Ana’s Archiver 2 Review

I know that most people consider WinRar or WinZip to be enough for their archiving needs, but I always enjoy discovering new archivers, especially because this is a software category that delivered me enough pleasant surprises so far. Today's find is called Ana's Archiver and, to my amazement, this is much more than just an archiver, but let's take things one at a time...


Setup

Ana's Archiver currently reached version 2, and since the producer advises us to use KittyXplorer instead unless we need Ana's special features, I guess that development of this product has ceased, of will get less attention from now on.

Anyway, the trial version available for download on the official site has some minor limitations, and to purchase the program you'll have to pay $19.95 for a single machine license, but a $59.95 multi machine USB licensing option is also possible.

Ana's Archiver is available for download as a MSI package that weighs only 1.2MB , so downloading it shouldn't be a problem, but... to download the program, you have to use a valid email address that you're required to enter on the official site to receive the download link. Once you get over the waiting part (it didn't take more than 5 minutes for me to receive the message containing the download link), everything's as easy as expected.


Interface

As you can see in the screenshot to the left, Ana's Archiver has a well organized interface that grants you quick access to its impressive amount of features, but the overall look of the program leaves space for a lot of improvements. For example, the color combinations are not well chosen, some icons are extremely ugly and the fonts used inside various windows are not always the right ones. Anyway, since the features are the strongest part of this program, let's move on and see what we have here...


Features

One of the first things I check when having a new archiver under my scope is the amount of file formats supported, and I must confess that Ana's Archiver disappointed me. The only formats supported are ZIP and its own archive format, A2 Archive Format, files using this format having the A2R extension.

While the Create Archive screen has some really ugly icons and a very bad color combination, just the same as other windows that open when you perform a new operation in this program, it was a pleasure to see that Ana's Archiver can preview images from archives and also includes a quick text editing tool, as well as a basic file wiper.

Additional features of this program allow you to encrypt files using more encryption algorithms, including Blowfish up to 448 bit, convert ZIP to A2R archives, or take advantage of the built in file viewer for images, text or videos. Of course that this is only the top of the pyramid, so if you don't have problems using an immature interface and having limited file format support, this program may be a good choice for you...


The Good

Ana's Archiver is more than just an archiver, being a well done archiving and file manipulation suite with lots of features and easy enough to use by everyone.

The Bad

The ugly interface and very limited archive formats support can lure away many potential users of this program, as well as the producer's advise to grab KittyXplorer instead, if you don't need any advanced features that Ana's Archiver has.

Conclusion

If you need an archiver, I am sure that the well established products from the market will be just fine, but if you want to get advanced enrypting capabilities and a nice collection of additional features, Ana's Archiver may just be your thing. Since the trial version is not very limited, you can easily grab it and give it a spin. Of course, if you like it... or not, please don't forget to share your thoughts with the rest of us!

Developer: MyPlanetSoft.com
Price: $19.95
Trial Link: Download