Reviews of FreeArc for Windows

1. 
   PaulWilliams

   Reviewing 0.666 (Apr 6, 2011)

   AMAZING COMPRESSION RATIO. Able to add a Recovery Record. Format is supported in PeaZip. Moderately fast when used for maximum compression, but slower than WinRAR and 7Zip. Uses no more than 2GB of memory and doesn't come anywhere close to 100% processor load for maximum compression. With a little GUI polish this could be the best file compressor EVER.
   
   I had over a hundred multi gigabyte files that needed to be compressed and I wasn't happy with the compression of the most popular file compression programs, so I decided to try this. It's not the fastest, but there are very few programs that can come close to its compression ratio and fewer that are as fast at their highest setting. On my Intel Core i5 over-clocked to 3.42GHz, 3.6GHz with Turbo Mode enabled and 8GB of Memory, I'm able to compress 7.3GB in 35 minutes flat. The highest compression ratio I achieved was an .iso 7.3GB (6.656GB without random padding) compressed to 2.181GB (29.9% compression). I didn't even think that was possible. The average for an .iso was 77% compression, but it depends on the file.
   
   Thank You so much.
2. 
   RedBadger

   Reviewing 0.666 (Aug 27, 2010)

   This is an interesting Archiver. It has the potential to be better than the other archivers out there. In my opinion, it has the most password security options of all the archivers. The main drawback to this program is its user interface. Its like they have multiple entries for the same options on different parts of the setup, making it confusing. They also uses the word "Directory" instead of displaying an icon for a directory like it should.
3. 
   anomoly

   Reviewing 0.666 (Jul 16, 2010)

   The best just got better (0.67 alpha). Now supports creation to zip or 7z with file splitting.
   Link is on last page of alpha forum. Down link site is in russian. Just scroll over them.
   http://forum.ru-board.co...0&limit=1&m=1#1
4. 
   anomoly

   Reviewing 0.60 (Dec 24, 2009)

   I have been using it for over two months now with no errors or issues WHATSOEVER. The best gui out PERIOD, better than winrar. The only real difference is that with rar's, you can search inside them. With arc's, not so much. Gui is actually superb! Opens arc's lightning fast.
   Compression is even better, if that were even possible!. Planned to support rar and 7zip in future releases. I'm using the 0.61alpha which disables non-essential threads.
   License is free for ANY usage.
5. 
   TomWibbaert

   Reviewing 0.60 (Dec 22, 2009)

   What can I say ..... Horrible crap. (STILL)
   
   Context menu integration ? DOESN'T WORK.
   Associate with .arc files ? DOESN'T WORK.
   Clunky interface.
   High compression takes ages, and is even worse than winrar or 7zip at default.
   Perhaps it could compress better if you have 128 GBytes of memory and are will to spend 23 years on it, but I don't.
   
   Useless garbage.

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