Editor Page

Allows you to specify settings for the editor.

Editor
Specifies the path to the editor.
Settings Page
Allows you to specify some settings.

Show .. item
Shows .. item in file list.
Show real file icons
Shows real file icons in file list. If this option is enabled, listing
updates can be slower.
Show system menu
Shows a system context sub-menu in the File menu.
Full row select
When an item is selected, the item and all its subitems are
highlighted.
Show grid lines
Displays gridlines around items and subitems.
Alternative selection mode
If enabled, File Manager keeps selection mark when you move
cursor.
Use large memory pages
If enabled, 7-Zip will try to use large pages. This feature allows an
increase in speed of compression. This may cause 7-Zip to pause
when starting compression, because of allocation of the large pages.
Also, the Windows Task Manager doesn't show the real memory
usage of the program, if 7-Zip uses large pages. This feature works
only on Windows 2003 / XP x64 / Vista. Also you must have
administrator's rights for your system. Recommended size of RAM: 1
GB or more. To install this feature you must run 7-Zip File Manager
at least once, close it and reboot the system.
Language Page
Allows you to change the default language.

Language
Lists the available languages.
Benchmark
This form allows you to measure the performance of your computer.
There are two tests:
1. Compression with LZMA method
2. Decompression with LZMA method

The benchmark shows a rating in MIPS (million instructions per second).

The rating value is calculated from the measured speed, and it is
normalized to an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4 GHz, 4 MB L2) CPU in 64-
bit Windows with multi-threading option switched off. So if you have Intel
Core 2 Duo, rating values must be close to real CPU frequency.
You can change the dictionary size to increase memory usage. Also you
can change the number of threads.
The CPU Usage column shows the percentage of time the processor is
working. It's normalized for a one-thread load. For example, 180% CPU
Usage for 2 threads can mean that average CPU usage is about 90% for
each thread.
The Rating / Usage column shows rating normalized for 100% of CPU
usage. That column shows performance of the one CPU thread.
The Total rating shows averages of the compressing and
decompression ratings.
Compression speed and rating strongly depend from memory (RAM)
latency.
Decompression speed and rating strongly depend on CPU integer
operations. For example, an Intel Pentium 4 has big branch misprediction
penalty (which is effect of long pipeline) and pretty slow multiply and shift
operations. So, the Pentium 4 has pretty low decompressing ratings.
Also the program checks possible errors. If the program shows some
error message, in most cases it means that your RAM is defective. If so,
don't use 7-Zip for compressing data, since such errors can lead to data
losses.
About Dialog Box
The About dialog box provides information about 7-Zip and allows you to
register 7-Zip. This dialog box is available from the Help menu.
Press www.7-zip.org button for opening 7-Zip Home Page.
Press Register button to register 7-Zip.
See also Register 7-Zip for more details how to register 7-Zip.
Plugins
The 7-Zip File Manager can use internal and external plugins.
Currently 7-Zip uses the following plugins:

7-Zip
Plugin for manipulating archives.
7-Zip Plugin
7-Zip is a plugin for manipulating archives. It makes all archive files look
like usual folders in File Manager.
Most of the operations with compressed files can be initiated by right-
clicking on files in the File Manager (or in Windows Explorer) and
selecting the appropriate command from a menu.

Using 7-Zip

Opening archive
There are two ways to open an archive file:
If you have the file type associated with 7-Zip, then you can
open the file with 7-Zip by double-clicking the file or by right-
clicking and selecting the Open command.
You can right-click the archive file, point to 7-Zip, and then
click the Open command item.
Extracting archive
There are two ways to extract files from an archive:
To extract all files from an archive right-click the archive file,
point to 7-Zip, and then click the Extract files... command
item.
To extract specific files from an archive, open it by Open
archive with 7-Zip, select the items to extract, and run the
Copy To... command.
Extract Dialog will appear.
Testing archive
To test an archive, right-click the archive file, point to 7-Zip, and then
click the Test archive command item.
Creating and updating files in an archive
For creating or updating an archive file, right-click the file(s) or
folder(s) you want to compress, point to 7-Zip, and then click the
Add to archive... command item. Add to Archive Dialog will appear.
Add to Archive Dialog Box
Allows you to specify options for creating or updating an archive.

How to call this dialog box

1. In Windows Explorer or in 7-Zip, right-click the file(s) or
folder(s) you want to compress.
2. Point to 7-Zip, and then click the Add to archive...
command item.

Parameters

Archive
Provides a space for you to specify a destination archive name. You
can click "..." button to display "Open" dialog box that you can use to
locate archive.
Archive format
Specifies a format of created archive. Some formats (gzip and bzip2)
do not support compressing more the one file per archive.
Compression level
Specifies compression level. There are 6 levels of compression:
Value Meaning
Store Files will be copied to archive without compression.
Fastest Fastest compression.
Fast Fast compression.
Normal Compression with balanced settings.
Can give a higher compression ratio than Normal level.
Maximum
But it can be slower, and it can require more memory.
Can give a higher compression ratio than Maximum level.
Ultra
But it can be slower, and it can require more memory.

