For introductory information, please see the section entitled Brief Tutorial - Adding Files.

This section explains how to use the standard Add dialog box for Adding files to the Archive.

There are several other ways to add files to an archive:

• Directly from Windows Explorer, as described in the section entitled Windows Shell Integration
• By using the the Drag and Drop interface

To add files to an archive, click on the Add button on the toolbar or select Add… from the Actions menu (only in the Classic interface). This will bring up the Add dialog box.

You can choose files and folders by selecting them from the list, just as you would if you were creating a new archive. Select multiple files by using the standard methods (holding shift or ctrl keys).

Here you can find a detailed list of options available in the standard Add Dialog Box, used when you are creating new archives or adding files to an existing archive.

• File list - lets you select files and folders that you want to add to the archive.
• Files - you will see names of files and folders selected here.

• Add - adds all specified files to the archive.
• Update - similar to Freshen, but it also adds any specified files that are not already in the archive.
• Freshen - updates files already in the archive that have the same names as files being added.
• Move - works similar to Add, except those files are actually deleted from the disk after they are added.

• Optimized – automatically selects best compression method to use based on file extension. Up to 50% better compression than deflate. Compatible only with PowerArchiver 2011, WinZip 12 and above (.ZIPX).
• Deflate – most commonly used compression method that is compatible with all zip compression utilities (ZIP).
• LZMA – strong compression method, up to 50% better than deflate. Compatible only with PowerArchiver 2011, WinZip 12 and 7-Zip.
• BZ2 – slightly better compression than deflate. Compatible with more utilities but not all.
• PPMd – optimized for text compression. Compatible only with PowerArchiver 2011, WinZip 12 and 7-Zip.
• Wavpack – optimized for lossless wav compression. Compatible only with PowerArchiver 2011 and WinZip 12.
• Store – simply copies files without any compression.

• Optimized Strong – automatically selects best compression method to use based on file extension. Many different codecs and filters are used to achieve best possible compression at decent speed. For more info on Advanced Codec Pack go here: http://www.powerarchiver.com.
• Optimized Fast – automatically selects best compression method to use based on file extension. Priority in Optimized Fast mode is speed of compression and extraction. At minimum there should be 50 MB/s speed for extraction of files, depending on your HDD. Up to 400 MB/s is possible depending on settings selected, with compression always better than ZIP .
• PLZMA4 – strong compression method. Multi-thread optimized, including multi-thread extraction. Unique coder is used for Ultra and Extreme strength levels.
• Zstandard – Super fast compression and extraction, up to 400-500 MBs with SSD.
• PPMd_sh – advanced CM based coder, works well on text.
• Store – simply copies files without any compression.

• Optimized – automatically selects best compression method to use based on file extension. Up to 50% better compression than deflate.
• LZMA – strong compression method.
• LZMA2 – strong compression method.
• PPMd – optimized for text compression.
• Store – simply copies files without any compression.

• Extreme – Best compression possible at slower speed. Extra extensions are added to stronger codecs to ensure maximum compression.
• Ultra – Very strong compression with decent speed. Still very usable.
• Maximum – Good balance between maximum compression, good extraction speed and less memory usage.
• Normal/Fast/Super fast – Options that are more optimized for speed than compression. Low memory usage.

• Encryption - works with Zip, PA, 7zip and BH archives.

• Disabled - disables encryption for ZIP archives.
• PK 2.04g - creates standard ZIP archives, with weak encryption but readable by all Zip utilities.
• AES 128-bits - creates encrypted ZIP archives with AES 128-bit encryption, readable by newer Zip utilities (PowerArchiver 9.xx, PkZip 8.xx, WinZip 9.xx, etc).
• AES 192-bits - creates encrypted ZIP archives with AES 192-bit encryption, readable by newer Zip utilities (PowerArchiver 9.xx, PkZip 8.xx, WinZip 9.xx, etc).
• AES 256-bits - creates encrypted ZIP archives with AES 256-bit encryption, readable by newer Zip utilities (PowerArchiver 9.xx, PkZip 8.xx, WinZip 9.xx, etc).

• Disabled - disables encryption for ZIP archives.
• Secure AES 256-bits - creates PA archives with AES 256-bit encryption. For added security, we use the BWTS algorithm to scramble the data before AES, so attackers can not use LZ compression redundancy and other plaintext attacks to quickly check if given password is valid. This makes .pa format considerably more secure than ZIP AES. For the AES encryption module, we use FIPS 140-2 validated modules from Windows so you can rest assured that AES implementation has been tested and validated (FIPS 140-2 encryption module is always used).
• Encrypt Filenames - encrypts file names inside archive so they can not be seen before correct password is used.

