Compression News and Articles

7-Zip 25.00 adds support for more than 64 threads on Windows

7-Zip version 25.00 introduces support for over 64 CPU threads on Windows, enabling the software to fully leverage high-core processors like AMD Threadripper and Intel Xeon. This release also improves bzip2 and deflate compression performance, making it a notable update for users on multi-core systems.

By Ivan Franco, July 7, 2025, 2:40 PM

Software Download of the Week

A solid free alternative to WinRAR and 7-Zip, PeaZip launches version 10.5.0

PeaZip is a free file archiver for Windows, Linux, and macOS that supports over 200 formats, including ZIP, 7z, RAR, ISO, and TAR. Built on 7-Zip and Zstandard, it features AES encryption, secure deletion, file hashing, and a built-in file manager.

By Ivan Franco, June 16, 2025, 12:03 PM

Electronics Gaming

Horizon Forbidden West runs at 8K 120Hz on Samsung TV via HDMI 2.1 in world-first demo

With a few caveats

By Rob Thubron, April 27, 2025, 9:47 AM 21 comments

Software Download of the Week

WinRAR 7.10 improves privacy with Mark-of-the-Web support

WinRAR 7.10 adds support for Windows Mark-of-the-Web (MoTW), giving users the option to apply or omit security flags on extracted files. The update also improves performance, enhances dark mode, and must be downloaded manually as WinRAR lacks an automatic update system.

By Ivan Franco, February 20, 2025, 11:38 AM

Hardware Gaming

Nvidia's new texture compression tech slashes VRAM usage by up to 95%

Neural networks can apparently work wonders in reducing VRAM requirements for real-time graphics

By Alfonso Maruccia, February 10, 2025, 2:03 PM 45 comments

Software Download of the Week

PSA: 7-Zip vulnerability bypasses Windows security - update now

A high-severity vulnerability in 7-Zip has been discovered, allowing attackers to bypass Windows' Mark-of-the-Web (MotW) security feature and execute malicious code during file extraction. 7-Zip lacks an auto-update function, requiring users to manually update the software.

By Ivan Franco, January 23, 2025, 5:10 PM

Software Tech Culture

Tiny 11 can shrink Windows 11 24H2 installation from 30GB to less than 4GB

Windows 11 made to fit on a single DVD, using all kinds of tricks

By Kishalaya Kundu, October 18, 2024, 11:03 AM 8 comments

Hardware Software

Startup aims to tackle AI bottlenecks with novel memory compression techniques

Squeezing more out of existing hardware, much more

By Zo Ahmed, October 8, 2024, 11:39 AM

The Web Electronics

New haptic feedback standard vows to bring a sense of touch to the internet

Feel the Bit: A recently released standard aims to solve the technology issues related to haptic feedback sent through the internet, bringing a whole new sense to network-powered applications. As with streaming, compression will be instrumental in achieving this ambitious goal.

Full story By Alfonso Maruccia, July 29, 2024, 12:04 PM

Gaming Software

AMD's neural texture compression could reduce storage and VRAM requirements

Neural compression method appears similar to one Nvidia proposed last year

By Daniel Sims, June 26, 2024, 4:54 PM

Microsoft Software

Windows 11 File Explorer adds version control, 7z, and TAR compression support

More productivity features from Microsoft this week

By Zo Ahmed, May 22, 2024, 7:38 AM

Mobile Google

New AV1 software decoder coming to Android promises improved video experience

The "best" AV1 software decoder is being released via an over-the-air update

By Alfonso Maruccia, April 22, 2024, 7:39 AM

The Web Google

Google's new coding library aims to improve the JPEG image format on the web

A technology designed to make the internet faster and "more beautiful"

By Alfonso Maruccia, April 8, 2024, 7:41 AM 8 comments

How Does JPEG Work? Understanding the Subtle Beauty of Image Compression

FEATURE By Abdulrahman Mahmoud, February 5, 2024, 6:07 AM TechSpot Tech Culture

At a high level, JPEG is a lossy image compression technique. What you may not realize is that achieving this required a fascinating blend of human perception, elegant signal processing, and clever engineering prowess.

Let's begin with a visual challenge: What are the colors of the tiles marked as A and B in the image?

Software Microsoft

Windows 11 adds native support for RAR, 7-Zip, Tar and other archive formats thanks to open-source library

When RAR and Zip archives are not enough, the libarchive project comes to the rescue

By Alfonso Maruccia, October 30, 2023, 9:16 AM

Download of the Week Software

WinRAR 7 introduces 64GB dictionaries, backend improvements

WinRAR 7 beta improves compression and handling of multi-gig archives through compression dictionaries of up to 64GB.

By Erik Orejuela, October 23, 2023, 3:40 PM

Software Security

A new pixel-stealing exploit can read usernames and passwords across websites

Google and GPU vendors don't see a need to respond

By Daniel Sims, September 27, 2023, 5:04 PM 7 comments

Download of the Week Software

Caesium is a free desktop app for image optimization

Caesium offers up to 90% size reduction of JPG, PNG, and WebP images while maintaining picture quality. The app focuses on image compression with batch processing features. Compression level is adjustable, while also offering lossless compression and custom metadata options.

By Erik Orejuela, August 22, 2023, 5:38 PM

Microsoft Software

Windows finally adds native support for RAR files

Three decades later...

By Shawn Knight, May 25, 2023, 11:00 AM 11 comments

Software Gaming

Nvidia details Neural Texture Compression, claims significant improvements over traditional methods

How does 16 times the resolution with less VRAM usage sound?

By Adrian Potoroaca, May 5, 2023, 5:49 PM 32 comments

Software Download of the Week

WinRAR 6.20 offers faster RAR5 compression

WinRAR 6.20 is now available for Windows, macOS and Linux. This release improves RAR5 compression performance on modern CPUs, improves the "Repair" command efficiency and fixes a memory leak when reading contents of ".tar.bz2" archives.

By Ivan Franco, January 23, 2023, 12:17 PM

Software The Web

Stable Diffusion: weird for visual arts, a boon for image compression algorithms?

In a nutshell: Stable Diffusion is a phenomenal example of how much a picture is worth more than a thousand words. In fact, by cutting the image-generation text prompt altogether, the visual AI could be used to get a highly compressed, high quality image file.

Full story By Alfonso Maruccia, September 28, 2022, 12:54 PM

Software Download of the Week

WinRAR is now Windows 11 optimized, adds .zst and .zipx support

WinRAR 6.10 adds support for Windows 11 context menus. This latest version can also extract .zst and .zipx archives. WinRAR is available to download for Windows, macOS and Linux.

By Ivan Franco, January 25, 2022, 7:21 AM

Gaming Hardware

The PlayStation 5's compression tech can drastically reduce game file sizes

Subnautica eats up 5GB on PS5, 14GB on PS4

By Cohen Coberly, May 21, 2021, 5:12 PM 44 comments

How to Recover Data From a Corrupt ZIP File

FEATURE By TechSpot Staff, July 23, 2018, 6:36 AM TechSpot Software

As what may be the most common way to store and share multiple files, the ZIP file format is used by essentially everyone online. With that said, there's a good chance you'll eventually come across one that has been corrupted, but everything's not lost.