Compression tools-compression rate

What would you suggest for a high compression rate program, a program like winzip or winrar. It would have to be free.

Thanks,
RM3

I don't know about the big compression tools, but the Freeware 7-Zip is an excellent tool in decompression and, I believe, compression as well. Its "native" file format is .7z, which is quite flexible in terms of compression methods/rates, though you need to do a little tinkering and file-searching on your own to get the best results.

I'm just an amateur though, so yeah. I just use the thing for my all-in-one decompress everything, since I'm too cheap to pay for WinRAR and Winzip both.

WinUHA archiver, which has not been updated for a while, has reasonable compression abilities. Worth a try.

You could also give Winace a try (I'm assuming you want a windows tool, right?).
Haven't checked it in a while, but it used to be much like Winzip - shareware, can try it for free for 30 days, after which you can still use it, but it tells you that you should register it. Just like Winzip, as I said.

Frankly, unless you have a good reason for wanting to squeeze every single bit out of your archives, they all do pretty much the same job these days.
I've created archive tens-of-megs-big with each of them, and the differences were negligible.

edit: clarifying a bit.

Ok, thanks guys. You have been a big help.



RM3