Portable PIM

Archiving utilities have been around for quite a while now, and were once used to save disk space by compressing a bunch of files. Some archives can be processed through Windows default tools, but there are also many alternatives, some of which managing to build solid reputations. For instance, Portable PIM aims to be your personal archiving tool.

Just as the name clearly points out, this edition of PIM requires no installation in order to function. As such, it works just fine even from a thumb drive in case you want to carry it around to use on any computer you get to work on. Moreover, runtime doesn’t have an impact on stability, because registry entries are not altered in the process.

This archiving tool comes with its own file format, namely PIM, but it can also be associated with several other archive types. Unfortunately, this support is rather poor, and you’re only able to make it work for BALZ, QUAD, ZIP, JAR, PK3, PK4, and PAK. This edition doesn’t integrate in the context menu, but choosing it as a default program for supported formats works just as well.

Since there’s no context menu integration, it can take a little while to build an archive. The program needs to be fired up first, and a new archive created. Only then can you start to add files or folders either through the browse dialogs or through a drag and drop operation.

On the other hand, compression ratio is pretty impressive, and you’re able to save some good deal of disk space through this tool. There are also several compression options at your disposal, in case you just want to create an archive fast.

Last but not least, Portable PIM is devoid of advanced options, such as adding a password, or creating an archive out of multiple parts for better distribution. Overall, it can be worth your while in case you’re mostly looking for a simple method of creating and extracting archives, but with little support for popular types.