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compressed archive Content
Overview
In computer science and information theory, data compression is the process of encoding
information using fewer bits (or other information-bearing units) than an un-encoded
representation would use through use of specific encoding schemes. One popular instance of
compression with which many computer users are familiar is the ZIP file format, which, as
well as providing compression, acts as an archiver, storing many files in a single output
file. Xidie archivator is a powerful tool which allows you to create, manage and control
archive files; offer you solid archiving, which can raise compression ratio by 10% - 50%
over more common methods, particularly when packing a large number of small, similar
files. Compressing files, folders, and programs decreases their size and reduces the
amount of space they use on your drives or removable storage devices. Files and folders
that are compressed use less drive space and can be transferred to other computers more
quickly. Compressed files and folders can be moved to any drive or folder on your computer
or could be direct burn to CD, uploaded to an FTP server or send to by e-mail as
attachment.
The process of compressing
decompressing data
As is the case with any form of communication, compressed data communication only works
when both the sender and receiver of the information understand the encoding scheme. For
example, this text makes sense only if the receiver understands that it is intended to be
interpreted as characters representing the English language. Similarly, compressed data
can only be understood if the decoding method is known by the receiver. Compression is
useful because it helps reduce the consumption of expensive resources, such as disk space
or transmission bandwidth. On the downside, compressed data must be decompressed to be
viewed (or heard), and this extra processing may be detrimental to some applications. For
instance, a compression scheme for video may require expensive hardware for the video to
be decompressed fast enough to be viewed as it's being decompressed (you always have the
option of decompressing the video in full before you watch it, but this is inconvenient
and requires storage space to put the uncompressed video). The design of data compression
schemes therefore involve trade-offs between various factors, including the degree of
compression, the amount of distortion introduced (if using a lossy compression scheme),
and the computational resources required to compress and uncompress the data.
Using Xidie archivator
Whatever interface select, the processes of compression and decompression are the same.
For all interfaces there are two options you could change:
Keep folder structure. To keep the structure (folders and
subfolders) "Keep folder structure options must be checked.
Set compression level. Allowed values are 0 - 9. A higher
value increases the compression ratio of data but decrease both compression and
decompression speed.
Supplementary, advanced interface offer some special features like: Edit existing
archive by adding/removing files from it Create or run Script files.
Create a new archive
In order to create a new archive first at all you must add files and or folders to it.
To add files to archive press Select and add files to archive. In the Windows dialog
window, keep Ctrl taste pressed to select more than one files. To add an entire folder to
archive press Select and add folder to archive. To keep the structure (folders and
subfolders) "Keep folder structure options must be checked.
Specify the archive name and then press "Create archive" menu. Save as new
script (only on advanced interface) To automate the daily jobs Xidie offers you script
files. A script is nothing more than a description which tells the program what to do and
how to do it. So if you want to execute the same job (in this case to archive same files
every day) you will save this info as a script. To run the script Select the script from
menu "Run compress script" (script name is same as the archive name). Other
options (only on advanced interface): Pack and burn to CD Pack and mail
Unpack an archive
To unpack an archive you must follow these steps:
- Select archive. Xidie archives have a ".zxc" extension. After you select a
Xidie archive, its content will be displayed in the bottom list.
- If you want to unpack the archive in the folder where is the archive then press Unpack
to current folder. If you want to unpack the archive to a different folder press the
button "Specify destination folder". In the Windows dialog box you must select
the folder where you want to unpack and you have the option to create a new folder. After
you select destination folder, press the button Unpack selected archive.
Edit existing archive (only on advanced
interface):
You could add files and folders, remove files, and extract files from existing archive.
In any of these cases, first at all you must select a valid Xidie archive. To add files or
folders, after you select and add files and/or folders click Add selected files to
archive. To remove files from existing archive select the files you want to remove then
click the remove menu. To extract files from existing archive select the files to extract
then press Extract selected.
Folder compress (only
on advanced interface): Folder compress work in the same mode as normal compress module.
Merge archives (only on advanced
interface):
Merge archives modules allow you to combine two or more archives into a new archive.
Select the archives you want to add, set the name of the new archive and then press Merge
archives. If you select merge and delete archives the original archives will be deleted
remaining only the new archive.
Zip archives (only on advanced interface):
Create Zip compatible archive and unpack Zip archive work in the same mode like Xidie
archive except the compression algorithm used. The main advantage of ZIP format is its
popularity. For example, most archives in the Internet are ZIP archives. So if you are
going to send an archive to somebody, but you are not sure that your opponent has Xidie to
extract the contents of the archive, it might be a good idea to use the ZIP format. Converters
There are two options available:
Convert Zip archive to Xidie format and
Convert Xidie archive to Zip format
For both options you must select the initial archive to convert and optional to set the
converted archive name.
