable support for those algorithms, it is currently needed to change “7z” binary alias to “7zalt” from Options > Settings, Advanced tab, “7z / p7zip alias” option.

Create self extracting 7z archives
7Z archives can be created as self-extracting, so the recipient will need to simply doubleclick the archive/executable to extract it, without the need of dedicated extraction utility to decompress the content.

Use solid compression when creating 7z archives
Solid compression option can help to reduce size of archives containing filetypes difficult to compress (such as media files), because with an appropriate block size duplicate or very similar files / data sections can be efficiently archived without repetition.

Learn more about how to create 7z, tar, zip archive files

Update existing 7Z archives

Easiest way to update an existing archive is opening it in PeaZip and dragging files/folders to it, read more about how to update existing archives.

Press cancel or "Delete from archive" button to remove items already in archive, view also: add or delete data from archive.

Convert archives to 7Z format

Converting existing archives from / to .7z format is possible using Convert button, which extracts and then re-pack input archive files, view faq about how to convert 7z, rar, zip files

Open 7Z files

Open 7z files in PeaZip with double click, or context menu "Open as archive" entry, that will attempt to read any user provided file type regardless file extension associations.
See also how to open archive files.

Extract 7Z files

Decompress 7z files from the system

Context menu PeaZip > Extract... shows archive extraction screen, to set output path, password (if needed) and other options
Select one or more archives and use context menu Extract here or Extract here (to new folder) for quick extraction with no further confirmation

Decompress 7z archives from PeaZip application

Extract button shows archive extraction screen providing access to all decompression options
Extract all to... button starts simplified unpacking procedure, only asking for output path
As alternative, simply drag & drop from the application to the system the items you want to extract

How to extract multi volume 7z archives

To browse or extract a spanned (split) 7Z file, save all the parts in same directory, open the first volume (.7Z.001 extension).

Read more about archive files extraction and how to extract selected files from archive

Work with encrypted 7Z files (AES256)

7z was designed ground up to natively support robust AES based encryption, so it is possible to create secure password protected archives in this format

How to create encrypted 7z files
To create or extract an encrypted .7z file, enter the password from the padlock icon in status bar (in the file/archive browser) or below output address field (in extraction or archiving screens), alternatively click Tools > Enter password / keyfile in main menu, or F9 accelerator key.

Browsing encrypted 7z files
In encrypted 7z archives (AES256 encryption algorithm) password protected items are marked by * sign after filename.

How to hide content of 7z archives
7Z encryption supports hiding names of files inside the archive checking "Encrypt also filenames" option in password dialog.

Read more about how to create encrypted archives, how to (optionally) encrypt names of files in archive to hide archive content until password is provided, and how to extract encrypted archives

Synopsis: How to work with PeaZip 7Z files archiving and extraction utility for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Free software to create, open, extract 7z format. How to compress decompress convert encrypt 7-Zip archives. Extract selected files from a 7z archive. How to edit and update existing 7z archives. Manage encrypted 7z files. Convert 7z archives to other types, eg 7z to zip.

Topics: create 7z archives, update existing 7z archives, convert archives from / to 7z format, open 7z files, extract 7z archives, manage encrypted 7z files

PeaZip > FAQ > Free 7Z files software: create, open, extract 7-Zip archives