After months of hard work, we are proud to release the 2019 version of PowerArchiver.
The 2019 version has been in thorough testing and updating for a while now and we finally have done our best to finalize it for the official final release. The 2019 version of PowerArchiver features improvements over the previous 2018 version and introduces advanced new technology rarely seen in compression software.

PowerArchiver’s noticeable advancement started with the 2017 version which introduced the best compression format on the market today – Advanced Codec Pack (.pa). In the 2018 version, PowerArchiver went back to basics and was thoroughly optimized to provide the fastest experience ever. The 2019 improves the previously existing features and options, while also focusing on adding new advanced features which make PowerArchiver 2019 the smartest release ever!

Modern Win10 – Simplified Ribbon UI

For a long time, PowerArchiver has featured an advanced interface with great design which was welcomed by most PowerArchiver users and therefore, for the 2019 version, we are bringing our new and improved version of the Simplified Ribbon based on Microsoft Office 2019. Simplified Ribbon UI bridges the gap between the Classic toolbar interface that has been around for 25 years, and Ribbon UI that has been in PowerArchiver for last 10 years. The new interface features less buttons which allow users to concentrate on important features. The new Ribbon UI still features tabs reducing need for classic menus and shows a more organized display of buttons. It looks awesome while convenient to use. We have also added an application navigation bar in Windows 10 style to the left side of PowerArchiver, so that all of our tools and features are easily accessible – and in classic PowerArchiver tradition, if it’s not an interface that you would like to use – you can turn it off! You will also notice a redesigned File menu to the left of the home tab in the W10 interface. It has been redesigned to look great, fit in with the Ribbon interface and offer access to various file management functions that PowerArchiver has to offer. Everything is beautifully skinned too and several skins of different looks are available from the start.

SmartAI – Intelligent decision making

As everything around us is becoming more intelligent, why not PowerArchiver? PowerArchiver 2019 now features an assistant called SmartAI. SmartAI will optimize your compression, save power, change to dark mode when necessary, enable FIPS mode system wide and enable you to work conveniently with touch screens:

Added faster ZIP modes and mp3 support in zipx

Last year we have added the strongest yet fastest ZIP engine on the market. This year we are adding a new engine that is optimized for speed specifically and is used for Fast and Super Fast compression strength. It also uses multiple cores/threads and works on byte level. It can provide 2x faster compression than before! Added packmp3 support for ZIP engine, to make it fully compatible with WinZip.

PowerArchiver Mini is back

PowerArchiver Mini has returned for 2019! PowerArchiver Mini is our Windows Explorer Preview feature where you can work directly from Windows Explorer Preview window (make sure you turn it on). Not only does it show the file list of a selected archive, you can also browse folders, open individual files and extract them with one of the available options. It is super easy to use and very intuitive. We are also adding Explorer tooltips that will show information about the archive and a summary of the files inside as a tooltip when you hover over an archive in Windows Explorer.

Private Mode option

New Private Mode feature that clears the PowerArchiver history and cleans the temp folder with US DoD 5220.22-M approved methods.

Full Gesture support

PowerArchiver has great support for Gestures. You can swipe around the interface intuitively with many PowerArchiver actions available. In true PowerArchiver spirit, it is completely customizable and you can set it up as you want and assign gestures as you please.

Many other improvements

We have also added full support for screen readers in Classic toolbar. Filelist is all new and fully supports skinning, large dpi, gesturing and everything you can imagine. If you use 4k screens that are 13″ large, you will love the new PowerArchiver 2019! Open and New archive dialogues are now sporting the Windows 10 look, fully skinned too. Everything simply looks great.

PowerArchiver 2019, with the Advanced Codec Pack (.PA), is now available from our download page as well as Patchbeam for PowerArchiver users. Thank you for your support since 1998!

On the road to final release of PowerArchiver 2019, we are pleased to announce PowerArchiver 2019 – 19.00.48 – RC2.

Improvements

• Updated translations – Updated French, German and Spanish translations.
• Better filtering for filenames – add more filename/path filtering on all formats, includes better support for filtering characters not supported under Windows.
• Shell Improvements – compression in shell starts at low priority for greater system responsiveness.
• Better format support – Added support for extraction of SFX and gzip archives that were previously not supported.
• .PA format improvements– Improvements when extracting of specific data compressed with rep filter.

PowerArchiver 2019 is the smartest release of PowerArchiver ever. New Modern Windows 10 interface uses simplified ribbon to look great, with three all new skins – don’t like the Windows 10 interface? You may still use the Classic and Windows Ribbon interfaces. SmartAI will optimize your compression, save your power, change to dark mode when necessary, enable FIPS mode system wide, enable you to work conveniently with touch screens. We made PowerArchiver ZIP compression faster. PowerArchiver Mini is back and lets you use the full power of PowerArchiver within the Windows Explorer Preview window. The Advanced Codec Pack – .pa format has been fine tuned for the best compression and speed on the market! For a list of additional changes in the new PowerArchiver 2019, please check out PowerArchiver 2019 Introduction.

