There are plenty of free file archiving tools around – you can even use Explorer, if you’re really desperate – but we think the latest release of PeaZip shows it’s still the one to beat.

There’s read support for all the archiving formats you’d expect, for instance: ZIP, TAR, CAB, GZIP and BZIP, old formats like LHA and LZH, some Mac files (DMG/ HFS, though not SIT or SITX), Linux archives (DEB, PET/PUP, RPM, SLP), and more. And the program can also extract the contents of many other file types, including MSI installers, Microsoft Office documents (DOC, XLS, PPT), Windows Help files (CHM), disc images (ISO) and others.

If you’re short on drive space then you might appreciate PeaZip‘s support for the latest PAQ format. It’s slow, but in our tests produces archives around 75% the size of their ZIP equivalents (and that’s using the maximum ZIP compression).

File manipulation options are excellent. You’re able to compare, split and rejoin files, for example. If you’ve added confidential documents to a ZIP file then you can securely delete them in a couple of clicks, so they can’t be undeleted later. And the PeaZip browser makes it easy to manage your files, too, so you can create new folders, rename, copy or move your selections without having to fire up Explorer.

A new archive conversion feature is useful, too. If you want to convert a DEB archive to ZIP, say, then there’s no need to go through the usual manual extract, select and recombine process: just right-click the source archive, select Convert, choose the format you need and PeaZip handles everything else.

And the more you explore, the more interesting abilities you’ll uncover. Bookmarks in the browser help you speedily return to common folders, for instance; there’s very strong security with multiple encryption algorithms; and the program can minimise to your system tray in a couple of clicks, so it takes up the minimum possible space.

Best of all, with portable versions for Linux and Windows, both 32 and 64-bit, you can take and use PeaZip almost anywhere. Could this be the best portable file archiver – or do you use something that’s even better?