Archiving Formats

ArcThemALL! uses 7Z.dll as the engine to compress and extract archives.

SUPPORTED FORMATS FOR COMPRESSION

ZIP: Mainstream archiving/compression format.

Optional 256-bit AES encryption.

You might use ZIP format when you need widest compatibility for file distribution, since it is accessible with compression utilities integrated in Windows and in most file managers.

The Compressed Folders utility integrated in Windows and used by some file managers only supports Deflate compression method.
It doesn't support AES encryption/decryption (only ZipCrypto), file sizes over 4 GB, or Unicode filenames (it will extract them but characters won't display correctly).

7Z, 7Z SFX (self-extracting archives): Archiving format with very high compression ratio, fast compression and decompression. Supports very large file sizes and Unicode filenames.

Optional 256-bit AES encryption.

7Z format is not compatible with Windows' compression utility, and requires external software for compression/decompression.

SUPPORTED FORMATS FOR EXTRACTION

ZIP, 7Z

RAR: popular archiving format with high compression ratio
(proprietary closed-source; RAR archives cannot be created with external applications)

XZ, Bzip2, Gzip: single file compression formats

ISO, UDF: disk image formats, most often used with optical media

VHD “Virtual Hard Disk” disk image format used by virtual-machine software

WIM: file-based disk image format (used to deploy MS Windows)

CAB: Windows native archive format (used by some installers to deploy software)

MSI (Microsoft), NSIS (Open Source): Windows installer formats

DEB (Debian), RPM (Redhat): Linux installer formats

APM, DMG, HFS: package/disk image formats for Macintosh

XAR: compression format for Macintosh and Unix platforms

TAR, CPIO, Z: archive/compression formats for Unix platforms

ARJ, LZH: archiving formats on DOS and early Windows platforms

CHM: compiled help files

MBR, FAT, and NTFS filesystems

SFX: (exe) self-extracting archives

MSLZ

LZMA, LZMA2