Batch scripts
Another new option on Xidie represents Batch scripts (extension .bat). With batch
files, which are also called batch programs or scripts, you can simplify routine or
repetitive tasks. A batch file is an unformatted text file that contains one or more
commands and has a .bat or .cmd file name extension. When you type the file name at the
command prompt, Cmd.exe runs the commands sequentially as they appear in the file. You can
include any command in a batch file. Certain commands, such as for, goto, and if, enable
you to do conditional processing of the commands in the batch file. So if you want to
execute the same job (decrypt this archive every day in the same folder or to make an
archive containing same files every day) Xidie will save this info automatic as a script.
Next time you want to do this job you must simply run the saved batch file. Unlike Xidie
scripts that need to start Xidie first in order to run the script, batch scripts didn't
need to start Xidie to run a script. When you run a batch file created with Xidie, the
application Xidie will start automatically, will execute the jobs specified in file
(script) and then will close without any user interaction (except secure archives where
user will be asked to introduce password). The great advantages of batch files created
with Xidie: automatically create archives (secured or not) or unpack archives (secured or
not) with no user interaction required. And to create a batch file, all the command line
parameters are set-up automatic by Xidie with no user interaction (just specify the batch
file name where to save the script). You do not need to specify any arguments, all the
hard work of setting up complex commands is done for you by Xidie and you don't need to
have any special knowledge. Xidie make all the jobs for you! More advanced users can
always run Xidie directly from command prompt (by typing the required parameters on the
command line) or could create and save scripts using a text editor or even modify existing
scripts. Available scripts in this module: Create simple archives (select files and
folders to add to archive and set the archive name) Create folder archives (select folder
to add to archive and set the archive name) Unpack simple archive (select archive name and
set the destination folder name where to unpack) The main purpose for batch scripts is
automatically backups of your data but many others could be added. After you create a
batch file with Xidie you could use Scheduled Tasks from Microsoft Windows to run it at a
time that is most convenient for you. Scheduled Tasks is a service that starts each time
you start Windows XP and runs in the background. With Scheduled Tasks, you can also:
Schedule a saved script to run daily, weekly, monthly, or at certain times (such as system
start-up). Change the schedule for a script. Stop a scheduled task. Customize how a script
will run at a scheduled time. To open Scheduled Tasks, click Start, click All Programs,
point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Scheduled Tasks. If you want
to configure advanced settings for the task, select the Open advanced properties for this
task when I click Finish check box on the final page of the wizard. Confirm that the
system date and time on your computer are accurate, because Scheduled Tasks relies on this
information to run scheduled tasks. To verify or change this information, double-click the
time indicator on the taskbar. If you leave the password blank and you want the task to
run when you are logged on, open the task. On the Task tab, select the Run only if logged
on check box. The task will run at its scheduled time when the user who created the task
is logged on to the computer. To schedule a new task Open Scheduled Tasks. Double-click
Add Scheduled Task. Follow the instructions in the Scheduled Task Wizard (click Browse
button on the second step to specify the place where you saved the script)
Using Xidie from Windows Explorer
interface
Overview
Another advantage of using Xidie is shell integration which means that several
additional items will be added to the standard file and folder contextual menus which
appear when you click the right mouse button on a file icon in Windows Explorer. That is,
you don't need to start Xidie in order to create a simple or secure archive or to unpack a
Xidie (secure or not) archive. For example, simply double-click on the archive icon and
you open the Xidie archive or right click on Xidie archive icon and from contextual menu
select what do you want to do. Or right click on any file or folder icon from Windows
explorer and you could directly archive (secure or not) with a single mouse click!
How to open an archive from Windows
Explorer or Desktop
Xidie archives have extension .zxc and Xidie secured archives have extension .exc.
There are two modes to open a simple Xidie archive:
- Double click on archive icon and Xidie will open selected archive.You must supply the
destination folder (where to unpack the archive). The archive will be unpacked in selected
folder. From the unpacked archive content list you have more options (right click on an
item) like open file, open file with Wordpad, find target and delete file.
- Another way to open (unpack) an archive from Windows shell is by using contextual menus
that appear when you right click on an archive icon. a. Unpack Xidie archive. You must
supply the destination folder (where to unpack the archive). The archive will be unpacked
in selected folder. b. Unpack Xidie archive to current folder. The archive will be
directly unpacked in the parent folder of archive.
