As you can see theres a significant variance between the different software and a definite trend throughout. WinZip handily beat everyone by compressing the files. With the right file compression software, sharing and archiving files is easy. The evergrowing size of hard drives means the need to reduce file sizes when storing. Web and File Transfer Protocol sites that provide downloadable software programs sometimes refer to the list of downloadable files as an archive or archives. ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A. ZIP file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed. Virtual archive for web related windows shareware and freeware. More than 2000 downloads with full description and screenshots. A Popular Software Used For File Compression And Archiving Files' title='A Popular Software Used For File Compression And Archiving Files' />Win. RAR Download. Win. RAR is an advanced data compression utility that supports a wide array of formats, including RAR, ZIP, CAB, ARJ, LZH, ACE, TAR, GZip, UUE, ISO, BZIP2, Z and 7 Zip. It enables you to create, organize and manage archives in a comfortable and quick manner. Quality compression and multiple disk spanning. The complex compression used creates small archives to save disk space and enable faster file sharing. Audio and graphics files benefit from a special archiving algorithm which doesnt sacrifice quality. Its also possible to split archives into several smaller volumes to spread them across multiple devices and easily transfer them onto other computers, which is particularly practical when attempting to compress very large files. Advanced features for compression and decompression. The available security tools are designed to password protect archives and optionally encrypt file names to add an extra layer of safety. Meanwhile, the application can be asked to verify archive integrity as well as to attempt repairing damaged or corrupt archives. Expert users can configure settings concerning the preferred compression method, dictionary size, file update mode, self extracting archives, recovery records in case of data loss, archive locking, NTFS symbolic and hard links, and other aspects. Files can be backed up before compiling them into archives, while virus scans can be executed before extracting files from the archives, so theres no risk of putting the computer at risk. Evaluation and conclusion. During our tests, Win. RAR delivered excellent results on file compression and archive extraction regarding speed and file size. On the other hand, it is likely to hamper system resources usage when dealing with time consuming tasks carried out on very large files, especially if were talking out weaker hardware configurations. To wrap it up, Win. RAR remains the industry standard in the compression category. It tackles popular compression formats via an approachable interface and a complex engine which can easily be accessed from the context menu. Win. RAR Video Guide. File Formats. There are a number of different types of Audio files. The most common are Wave files wav and MPEG Layer 3 files mp. There are, however, many other audio file types discussed below. The type is usually determined by the file extension what comes after the. For example,. wav,. The way the audio is compressed and stored is call the codec which determines how small the file size is. Some file types always use a particular codec. For example,. mp. MPEG Layer 3 codec. Other files like. For example, a. PCM, GSM6. MPEG3 and many other codecs. Be careful not to confuse the file type with the codec it often surprises people to know you can have a MPEG Layer 3 encoded. Some file types just contain the audio. But other file types can contain additional header information which can contain other information about the file eg. The information on this page is mainly directed towards users of the Switch Sound Format Converter, Wave. Pad Sound Editor and Express Scribe Transcription Player but our other Audio Software also use these. If you are need technical support relating to inability to load files into those programs please see Sound Format Technical Support. If you have a file which you cannot open in your program try converting it with the Switch Audio File Format Converter. If that fails you could also try using the Sound. Tap Direct Streaming Audio Recorder that can capture any audio you play. List of Audio File Formats. Open File Formats supported by and most likely to work with our softwarewav standard audio file format used mainly in Windows PCs. Commonly used for storing uncompressed PCM, CD quality sound files, which means that they can be large in size around 1. MB per minute of music. It is less well known that wave files can also be encoded with a variety of codecs to reduce the file size for example the GSM or mp. A list of common wave file codecs can be found here. Sample. wav file. MPEG Layer 3 format is the most popular format for downloading and storing music. By eliminating portions of the audio file that are essentially inaudible, mp. PCM file while maintaining good audio quality. We recommend the mp. It is not that good for voice storage. See here for a sample mp. Sample. mp. 3 file. Vorbis. Vorbis files are often compared to MP3 files in terms of quality. But the simple fact mp. Sample. ogg file. Europe, gsm is a very practical format for telephone quality voice. It makes a good compromise between file size and quality. We recommend this format for voice. Note that wav files can also be encoded with the gsm codec. See here for a sample gsm encoded wav file. Sample. gsm file. A variable codec format designed for dictation. It has dictation header information and can be encrypted often required by medical confidentiality laws. See here for a list of codecs supported in dct files. The standard dct player is the Express Scribe Transcription Player. You can think of lossless compression as like zip but for audio. If you compress a PCM file to flac and then restore it again it will be a perfect copy of the original. All the other codecs discussed here are lossy which means a small part of the quality is lost. The cost of this losslessness is that the compression ratio is not good. But we recommend flac for archiving PCM files where quality is important eg. Sample. flac file. Cette Installation Ne Prend Pas En El. Sun, Unix and Java. The audio in au files can be PCM or compressed with the ulaw, alaw or G7. Sample. au file. Apple. It is like a wav file for the Mac. Sample. aif file. Dialogic ADPCM Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation codec. Similar to other ADPCM formats, it compresses to 4 bits. Vox format files are similar to wave files except that the vox files contain no information about the file itself so the codec sample rate and number of channels must first be specified in order to play a vox file. Vox a very old file type and is pretty poor. We do not recommend it for anything except for supporting legacy systems. Sample. vox file. PCM audio data. It is rarely used except for technical tests. Sample. raw file. Proprietary Formats supported by our softwarewma the popular Windows Media Audio format owned by Microsoft. Designed with Digital Rights Management DRM abilities for copy protection. Sample. wma file. Advanced Audio Coding format is based on the MPEG4 audio standard owned by Dolby. A copy protected version of this format has been developed by Apple for use in music downloaded from their i. Tunes Music Store. Sample. aac file. Sony ATRAC format. It always has a. To open these files simply install the ATRAC3 drivers. Sample. atrac file. Real Audio format designed for streaming audio over the Internet. The. ra format allows files to be stored in a self contained fashion on a computer, with all of the audio data contained inside the file itself. Sample. ra file. Internet address where the Real Audio file is stored. The. ram file contains no audio data itself. Digital Speech Standard files are an Olympus proprietary format. It is a fairly old and poor codec. Prefer gsm or mp. Sony proprietary format for Memory Stick compressed voice files. You might need a Sony plugin to load this. Click here. dvf a Sony proprietary format for compressed voice files commonly used by Sony dictation recorders. You might need a Sony plugin to load this. Click here. Formats not supported at this stage. Other Formatsatrac. Sony proprietary format designed for minidisc use. It always has a. It is similar to mp. Note most of these files are rights managed so you cannot open them in any software programs. It is just a list of musical notes which a synthesizer can play. Monkeys Audio is claimed to give about 5. Discussion Forum. If you have any comments or problems relating to specific sound file formats, please see the Sound Formats Discussion Forum. You can read the discussion or post any questions on that forum.