jZip Review

Use this free program to make new archives or open 7Z, ZIP, TAR, XPI, and other similar files

By
Stacy Fisher
Profile photo of Stacy Fisher
Stacy Fisher
Technology Educator
  • Emporia State University
Stacy is a professional technology educator with over 25 years' experience. She has published hundreds of articles, co-authored a book, and has appeared on national and local TV.
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Updated on January 17, 2023

jZip is a free file extractor program for Windows that can extract files out of 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.

Not only that, jZip can also create new archives, and it can do both in just a few moments without you ever having to open the program!

jZip file archiver
What We Like

  • No advertisements or popup windows.

  • Easy to use program interface.

  • Integrates with the right-click menu.

  • Can create password-protected compressed files.

  • Can be downloaded as a portable program without needing to be installed.

What We Don't Like

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

  • The program no longer gets updated.

jZip's Supported File Formats

There are dozens of formats that this program can work with.

Extract From

jZip can open these file types:

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

Compress To

If you're making a new archive, jZip can create the file in any of these formats:

7Z, BZ2, GZ, TAR, and ZIP

jZip Features

The following are some other notable features:

  • Encrypt an archive behind a password with either Zip2.0 compatible encryption or 256-bit AES encryption.
  • Quickly create a desktop shortcut to any archive opened in jZip.
  • Add or remove files from an archive using the menus in the program.
  • Auto-select specific files from an archive using part of the file name.
  • Copy specific files out of the archive without having to extract everything.
  • Split the archive into smaller pieces for easier storage or transfers. There's also a merge function to combine them again.
  • Check archives for errors.
  • It checks for new program updates automatically.
  • You can have an alert sound when a long archive operation is completed.
  • jZip can be configured to open automatically when certain file types are opened from your computer, such as ZIP, RAR, CAB, ISO, etc.
  • Several languages are supported, including not only English but also Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese, and others.

Final Thoughts on jZip

jZip is an extremely easy program to use. We've seen other feature-rich applications that have menus and settings that bog down the program interface, but this one 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 program, as well as quickly make new archives by selecting the files that should go in them. Not all file decompressing programs have this feature, so it's nice to see.

jZip can also 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 you might not like, though, which is that, by default, the program will automatically put a link to its website in every new archive you make. To change that, go into the program's View > Configuration screen and deselect the I want to help promote option.

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