PowerArchiver 2019 , with the Advanced Codec Pack (.PA), is now available for download at our download page as well as Patchbeam for PowerArchiver 2019 users. Thank you for your support since 1998!

Here is our latest update to PowerArchiver 2018 – version 18.01.04.

For this month’s update, we have made some usability improvements as well as fixed some of the reported issues. One of the major changes is the handling of UAC elevation when it is required. For instance, when compressing or extracting archives in the Program Files folder. This is now handled much better and now UAC elevation works with all formats in PowerArchiver when compressing and extracting files in protected folders that need admin elevation. This includes ZIP, ZIPX, RAR, 7z, PA, ISO, TAR, CAB, etc.

Improvements:

• UAC elevation for rar, 7z, pa and all other formats – New way for UAC elevation, works with all formats available in PowerArchiver.
• Usability improvement in archive with single folder – Auto open first level in folder treeview when archive is opened.
• Better settings saving for 7z – Save last used encryption settings for 7z format.
• Usability improvement in Shell config – Ability to move Compress w Options to shell submenu.
• Modern: preview toolbar missing – Fix for specific instances when the preview toolbar was missing in Modern interface.
• CMD switch for starting PA in archive mode – Powerarc -archive test.zip should open archive in archive mode.
• Updated Translations – Updated Dutch and Korean translations.
• Encrypt tool improvement – Make « My Documents » the default folder for Browse button in Office/PDF encrypt(decrypt) tools.
• Backup Improvements – Update New Backup script save dialog with better wording.
• 7z encryption fixes – 7z not encrypting filenames in encrypt tool is now fixed.
• Password Manager improvement – Encrypt Tool saving password after archive creation added as part of PPM when enabled.
• Advanced Add window changes – Remove zip archives from treeview in advanced add window.
• ZIPX support improved – Better support for encrypted zipx (jpeg codec and AES encryption).
• Other Improvements and Fixes – Various smaller fixes/improvements and translation updates. More than 15 issues have been closed. For the full list go to our forums.

PowerArchiver 2018 is the most advanced release of PowerArchiver ever. We made PowerArchiver up to 3x faster, a difference that you will notice immediately. PowerArchiver now uses less memory and still looks great. PowerArchiver 2018 supports tabs which allow multiple archives to be opened within the same PowerArchiver window. We have also implemented a built-in PDF engine for easy and fast previewing of all kinds of PDF files. In addition to all of those changes, we have implemented a much stronger ZIP Deflate engine that will create the smallest possible, yet compatible ZIP files with full multi-core support (as many threads as your CPU supports – 16? 24? It works!). The Advanced Codec Pack – .pa format has been fine tuned for the best compression and speed on the market! For a list of additional changes in the new PowerArchiver 2018, please check out PowerArchiver 2018 Introduction.

We have also implemented a new skinning section on our website, with support for PA 2018 Skins. Check it out now.

PowerArchiver 2018, with the Advanced Codec Pack (.PA), is now available from our download page as well as Patchbeam for PowerArchiver 2018 users. Thank you for your support since 1998!

Here is our latest update to PowerArchiver 2018 – version 18.00.57.

This is a minor update that fixes issue with UNC file paths and ZIP engine, as well as improve default settings in Windows XP. We have also updated Windows Installer setups for business users. For the full list of changes, please go to our forums.

PowerArchiver 2018, with the Advanced Codec Pack (.PA), is now available from our download page as well as Patchbeam for PowerArchiver 2018 users. Thank you for your support since 1998!

Dear users,

We hope you are enjoying your new PowerArchiver 2018 as much as we do!

With PowerArchiver 2018, we have added several, sometimes very different interface options. Let’s try to explain them here:

1. Classic interface – our standard, super fast interface with classic looking toolbar and file menu. It can be thoroughly skinned and skins will be applied to every part of the interface, including system’s open window. It also looks a lot better than Window’s recent half implemented skinning in Windows Explorer. Here are the two main options for Classic interface:
   • Skins – changing skins change various parts of interface, from colors to buttons and check boxes. Between our built in skins and those available on our website, there are 18 skins available right now!
   • Toolbar iconss – Changing toolbar icons will change only the icons on the classic toolbar. There are 3 options – Classic, Modern (Win 10) and Office icons. They can be combined independently with any skin above!



