Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Archiving And Passwords But Were Afraid to Ask
Just had some free time and wanted to share with you lot what I found troublesome/interesting about archiving and passwords.
Un/Archiving files
Probably the most common operation during our computer's up-time.
7-zip (free)
It's free, it's fast, it's easily configurable, it's got a native 64-bit version, it uses multicore CPU's, it integrates itself with Window's menu, and AFAIK there is no cracker-tool for 7zipped password-protected archives. It can't create RAR archives nor unpack LZX and ACE archives. :(
ArchiveXpert (shareware)
Recommended by Hessu, has a complete built-in support (including creating archives and adding files) for ZIP, CAB, LHA, LZH, TAR, JAR, GZ and BH (BlakHole) files, and built-in support for reading and extracting many other file formats: ACE (including new ACE v2 format), ARC, ARJ, ENC, HA, PAK, PK3, PK_, RAR, TGZ, Z and ZOO (NO external programs are required for any operation).
KGB Archiver (free)
Recommended by rkauer, it supports a few formats and has a better compression ratio then 7zip. May have some archive problems with different (beta) versions. No 64-bit version... boo. :p
PeaZip (free)
Recommended by xc8, it supports many formats (~110). There's a native 64-bit version, plus a portable one, available for both Windows and Linux.
Universal Extractor (free)
Recommended by Merlin, it integrates into Windoze, so that right-clicking to start it becomes second nature. It supports loads of formats so I don't need loads of progs to unarch certain files. It's the canine's cahonies in my opinion! There's no 64-bit version.
UnLZX (free)
We Amiga freaks sometimes have to deal with LZX archives. Unfortunately it has no GUI, so we have to type our commands like in the good old days, or create a batch file. ;)
WinACE (shareware)
From time to time (let's say once a year ;)) I stumble upon a strange ACE archive on the interwebz, and can't unpack it with anything except this tool. One of those "install and forget" proggies. ;)
WinRAR (shareware)
The classic. Recommended by Kin Hell it's the only Compression to use on a PeeCee & it has a choice of most compression formats going including .iso. Not Lha sadly. :neutral:
WinZIP (shareware)
The classic.
Unpacking many files protected with different passwords
Sometimes we grab a few dozens of files, each one is archived AND each of that archives is protected with a different password. Oh boy, typing each one by one can take some time, so why not store all passwords in a separate file and "tell" some proggie to do everything for us? :)
JDownloader (free)
Not exactly an archiver, more like a download manager, but it's got a cool UnRAR plugin that auto-magically unpacks downloaded RAR files or those selected by user. You have to type all passwords in the UnRAR's options inside JDownloader's options.
Unrar it! (free)
The only unpacking proggie I found that can unpack multiple password protected archives, by reading passwords from a txt file.
Tried it with RAR, ZIP and ZIP-SFX (exe) archives, and it appears to work just fine. Grab your dictionary though, it's German only.
(The homepage mentioned in this program seems to be kinda illegal, not to mention I can't find the program itself on the site, so I've searched Google and posted the mirrored file located on megaupload.com)
Unpacking a file protected with an unknown password
Sometimes our memory has some buffer-overflow and boom, we forget our archive's password. A tough one. Basically we can't do anything about it but use brute-force. And that takes time...
Advanced Archive Password Recovery (shareware)
Supports many formats (compared to those two below ;)) ZIP/PKZip/WinZip, RAR/WinRAR, as well as ARJ/WinARJ, and ACE/WinACE (1.x)
RAR Password Recovery (shareware)
RAR only. Sometimes may be more compatible and/or faster.
Visual Zip Password Recovery Processor (shareware)
ZIP only. Sometimes may be more compatible and/or faster.
Removing an unwanted password from a file
The best way to "remove" a password from an archive, is to simply re-pack it without one. That is, assuming we know it. If we don't - see above. ;)
When it comes to other files, I'm all into preventing the file from getting edited, but I hate it when they make me type the password every time I want to view it.
PDF Password Remover (shareware)
Had to use it only once, and, erm, it worked. Not much to say about that ;)