• Disabled - disables encryption for ZIP archives.
• AES 256-bits - creates 7zip archives with AES 256-bit encryption.
• Encrypt Filenames - encrypts file names inside archive so they can not be seen before correct password is used.

Please Note While PK 2.04g encryption can be read by all Zip utilities, this method uses weak encryption that can be easily broken. You should use .PA encryption, 7-Zip or ZIP AES encryption if you require real security. We do not recommend using both 7-Zip/ZIP Encryption and .PAE encryption at the same time.

• Profile: - lets you select compression profile you want to use. If you did not setup any profiles in Configuration> Profiles, it will use default compression profile. Click here to learn more about Compression Profiles.
• Add to Queue - adds action to the PowerArchiver Queue feature. PowerArchiver Starter is required to be running if you want to use Queue features.

If PowerArchiver Starter is not running when you select Add to Queue, PowerArchiver will show an warning and give you an option to enable it.

• Include System and Hidden files - adds files marked 'system' or 'hidden' by Windows. By default, this option is checked.
• Include Subfolders - will add all files in the subfolders of a specified directory.
• Encrypt archive to .PAE - activates Encryption Tool after compression (.pae).
• Write directly into ZIP - lets you add files to an existing ZIP directly, without using temporary folder first. This feature is very useful when handling large archives.
• Use Deflate64 - uses more advanced Deflate64 compression algorithm that is compatible with only the PkZip 4.5 standard. These archives can be read only with applications supporting the PkZip 4.5 standard.
• Create Solid Archive - This option will let you create a Solid archive. All the files in the Solid archives are treated as one big file, which lets you achieve much better compression. Solid archives can not been updated or changed in normal usage. However, by using transparent 7-Zip updating support in PowerArchiver, you will be able to update solid 7-Zip archives as well. CAB format uses Solid archives by default while with 7-Zip you can turn it on and off (only shown if 7-Zip is used).
• Use optimized compression - Optimizes 7-Zip compression so it automatically detects what compression method to use for both stronger and faster compression (only shown if 7-Zip is used).

Lets you choose how you want file path information saved:

• Store relative paths - PowerArchiver will store any folder path information specified in the file listing. (e.g. if you selected C:\temp\disk\ to archive, PowerArchiver will save the path information for files and subfolders under the disk directory)

Please Note: When relative path is chosen, and if you select only one folder to be added to the archive, PowerArchiver will act as if you selected all of the files in the folder and not the actual folder. You can turn this option off by enabling Configuration> Miscellaneous> Use normal relative path.

• Store full paths - PowerArchiver will store full path information for all files. (e.g. if you selected C:\temp\disk\ to archive, PowerArchiver will save the path as temp\disk\).
• Do not store paths - does not store any path information. PowerArchiver will warn you if you have the same filenames in different subdirectories, since that renders this option useless.

• Burn to CD/DVD/Blu-Ray… - burns archive via PowerArchiver Burner.
• Send to FTP Server… - uploads archive to the FTP server via PowerArchiver FTP.
• Send via E-mail… - sends archive as attachment via your default E-mail client.

Multiple disk spanning allows you to create multi-volume archives (ZIP & 7zip only). Spanning offers the following options for controlling the size of each volume:

• Automatic - it will prompt for another diskette when the diskette on which you are creating the ZIP file is full (zip only).
• Custom - allows you to select custom volume sizes; you can enter sizes in kilobytes (kB). Enter values in Max volume size: box.
• No Spanning - PowerArchiver will not attempt to create a multi-volume archive.

• Max. Volume Size - lets you set volume size of the spanned archive (only when Custom is selected).

• PkZip 4.5 - makes PkZip 4.5 compatible archives, readable by newer versions of all popular compression utilities. Naming scheme: test.zip.zip, test.zip.z01, test.zip.z02, etc.
• PkZip/PA 7.0 - makes archives that are compatible with both PkZip and PowerArchiver 7.xx. Naming scheme: test.zip, test.z01, test.z02, etc.
• PowerArchiver (older versions) Compatible - creates archives that are compatible with PowerArchiver 6.xx or earlier. Last file needs to be opened in order for PA to recognize spanned archive. This Mode is only recommended for use when you need to send files to people with PowerArchiver 6.xx or lower. Naming scheme: test001.zip, test002.zip, etc.

• Smart - tries to use VSS only for files that can not be accessed usually (detection of what is accessible and what is not is 90% reliable).
• Disabled - Never uses VSS support.
• Always use with extensions: - Set extensions on which VSS will always be used. This is useful for files such as *.pst and *.docx where their programs will let PowerArchiver read only portion of the file so Smart mode can not work correctly.