2. Modern interface – our interface with Microsoft Ribbon! It uses your Windows built in Ribbon SDK to ensure maximum speed, memory usage and looks that match rest of the applications for your Windows version. This means that it will appear accordingly between Windows 10 and Windows 7. Modern interface comes with the Office icon set which can also be used in classic interface shown above.

Here are a couple of small tutorials that show how to change between different options:

For more classic interface skins, check out our new skinning section at the following link; clicking here.

PowerArchiver 2018, with the Advanced Codec Pack (.PA), is now available from our download page as well as Patchbeam for PowerArchiver 2018 users. Thank you for your support since 1998!

We are pleased to announce immediate availability of PowerArchiver 2018 18.00.48 – our first minor update to PowerArchiver 2018.

Based on your feedback in past few weeks, we have fixed several issues and updated some translations and today we also release the MSI setups for our Enterprise customers.

Improvements:

• Fixed issue with Modern UI and Windows 7/8 – Fixed issue where part of Modern UI (Ribbon) was not visible if user starts PowerArchiver in maximized mode.
• Improved Advanced Codec Pack – Validates lepton compressed files after encoding, for added peace of mind. File deduplication (rep filter) now works on wav file compression. Other minor changes.
• Other Improvements and Fixes – Various fixes/improvements, translation updates, 20 issues closed. For the full list go to our forums.

PowerArchiver 2018 is the most advanced release of PowerArchiver ever. We made PowerArchiver up to 3x faster, a difference that you will notice immediately. PowerArchiver now uses less memory and still looks great. PowerArchiver 2018 supports tabs which allow multiple archives to be opened within the same PowerArchiver window. We have also implemented a built-in PDF engine for easy and fast previewing of all kinds of PDF files. In addition to all of those changes, we have implemented a much stronger ZIP Deflate engine that will create the smallest possible, yet compatible ZIP files with full multi-core support (as many threads as your CPU supports – 16? 24? It works!). The Advanced Codec Pack – .pa format has been fine tuned for the best compression and speed on the market! For a list of additional changes in the new PowerArchiver 2018, please check out PowerArchiver 2018 Introduction.

We have also implemented a new skinning section on our website, with support for PA 2018 Skins. Check it out now.

PowerArchiver 2018, with the Advanced Codec Pack (.PA), is now available from our download page as well as Patchbeam for PowerArchiver 2018 users. Thank you for your support since 1998!

Dear PowerArchiver Users,

We are pleased to announce immediate availability of PowerArchiver 2018 18.00.31 – our Beta 2 release of PowerArchiver 2018. We hope you had great holidays, that you have rested well and are ready to dive into latest build of PowerArchiver 2018.
The version has moved from 18.00.23 to 18.00.31 and brings various enhancements and fixes.

Improvements:

• Implemented improved comments support – ZIP comments are now improved in the 2018 version with a nice new comment window.
• Support for editing archives inside archives – You can now edit and save changes in archives inside archives. So open up an ZIP file within a ZIP file inside and it will open up in a new tab, and you will be able to edit and save changes to files inside easier than before (works on all supported formats).
• Better archive updating support – Updating multiple archives in multiple tabs now works better.



• Updated Lepton/jpeg engine – Lepton team solved some issues with certain non-standard jpeg images, implemented latest version in PA format (thanks!).
• Smarter handling of encrypted archives – Improved/Smarter adding/updating/working with files inside encrypted archives when advanced features such as password manager, password profiles are used as well as easier updating of encrypted archives in general.
• Solved several AV’s related to the interface – Solved all reported AV’s and exceptions related to the interface.
• Better support for Windows XP shell – Solved several issues with compressing/extracting from PA and 7z files in Windows XP via Windows Explorer (Shell). Overall rewrote shell support for all systems for better stability.
• Other Improvements and Fixes – Various other fixes, overall 57 issues closed. For the full list go to our forums.

PowerArchiver 2018 is the most advanced release of PowerArchiver ever. We made PowerArchiver up to 3x faster, difference that you will notice immediately. It also uses less memory and still looks great. We also implemented a built in PDF engine for easy and fast previewing of all kinds of PDF files. In addition to all those changes, we have implemented a much stronger ZIP Deflate engine that will create smallest possible, yet compatible ZIP files with full multi-core support (as many threads as your CPU supports – 16? 24? It works!) . For full list of changes in the new PowerArchiver 2018, please check out PowerArchiver 2018 Introduction.

We have also implemented a new skinning section on our website, with support for PA 2018 Skins. Check it out now.

PowerArchiver 2018 BETA 2, with the Advanced Codec Pack (.PA), is now available from our download page as well as Patchbeam for PowerArchiver 2018 users. Thank you for your support since 1998!

