Where can I download a free File Compression Program and how do I use one?

Question

I've tried to upload videos to my storage on Windows Live and Photobucket but they are too large. Windows Live says I need a File Compression Program. Where can I find one to download for free that's safe? What exactly does it do and how do I use it? How does it work? I have a Windows 7 laptop and I heard that Windows Movie Maker helps Compress videos but I only have Windows Live Movie Maker. Is it the same as the regular Windows Movie Maker that was on Windows XP? If not than what do I do? Do you have to save a video first? What if you already have a video saved and you just want to compress it?

I heard of winzip, winrar and 7zip to Compress files but I don't know what they are?

Please help!

Answer 1

Well, to start with file compression programs are used as it says virtually reduces the size of files.

But they don't actually reduce it to a considerable capacity an d the range may vary between 1-50% of original size depending upon the redundancy of your files.And also the other other advantages of these compressed files is that they do not execute unless extracted form they compressed status to their original size.And so malicious coding do not execute in a compressed state.You can also split a single large file into many smaller ones.For example, a 1GB file can be split into 4 256MB files or any size you prefer.This is called archiving.Once you install any of the compression software, just right click on the file you are about to compress and there would be a list of options displayed regarding compressing.

Considering you are about to upload videos i'd actually recommend you to convert them to a lower size format using video converter software but it would be under a risk of lowering the quality of your videos.

Note that compression software such as winrar,winzip or 7zip would only reduce the size of your to a maximum of upto 10% while converting them to a lower quality format may reduce it to upto 70%.

In any case 7-zip is one of my favourite compression software and its free too.

And also here's a video on how to compress files using 7zip.

Answer 2

Videos can not be compressed because they are already compressed!



You see, all popular video formats on the internet are already compressed. For example, AVI, MPG, Mp4, MKV are popular video compression formats.



To compress video files you need different kind of software - not file compression tools like 7Zip or WinRAR.



I would recommend you to try this:



http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/



This software is capable of editing and compressing any video. You can change settings inside that program or even setup maximum available output size.



Remember: The higher compression results in lower video output.

Answer 3

Here I got Winrar for free http://j.mp/1r2fvYu

It works very well.

Regards