PeaZip online help, zip unzip tutorial

Organize > Applications allows to set association with custom programs and scripts to open / scan files inside archives or in the file system (i.e. custom file viewers, virus scanners etc).

On the top of the app's window, the tool bar contains file compression and archive extraction related functions, and "..." Style button (on the right) providing quick UI customization settings.

• In the upper area are listed most common extraction operations: extract all to, allowing to select output directory (CTrl+E or F12), extract all here (Ctrl+Alt+E), extract all to desktop (Ctrl+Shift+E), extract all to documents (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E), extract to 1..3° bookmarked paths (if defined), and extract to default extraction path (if defined). Only first, second and third bookmarks are shown as quick extraction destination to not clutter the menu, but bookmarks 1..8 are all accessible with keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+1..8. Ctrl+0 extracts to previous path.
  
• In the lower area it is possible to set most common extraction options: extract to new folder, naming policy (only for formats supported through 7z frontend), open output path after the task completes, set default extraction path.

Address bar contains navigation and search controls. It features a bredcrumb (which shows highlighted in-archive nodes for maximum ease of use), and a quick navigation menu (arrow button on the left of address bar): a similar menu for quick path's selection is available to set output path in extraction and compression interfaces (see below).

On the left, navigation bar shows most common filesystem's paths (desktop, documents, downloads etc) and user defined bookmarks; it can be switched to a classic directory tree, a list of PeaZip zipper / unzipper functions by name, or hidden (Organize > Navigation bar).

PeaZip context menu

PeaZip's context menu shows archive management features in the top area: compress, decompress (unzip / unrar...), test, set password...
In “Open with…” area it is possible to force opening the input file as it is an archive, and to open selected files and folders (in filesystem as well inside archives) with favourite programs, scan with antivirus/antimalware etc; custom applications can be set in Options > Settings > Open with...
In "File manager" submenu are featured mass rename, secure file deletion, copy, move, rename and create new folder functions; its "File tools" submenu allows to find duplicate files and to calculate checksum or hash of selected/displayed files.
The application's context menu features other useful functions, like add objects to PeaZip's bookmarks, explore paths with system's file manager, open command prompt in the current path etc...

Set password

In the status bar, in the bottom area of the application, the padlock icon allows to set password to browse and extract encrypted archives.

Drag & Drop

PeaZip free file archiver supports standard Windows drag and drop extraction, and provides oprimized drag and drop extraction that can drag from application to system without writing data to system's temp directory: this allows the software to complete the operation even if there is not enough free space in system's unit, it doubles the speed if data is being dropped to a different disk or partition, and it is intrinsically more secure as no data is written outside the intended destination.
Drag from app to system can be used both for extraction form archives and for robust file copy.
PeaZip also accepts drag and drop from system to application, to add files to archive (new or existing) or to add one or more archives to extraction list.

Preview files with PeaZip

Double clicking on a file in archive open it as preview; if the file is changed PeaZip will ask to update the archive with the newer version of the file - if archive extension is known as supported for this this operation.


PeaZip's file manager can optionally show supported image thumbnails (JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP), without caching; the option can be set in Organize (main menu) or changing file browser's style from "..." Style menu in the tool bar - pre set styles features details, list and large icon modes.

File archiving / Conversion interface: rightclick on the file list to show context menu to further edit the list of files and folders to be archived, and other options.
"Output" area allows to select output path, archiving format, compression level, and to span files in multiple volumes - useful in order to keep output size below a mandatory maximum size, i.e. for e-mail attachments.
The padlock icon shows if encryption password is set and allows to set/change/remove it.
In file archiving interface it is featured "Convert existing archives" option, to extract existing archives before file compression stage - i.e. to convert RAR files to 7Z or ZIP format.
This option, used with "Add each object to a separate archive" option enabled, performs a mass conversion of listed archives to the desired format; otherwise, with the option disabled, archive conversion is meant to consolidate input data in a single archive, improving data compression performances because it allows recompression of the original data from its uncompressed form.
Advanced format specific file compression features are available in "Advanced" tab,  "Console" and "Schedule" tab can be used to fine tune the task definition or to save and schedule the task as a script.

• Full supported (read/write, convert to) archive formats: 7z, FreeArc's arc/wrc, sfx (as 7z and arc self extracting archives), bz2, gz, paq/lpaq/zpaq, pea, quad/balz/bcm, rar (if WinRar is installed in the system), split, tar, upx, wim, zip / zipx
  

Read more about how to add files to a new archive or how to compress each file into a separate archive.

Extraction interface: rightclick on the file list to show context menu to further edit the list of files and folders to be extracted (decompressed), and other options.
Editable extraction list allows to partially extract data from the archive, extract all, or to extract from multiple archives at once, even of mixed types - e.g. unrar all RAR archives while unzipping all ZIP archives in the list in a single pass.
The padlock icon shows if password is set and allows to set/change/remove it.
It is possible to set the policy in case of conflict with existing files: skip (default), overwrite, rename existing files, rename extracted files, or to ask interactively (in backend process' console).
Extract then move to destination switch supersedes naming conflict policy, and uses standard system's dialogs to interactively ask to users whether to overwrite existing files or not.
This type of interactive extraction allows more natural behavior for extraction tasks for the typical workflow of a desktop user, but policy method is preferable when it is needed to run unatteded extraction tasks (the action to take in case of existing files is already defined at the beginning of the task), and when it is needed to export task definition as console script.
While performing a partial extraction of content from an archive, it is featured a link to switch to full archive extraction, on the top of the list of objects listed for extraction.
Advanced format specific extraction features are available in "Advanced" tab, "Console" and "Schedule" tab can be used to fine tune the task definition or to save and schedule the task as a script.

PeaZip free zip / unzip app, on Linux, and BSD systems supporting multiple desktop environments and widgetsets, is a desktop neutral utility and as long as the needed libraries are installed (GTK2 or Qt, and ia32-libs on 64 bit systems) it can be used on KDE, Gnome or other desktop environments.

PeaZip is a fully modular software due to its frontend/backend architecture, so any backend binary can be independently replaced with alternative versions (i.e. 64 bit versions) as long as the same syntax is supported.
This design allows also to easily export tasks defined in the GUI as command lines, to be used for future iterations of the same task, or for learning purpose, or to fine tune the operation beyiond the scope and limits of the graphical interface.