DVDFab Virtual Drive is a free virtual drive that mounts up to eighteen DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD drives at once and reads eight image formats. It once carried the name ExplorerFab, and version 2.0.0.5 is the package on the download page now.

lzop compresses files through the LZO library, ships under the GPL, and puts speed ahead of ratio on both sides of the job. Version 1.04 defaults to level 3 and keeps the source file, which suits backup archives.

BZip3 compresses text and source code without loss, pushes the block ceiling from 1 MiB up to 511 MiB, adds a Lempel-Ziv predictor ahead of the transform, swaps in context mixing for entropy coding, and ships six command line tools.

ImgBurn is a free disc burning tool from LIGHTNING UK! that splits the work into five modes: reading a disc, building an image, writing one, verifying the result and testing the drive. It handles twelve image formats plus audio and video discs, and the final release dates from 2013.

XZ Utils is free general purpose data compression software built on LZMA2, producing the .xz format that source packages and firmware images so often use, with a liblzma library other programs can call directly.

A virtual drive and disc image tool whose free tier already mounts ISO and other common images as virtual devices, and can turn a disc, an audio CD or a folder into an image file for the archive.

A built in Windows wizard that turns a pile of files into one self extracting EXE or a CAB without installing anything, with eight command line switches and automatic cleanup of the temporary files after it runs.

A small utility that opens, converts, burns and copies disc images without a manual, costs nothing for personal use, and stays out of the way the rest of the year.

Optical and raw disk images mount as ordinary drives with a letter, open in the file manager, and unmount without a trace. Read only mounting protects the evidence, and a RAM disk is faster than any physical one.

A small installer, a quick start and no attempt to sell you something else: Zipware handles the common archive formats, adds a multi engine scan to the right click menu, and stays free for business use too.

Optical drives have not retired yet, and the built in burning in Windows is barely enough. This free tool turns the job into a wizard: pick a type, drop files, start. Images and disc copies included.

NanaZip keeps everything that made 7-Zip reliable and replaces only the shell: a Fluent interface that follows the system dark mode, a context menu that belongs in Windows 11, modern icons and dialogs. The engine is merged forward from upstream, and the project ships under a permissive licence.

FreeArc is the archiver Bulat Ziganshin built around one obsession: pick the algorithm per file type, then stack every trick available. Text goes to PPMd, executables get BCJ preprocessing, solid blocks and recovery records protect the result, and AES, Twofish and Serpent can be chained. Frozen at 0.67, still unmatched as a study in compression design.

ZipGenius arrived from Italy in 1997 and is still maintained: ZIP creation, extraction for more than twenty formats, password protection, splitting by size, repair of damaged archives and wizard-driven steps, all free in the standard edition, with the Suite adding an FTP client and scan-to-archive.

WinMount maps an archive to a virtual drive so a folder inside a multi gigabyte package opens like any other, extracting only what is read and leaving a single copy on disk.