Dear PowerArchiver Users,

We are pleased to announce immediate availability of PowerArchiver 2018 18.00.23 – our first PowerArchiver 2018 Public Beta. After three weeks of testing and preparation, the first public beta of the 2018 version of PowerArchiver is exclusively released for our PowerArchiver Select users.
The version has moved from 18.00.16 to 18.00.23 and brings various enhancements and fixes.

Improvements:

• Full implementation of the Modern/Ribbon toolbar – we have added back all of the main Modern/Ribbon toolbar features.
• Full skinning support for the Classic toolbar – Skins are available on our skinning page and in the near future we plan on adding more interface skins, toolbar icons and file format icons. Check it out here.
• Improvements to PDF preview – More improvements to the new internal, built-in PDF previewer.
• Tabs support improved – Improved support for tabs. Tabs now support archive in archive editing!
• Other Improvements and Fixes – Various other fixes, overall 57 issues closed. For the full list go to our forums.

For full list of changes in the new PowerArchiver 2018, please check out PowerArchiver 2018 Introduction.

PowerArchiver 2018 BETA, with the Advanced Codec Pack (.PA), is now available from our download page as well as Patchbeam for PowerArchiver 2018 users. Thank you for your support since 1998!

PowerArchiver’s latest update – version 17.01.06, is ready with fixes and improvements. This is a small update that increases optimization of PowerArchiver from the start as well as solves some small reported issues. Several important languages have been updated as well. The update is available on our website, on Patchbeam for fast ring users and will also be available later this week for slow ring users as well.

Release Notes – PowerArchiver – Version 17.01.06

Improvement

• [PA-1195] – disable preview window by default.
• [PA-1198] – disable web locations in MSI business installer for easier installations by Enterprise users (both install and uninstall).
• [PA-1201] – use optimize fast as default on 32bit systems (strong is now the default), to make it faster and optimize memory usage.
• [PA-1213] – Update French, Danish, Hebrew, Korean and Ukrainian languages.

Task

• [PA-1197] – Registration window update

Bug

• [PA-1199] – XML/HTML files no longer previewed in main PA preview window (Type: Internet) – updated preview window with latest code.

More info and discussion on our forums.

Award system for our most dedicated users

With the launch of PowerArchiver 2017, we have a more formal reward system for users that help us in detecting bugs and suggesting improvements. While previously we have given free licenses to our forum users (in 2013 everyone with more than a few posts received a free license, alpha testers always have updated licenses, etc), now there is a more formal system in place which means that everyone who reports bugs will receive a free license or a free Select maintenance plan after a few reports (depending on severity). Check it out on our forums.

PowerArchiver 2017 with Advanced Codec Pack (.PA) is now available from our download page. For more detailed info on specific features, please check other posts in our blog. We hope you will love PA 2017 as much as we do. Thank you for your support since 1998!

You might have noticed in last few versions of PowerArchiver 2017 that we have added a new mp3 compression codec to Advanced Codec Pack (.PA format).

It has been tested with our own alpha tester team for half a year before we introduced it in the final release. The MP3 codec has been proven to be fast, reliable, and it simply has the best MP3 compression on the market.

Design goals for the mp3 codec were to achieve the fastest speed and best compression rates among the competition – namely WinZip (other software such as WinRAR or 7zip don’t have an mp3 codec so they cannot compress mp3 files any further). We specifically targeted high bitrate MP3s that go up to 320kbs (including VBR). That is what most MP3 users are using nowadays and that’s where we can achieve best compression ratio. PowerArchiver’s MP3 codec is multi-core optimized and is up to 4x faster than competition when used on 8 and 16 thread CPU’s.

Examples

For test examples, we have acquired some of the most popular audio albums released in 2017, in MP3 format, and have compared it to WinZip. WinZip has added the popular open source mp3 codec to the ZIPX format to their latest release. On 256kbs and 320kbs mp3 files, PowerArchiver creates up to 5% smaller files at 2x-4x faster speed. PowerArchiver’s mp3 codec can also detect mp3 files better and worked fine with every file we tried, while with WinZip we had one album that did not want to compress via mp3 codec at all (so ended up full size).

We have tested them on 7700HQ (4c/8t) and Ryzen 1700 (8c/16t) CPU’s and were able to archive almost 2x performance boost on Ryzen. Good news for all of the Ryzen owners is that we will further fine tune our support for 16 thread CPU’s and achieve even more speed out of them. Compared to WinZip, PowerArchiver’s mp3 codec is almost 2x faster on 4 core cpu’s and almost 4x faster on 8 core cpus. These excellent speeds at leading compression ratios also leave us space for adding stronger/slower version of the mp3 codec in the future.

PowerArchiver 2017 with Advanced Codec Pack (.PA) is now available from our download page. For more detailed info on specific features, please check other posts in our blog. We hope you will love PA 2017 as much as we do. Thank you for your support since 1998!