As its name clearly suggests, this program allows you both to create archive files and to extract their contents for free. The program is capable of handling all the major archive file formats, such as ZIP, RAR, 7Z, ARJ, and TAR, besides its own proprietary format, B1. B1 Free Archiver also provides you with excellent compression rates and speeds, and allows you to create secure, password-protected archive files with 256-bit AES encryption.
The program offers you a nice and friendly user interface that includes a practical file navigator. With it, you can browse through the files and folders of your file system and select one or more of them. There is also a special panel where the program displays some properties about your last selected file, such as its name, size, and modification date. This panel also includes a button labeled as "Launch", whose function is to allow you to open, edit or execute the selected file, depending on its type. However, when you select an archive file (e.g., a RAR file), the "Extract" button also allows you to extract the contents of such file to the specified folder.
When, on the other hand, you select multiple files or folders, you can also press the "Create" button to produce a new archive file with the selected elements. A new window will open, and here you can set the archive file name and location, the split policy, and, optionally, a password. The program allows you to split your archive files by selecting one of the fixed values provided, ranging from 16MB to the size of a DVD-10 (8.75GB), though this is just one of the options. If you happen to be an advanced user, you may want to select one of the compression modes listed ─ store, smart, classic, maximum, and ultra. Unfortunately, the program allows you to create archive files in B1 or ZIP formats only.
Finally, I will also mention that the program includes a settings window where you can configure all the parameters related to the program’s behavior, such as the default open action and the related file associations. To conclude, I will say that B1 Free Archiver is, in general terms, an excellent tool to create and manage archive files that offers very good compression rates and speeds. Besides being a free program, it is also open source – thus, if you are a programmer, you can download its source code and improve it to fit your needs.
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