How to create archives from Windows
Explorer or Desktop
For common files and folders Xidie adds this item to contextual menu: Add to Xidie
archive You could add a single file or a single folder to a new archive. If you want to
add multiple files and folders to a new archive, you must move or copy all files and/or
folders into a new folder by using Windows Explorer interface. Or start Xidie and use
Xidie interface to add multiple files and folder to a single archive. The archive will be
named with the same name as original file but will replace original extension with a new
one (.zxc in this case). For example if you pack the file Myfile.xls the archive will be
named Myfile.zxc) By running this command Xidie will add selected file or folder to a new
archive without additional questions. Select the file or the folder you are going to
compress from Windows Explorer or Desktop, press the right mouse button on the selected
file/folder and choose "Add to Xidie archive". Xidie will automatically create
the archive for you without other questions!
More about compress decompress
process.
In data compression there are two types of algorithms: lossless and lossy compression
Lossless compression schemes are reversible so that the original data can be
reconstructed, while lossy schemes accept some loss of data in order to achieve higher
compression. Xidie use a lossless compression algorithm. Lossless compression algorithms
usually exploit statistical redundancy in such a way as to represent the sender's data
more concisely, but nevertheless perfectly. Lossless compression is possible because most
real-world data has statistical redundancy. For example, in English text, the letter 'e'
is much more common than the letter 'z', and the probability that the letter 'q' will be
followed by the letter 'z' is very small. However, lossless data compression algorithms
will always fail to compress some files; indeed, any compression algorithm will
necessarily fail to compress any data containing no discernible patterns. Attempts to
compress data that has been compressed already will therefore usually result in an
expansion, as will attempts to compress encrypted data. One very simple means of
compression is run-length encoding, wherein large runs of consecutive identical data
values are replaced by a simple code with the data value and length of the run. This is an
example of lossless data compression. It is often used to optimize disk space on office
computers, or better use the connection bandwidth in a computer network. For symbolic data
such as spreadsheets, text, executable programs, etc., lossless is essential because
changing even a single bit cannot be tolerated (except in some limited cases). The
Lempel-Ziv (LZ) compression methods are among the most popular algorithms for lossless
storage. DEFLATE is a variation on LZ which is optimized for decompression speed and
compression ratio, although compression can be slow. DEFLATE is used in PKZIP, gzip and
PNG. LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) was patented by Unisys until June of 2003, and is used in GIF
images. Also noteworthy are the LZR (LZ-Renau) methods, which serve as the basis of the
Zip method. LZ methods utilize a table based compression model where table entries are
substituted for repeated strings of data. For most LZ methods, this table is generated
dynamically from earlier data in the input. The table itself is often Huffman encoded
(e.g. SHRI, LZX). A current LZ based coding scheme that performs well is LZX, used in
Microsoft's CAB format.
Another kind of compression, called lossy data compression, is possible if some loss of
fidelity is acceptable. For visual and audio data, some loss of quality can be tolerated
without losing the essential nature of the data. By taking advantage of the limitations of
the human sensory system, a great deal of space can be saved while producing an output
which is nearly indistinguishable from the original. For example, a person viewing a
picture or television video scene might not notice if some of its finest details are
removed or not represented perfectly. Similarly, two clips of audio may be perceived as
the same to a listener even though one is missing details found in the other. Lossy data
compression algorithms introduce relatively minor differences and represent the picture,
video, or audio using fewer bits. In practice, lossy data compression will also come to a
point where compressing again does not work, although an extremely lossy algorithm, which
for example always removes the last byte of a file, will always compress a file up to the
point where it is empty. These lossy data compression methods typically offer a three-way
trade-off between compression speed, compressed data size and quality loss. Lossy image
compression is used in digital cameras, greatly increasing their storage capacities while
hardly degrading picture quality at all. Similarly, DVDs use the lossy MPEG-2 codec for
video compression. In lossy audio compression, methods of psychoacoustics are used to
remove non-audible (or less audible) components of the signal. Compression of human speech
is often performed with even more specialized techniques, so that "speech
compression" or "voice coding" is sometimes distinguished as a separate
discipline than "audio compression". Different audio and speech compression
standards are listed under audio codecs. Voice compression is used in Internet telephony
for example, while audio compression is used for CD ripping and is decoded by MP3 players.
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Xidie Security Suite
Today we are in the information age and securing information
becomes more and more important for most of us. By combining cryptography with
steganography, by using strong compression algorithms, well recognized and new encryption
algorithms, classic and new steganographic techniques, Xidie security suite is one of the
top software steganography and encryption tools. |
Xidie Security Suite
Copyright (C) 2004-2007 Laic Aurelian All rights
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