Compression method
Specifies compression method. Each archive format can have its
own compression methods:
Method Description
Default compression method of 7z format. It provides high
LZMA
compression ratio and very fast decompression.
Dmitry Shkarin's PPMdH algorithm with small changes.
PPMd Usually it provides high compression ratio and high speed
for text files.
Standard compression method based on BWT algorithm.
BZip2 Usually it provides high speed and pretty good
compression ratio for text files.
Standard compression method of ZIP and GZip formats.
Compression ratio is not too high. But it provides pretty
Deflate
fast compressing and decompressing. Deflate method
supports only 32 KB dictionary.
Modified version of Deflate algorithm with bigger
Deflate64
dictionary (64KB).
Estimated 7-Zip performance and memory requirements for AMD
Athlon 64 X2 3800+:
Dictionary Compressing Decompressing Memory for
Method Level
Size Speed Speed Compressing
fastest 64 KB 4.5 MB/s 3 MB
fast 1 MB 3 MB/s 10 MB
LZMA normal 16 MB 2 MB/s 15 MB/s 186 MB
maximum 32 MB 1.8 MB/s 376 MB
ultra 64 MB 1.6 MB/s 709 MB
fast 4 MB 1.4 MB/s 6 MB
normal 24MB 1.2 MB/s 26 MB
PPMD
maximum 64 MB 1.0 MB/s 66 MB
ultra 192 MB 0.9 MB/s 194 MB
fast 15 MB/s
3 MB
normal 3.5 MB/s
Deflate 32 KB 40 MB/s
maximum 1.5 MB/s
4MB
ultra 0.4 MB/s
 normal 3 MB/s
BZip2 maximum 900 KB 1.2 MB/s 16 MB/s 20 MB
ultra 0.4 MB/s

Dictionary size
Specifies Dictionary size for compression method.
Usually, a higher Dictionary size gives a higher compression ratio.
But compressing can be slower and it can require more memory.
Memory (RAM) usage for LZMA compressing is about 11 times more
than dictionary size. Memory usage for LZMA decompressing is
close to value of dictionary size. Memory usage for PPMd
compressing and decompressing is almost equal to dictionary size.
Word size
Specifies the length of words, which will be used to find identical
sequences of bytes for compression.
Usually for LZMA and Deflate, big Word size gives a little bit better
compression ratio and slower compression process. A big Word size
parameter can significantly increase compression ratio for files which
contain long identical sequences of bytes. For PPMd, the Word size
strongly affects both compression ratio and
compression/decompression speed.
Solid Block size
Specifies the size of a solid block. You can also disable solid mode.
In solid mode all files will be compressed as continuous data blocks.
Usually compressing to a solid archive improves the compression
ratio. You can use this option only for 7z archives. With the current
version of 7z, you can update existing archives only when solid mode
is switched off and the existing archive is non-solid.
Number of CPU threads
Specifies the number of threads for compressing. A big number of
threads can speed up compression speed on Multi-Processor
systems. Sometimes it can increase speed even on single-core CPU.
Split to volumes
{Size}[b | k | m | g]

Specifies volume sizes in Bytes, Kilobytes (1 Kilobyte = 1024 bytes),

Megabytes (1 Megabyte = 1024 Kilobytes) or Gigabytes (1 Gigabyte
= 1024 Megabytes). If you specify only {Size}, 7-zip will treat it as
bytes. It's possible to specify several values. Example:
10k 15k 2m

The first volume will be 10 KB, the second will be 15 KB, and all
others will be 2 MB.
Parameters
Allows you to specify parameters for compression. See the -m
(Method) switch description for more details. Omit the -m prefix (as in
-m switch) when using this dialog box.
Examples
0=PPMd

uses PPMd method for compressing files.

0=bcj2 1=lzma:d23 2=lzma 3=lzma b0:1 b0s1:2 b0s2:3

uses BCJ2 filter (for x86 executables) and LZMA.

Update mode
Specifies update mode:
Value Meaning
Add and replace
Add all specified files to the archive.
files
Update and add Update older files in the archive and add files
files that are new to the archive.
Freshen existing Update specified files in the archive that are
files older than the selected disk files.
Replace specified files only if added files are
 Synchronize files newer. Always add those files, which are not
present in the archive. Delete from archive
those files, which are not present on the disk.

Options
Specifies compression options:
Option Meaning
Create self-extracting archive. You can use this
option only for 7z archives. Look to -sfx (Create
Create SFX archive
SFX archive) switch description for more details
about SFX modules.
Compress shared Compress files open for writing by another
files applications.

Encryption
Specifies password and encryption options.
Enter password
Specify passord here
Reenter password
Reenter passord here for verification
Show Password
Shows Password
Encryption method
Specifies the encryption method. For 7z format, it can be only
AES-256. For ZIP format you can select ZipCrypto or AES-256.
Use ZipCrypto, if you want to get archive compatible with most
of the ZIP archivers. AES-256 provides stronger encryption, but
now AES-256 is supported only by 7-Zip, WinZip and some
other ZIP archivers.
Encrypt file names
Enables or disables archive header encryption, including file
name encryption.
Extract Dialog Box
Allows you to specify options for extracting files from archive.

How to run this dialog box

There are two ways to run this dialog
To extract all files from an archive:
a. In Windows Explorer or in 7-Zip, right-click the
archive file.
b. Point to 7-Zip, and then click Extract files....
To extract specified files from an archive opened in the browsing
window:
a. Open archive with 7-Zip.
b. Select items to extract.
c. Right-click items and then click Copy To....

Parameters

Extract to
Provides a space for you to specify an output folder. You can click
"..." button to display "Browse for folder" dialog box that you can use
to locate output folder.
Path mode
Specify extract mode:
Value Meaning
Full pathnames Extract files with full pathnames.
Current pathnames Extract files with all relative paths.
No pathnmes Extract files without folder paths.

Overwrite mode
 Specify overwrite mode for files that already present on disk:
Value Meaning
Ask
before Ask before overwriting existing files.
overwrite
Overwrite
without Overwrite existing files without prompt.
prompt
Skip
existing Skip extracting of existing files.
files
Rename extracted files, if a file with the same name
Auto
already exists. For example, file document.txt will be
rename
renamed to document_1.txt.

Files
Specifies files for extracting:
Value Meaning
Selected files Extract only files that are selected in the main window.
All files Extract all files.

Password
Specifies a password for encrypted archives.