Open almost any archive file, quickly, from a familiar interface. That's the promise of PeaZip, an open source file extraction program for Windows and Linux, and it delivers.

You might think there's no free extraction program out there that can match 7zip, a great program for unzipping uncommon archive formats. PeaZip does. It supports extraction from 126 different archive types, includes drag-and-drop extraction and can convert one type of archive to another. Heck, it can even open Apple's .DMG files in Windows or Linux.

PeaZip does all this with an interface users of commercial products like WinRAR or WinZIP will find completely familiar.

Basic Usage

Fire up PeaZip and you'll see what looks like a file browser. It's when you open a file that things become interesting. Here's me taking a look at an ISO:

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Nothing too exciting, of course, but if I start dragging a file I get this helpful popup:

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This is fantastic if you want to very quickly extract a certain file. If you want to extract everything from a given file that's easy too: just press the big "extract" button.

PeaZip supports an insane number of archive types, which is nice. What I like is that Mac's .DMG archive is supported, giving Linux and Windows users a way to open these files. Here's me looking at the contents of the iLife '09 DVD:

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This just might come in handy for you, if you're the sort of person who works on multiple platforms.

Sometimes you don't want to simply extract information; you want to convert one sort of archive file (RAR) to one your less tech-savvy friends are more likely to be able to open (ZIP). Not a problem. Just click the "Convert" button after highlighting a given archive:

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You'll only be able to convert files to formats PeaZip supports creating, of course, so keep reading for that list. But this feature is a very useful way to make any archive cross-platform and easy to share.

Supported File Types

126 formats is a big claim, but PeaZip backs this claim up on their website. Of course, many of these formats can only be opened by PeaZip; a few can be created by the program as well. Here is, from the PeaZip website, a rundown of what formats the application can work with:

Creation: 7z, FreeArc's arc/wrc, sfx (7z and arc), bz2, gz, paq/lpaq/zpaq, pea, quad/balz, split, tar, upx, zip

Opening: 7z, bz, bz2, bzip2, tbz2, tbz, gz, gzip, tgz, tpz, tar, zip, z01, smzip, arj, cab, chm, chi, chq, chw, hxs, hxi, hxr, hxq, hxw, lit, cpio, deb, lzh, lha, rar, r01, 00, rpm, z, taz, tz, iso, jar, ear, war, lha, pet, pup, pak, pk3, pk4, slp, xpi, wim, u3p, lzma86, lzma, udf, xar, dmg, hfs, part1, split, swm, tpz, kmz, xz, txz, vhd, mslz, apm, mbr, fat, ntfs, exe, dll, sys, msi, msp, ods, ots, odm, oth, oxt, odb, odf, odg, otg, odp, otp, odt, ott, gnm, doc, dot, xls, xlt, ppt, pps, pot, docx, dotx, xlsx, xltx, swf, flv, quad, balz, zpaq, paq8f, paq8jd, paq8l, paq8o, lpaq1, lpaq5, lpaq8, ace, arc, wrc, 001, pea, cbz, cbr, cba, cb7, cbt and more.

Be sure to check out PeaZip's technical specifications if you want to learn more about the program and how it works.

Download

Ready to start using PeaZip? Awesome. Just head over to PeaZip's website to find installation instructions for Windows and Linux. You'll even find a portable version of PeaZip for both Windows and Linux, meaning you can take file extraction with you just about everywhere.

PeaZip is, unusually, not in the Ubuntu repositories, so check the above link even if you're used to using the repo for everything. Weird, I know, but you'll find a nice .deb file for easy installation.

Like this program? Tell us why below. Also feel free to tell us what extraction program you like best, and why.