jZip Review

Open 7Z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, XPI and Lots More

Screenshot of jZip in Windows 10
jZip.
By
Stacy Fisher
Stacy is a freelancer with over 18 years experience writing about technology and personal finance. She has published hundreds of articles and co-authored a book.
our editorial process
Stacy Fisher
Updated September 27, 2018

jZip is a free file unzipper program for Windows that can extract many of the most popular archive file types, all of which are listed below. This includes not only well known ones like ZIP, RAR, and 7Z but also SWM, HXS, DEB, and more.

jZip can not only extract files out of an archive but also pack archives or even create new ones.

One great feature about jZip is that you don't have to install it. It can run from any portable media device like a flash drive or even a CD. To do that, you have to download jZip through Softpedia instead of via their website, which is linked below.

Pros

  • No advertisements or popup windows
  • Easy to use program interface
  • Integrates with Windows shell
  • Can create password-protected compressed files
  • Can be downloaded as a portable program without needing to be installed

Cons

  • Automatically adds a link to jZip.com in your new archives (but you can disable it if you wish)

Extract From

7Z, ARJ, BZ2, BZIP2, CAB, CHI, CHM, CHQ, CPIO, DEB, DOC, EXE, GZ, GZIP, HXI, HXQ, HXR, HXS, HXW, ISO, JAR, LHA, LIT, LZH, MSI, PPT, RAR, SWM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TBZ2, TGZ, TPZ, WIM, XLS, XPI, and ZIP

Compress To

7Z, BZ2, GZ, TAR, and ZIP

Security Options

jZip can password-protect an archive with either ZipCrypto or 256-bit AES encryption.

My Thoughts on jZip

jZip is an extremely easy program to use. I've seen other feature-rich applications that have menus and settings that bog down the program interface, but jZip is very simple in its design, which shouldn't be ignored.

With the program open, you can drag and drop any of the supported unpacking file formats straight into it. This is an easy way to use jZip, but you can also open the configuration settings of the program and enable what's called shell extension.

The shell extension feature lets you right-click an archive file and extract it quickly without having to first open the jZip program. Not all file decompressing programs have this feature, so I'm glad jZip lets you enable it.

jZip also supports the option to encrypt and decrypt an archive file, which is a great feature not only for files that are already password-protected, but also for archives you create yourself.

There's one thing I didn't like about jZip. By default, the program will automatically put a link to its website in every new archive you make. To change that, you have to go into the program's View > Configuration... screen and deselect the option that reads I want to help promote jZip by adding a link to jZip in new archives.