Italian author Giorgio Tani has updated his popular open source archiving tool, Peazip, to version 4.0. Peazip 4.0, also available as a dedicated 64-bit build as well as separate 32-bit and 64-bit portable applications, allows users to both open and create archives in a variety of formats, including RAR and 7z, as well as the standard ZIP format.

Version 4.0 proves less radical an update than some of the most recent 3.x revisions, adding thumbnail support when browsing image files and tweaking the program’s PeaLauncher component.

The biggest change in version 4 is the ability to view image thumbnails and key information including size and colour depth when browsing the computer’s files and folders for material to archive. Image thumbnails are now selected by default (change this behaviour by selecting Organize > Show picture thumbnails). Peazip doesn’t use an image cache, making thumbnail generation quite slow.

Other changes specific to version 4 are relatively minor: the [F2] key has been remapped to rename files, following Windows’ own default, while PeaLauncher – the component that provides a dialog box when jobs such as extracting and compressing are taking place – has also been improved, displaying elapsed time in minutes and seconds as opposed to seconds for longer jobs, while it can now also be triggered by dragging and dropping single archives onto its open window for extraction purposes.

Peazip 4.0 followed less than a month after version 3.9.1 was released, highlighting the fact the program is currently evolving quite rapidly. Since the release of version 3.0 in February 2010, the program underwent 15 revisions, with many heralding major changes and additions to the program’s interface and feature set.

Peazip 4.0 32-bit and Peazip 4.0 64-bit, plus Peazip Portable 32-bit and Peazip Portable 64-bit, are all available as a free open source downloads for PCs running Windows 95 or later. The 32-bit version is also available for Linux.