SQUISH IT! or Windows 11 Natively Supporting 7-Zip Led Me to Muse About Drive Space
WHEN DID WINDOWS 11 START SUPPORTING 7-zip?!
For those who aren’t super knowledgeable about disk space, 7-zip is a compression tool Maybe you’ve heard of WinZIP or RAR. It is like using a FoodSaver. But it does more than suck all the air out of a bag or a program, leaving the meat or veggies or tiny bikini inside. It uses a key to assign “words” to lists of digital code that allow a program or file to be “compressed” smaller than it is. As if a file is a word, such as TEETH. If the number 1 equals TEE and the number 2 equals TH you can “compress” it to 12. Less than half the size!
I was browsing some old archives and noticed Windows 11 was offering to extract 7-zip files when I right clicked on some. That was weird! I’ve been using 7-Zip as a standalone file compression tool for longer than I can remember. I casually asked it to do so. It did. WHEN DID THIS START HAPPENING?!
2023, apparently. Windows 11 Can Now Open 7-Zip, RAR, and TAR Files (howtogeek.com) It can also create them as well, as indicated by the screenshot above. Two caveats… the password system built into 7-Zip is not included so you’ll still need the standalone app for that. The second? No options for splitting to volumes (such as multiple files) when creating archive files.
So you might be thinking, how well does the 7zip built-in to Windows 11 compare with the 7-zip standalone?
The Pictures archive I tested this on contains 1.45 GB of video and picture files of all types, mostly JPGs when it comes to pictures and MP4 files for video.
Both JPG and MP4 files are already compressed by design so this test was like pitting a Ferrari against a newer Ferrari built on the frame of an old Ferrari. Windows 11's 7zip compressed the entire folder to a pretty decent 1.46 GB.
Wait, what? Was this a waste of time? The archive is bigger than the original folder by .01 GB? What was I thinking? Remember, my pics & videos in that folder are already using a compressed file format. The internal 7zip had to write some kind of table of contents for the entire system. So 1.45 goes to 1.46
Oh, but wait… the 7-zip standalone app in “Ultra” compression mode got it down to… ummm… 1.46 GB.
At least it was faster! Your mileage may vary depending on your computer’s CPU capacity and clock speed.
I know, you’re not impressed. But now for the real test. My “Documents” archive. Documents are mostly text, remember the example of turning the word “TEETH” into “12” earlier? This is where the real difference in compression power shows up.
There is all kinds of nonsense in this folder I’m testing with. 5.27 GB of audiobooks, PDF files from various employers and so on, podcasts, database files, musical instruments for my audio workstation, old Twitter chat records which WILL be useful again dammit, probably some saved game files from Rollercoaster Tycoon or Quake! Who knows?
The 7zip built-in to Windows 11 squashed it down to 4.6 GB.
That’s not terrible! And how did the standalone 7-zip app set at Ultra compression do?
ALMOST a gig less than the original size! 4.47 vs 5.27. Why is this important? Say you are collaborating with friend at the other end of the world. Say you are sharing files with someone with a much slower internet connection than you can afford. Maybe you have limited drive space. A gig can mean half a day or more of download time in some areas. It’s all electricity and space, and not everyone can afford the electricity.
But can Windows 11’s built-in 7zip uncompress the 7-zip app’s “Ultra” files? After all, you need the app to squish it that much. Don’t you need it to extract the files?
Windows 11’s built-in 7zip can extract “Ultra” files! So if you can save your friend 20% or more of downloading time (or yourself storage time) because you are able to compress your 7-zip files with the app, DO IT.
This all got me thinking about the need for compression in the first place and how much things have changed since I started using computers in the early 80s and from the time I’ve owned personal PCs starting in 1990.
Most folks probably spend no time actually given to compression by the software industry. When you download a program to install? That’s probably compressed. If installing from a CD or DVD? That’s probably also compressed. While drive space is dirt cheap nowadays, distribution methods still thrive by having the smallest file footprint possible. But you can get a free phone from your favorite provider with file space measuring in gigabytes. If you use Microsoft or Google products you get “free” access to cloud storage that is more than enough for most folks’ needs (I see you, video & audio creators). You can sign up for a free Dropbox account to expand that available space. And there are so many online services I’ve encountered throughout decades of of computer travels that I’m sure I have “zombie” accounts floating about that I’ll never see again because I changed an email address or utterly forgot it existed. Maybe one of them will have that one “DOOM” level I created then lost a copy of when a hard drive failed in 1994! But probably not.
But let me take you back, friends… back to when you had to type COMMANDS FROM A C-PROMPT.
Also known as “C:\”
The creator of ZIP basically porked himself. He made a totally useful app then forgot to monetize it. He thought enough people would be decent enough to buy it if they found it useful. He was definitely an optimist.
Because I’m a big dork who keeps archives of old computer systems, here’s a screencap of a bunch of command-line driven compression tools I used in the 90s…
ARJ was popular because… I honestly don’t remember why. Gzip worked with maybe one file I downloaded? Gzip386 required a 386 PC, duh, I only had a 286 at the time! And so on. These were all kept on a 3.5" floppy disk if you didn’t have hard drive space. I tested Zip2Exe, it was fun creating self-extracting archives that didn’t require the end user to have PKUnzip. But it was basically your file(s) plus PKUnzip in a single executable file.
I’ve lost all Apple folk at this point, I get it.
The black spot at the lower left was the WRITE PROTECT tab. You could access it in the back with your fingernail. Yeah, we used fingernails for tech in the 90s. Moving it in one direction or the other would allow or keep a computer from writing or erasing data on it.
Hard drive space was definitely an issue in the 90s. Drive space was NOT cheap. Not like it is now. I mean, look at this timeline! Source: Hard Drive Prices Over Time: Price per GB from 1981 to 2010 (notebooks.com)
So you can see why compression was an issue
. That’s it, that’s all I’ve got. Questions will be answered, go!
