Recently boot-up a dual-boot machine into the non-default Windows (SP3) XP. It has been a while since it was last in that OS and one item the Avast/Free Software Updater warned that was out of date was the 7-Zip File manager, it reported that the new version to have is 9.22.0.0 however the 7-Zip site (http://www.7-zip.org/) displays the information that the current release version is 9.20 (dated 2010-11-18) and that 9.22 (dated 2011-04-18) is still a beta (the latest alpha is 7-Zip 9.34 dated 2014-06-22) so is the beta upgrade actually recommend? :-\
7-zip has been in beta for as long as I can remember as you can see by the last stable release 9.20 date.
I have been using the beta build of 7-zip without issue for some considerable time (currently on 9.22), but I draw the line there and not use the Alpha version. Even the beta version 9.22 has been out for years, release date 2011-04-18.
I found the latest final release is v9.20
64 bit http://www.filehippo.com/download_7-zip_64/8755/
32 bit http://www.filehippo.com/download_7zip_32/8754/
While 7zip hasn’t been updated for a while it’s not recommended to use beta versions of 7zip, because there are often problems with archives and their consistency/quality.
Youse need PeaZip :-*
FWIW my 4.9.1 (which probably needs updating, latest is 5.4.0 ;D ) uses 7Zip 9.22.
Happy archiving!
Gordon.
Confirmed, and if you have Avast do the update the 9.22 beta version will be installed.
For what it’s worth version 9.22 seems to work just fine for quite a while now.
-Noel
PeaZip was updated yesterday and it’s development is constantly improving which is not something that can be said for 7Zip.
I can’t see how you can make that statement, if the underlying archive function is 7zip 9.22 as Gordon mentioned in your quoted text.
Yet it is still compressing much slower and decompressing like twice as slowly as 7-zip. 7-zip, despite not being updated for a while is still far superior to many other apps. That’s why i’m using it for all the years, because it simply works.
On the other hand, free avast 8.0.1497 is happy with 7-zip 9.20 (like I am happy with avast 8).
(Edit: unwanted smiley removed.)
Actually, I didn’t say 7zip is the underlying architecture. I said PeaZip uses it. Peazip also uses a lot of other archive technology, including PK… It’s a one-stop shop. Yes, it is slightly slower than some of the others, but OTOH, if the compressed file is anywhere under 10MB, you’ll never notice the difference. It also come in 64-bit… And yes, it is always “under development”.
Gordon.
Sorry to use this old topic but the subject has not changed.
Here is the current 7-zip version status:
Last official version: 9.20 (2010-11-18)
Last 9.x beta version: 9.38 (2015-01-03)
Last beta version: 15.05 (2015-06-14)
Version proposed by Software Updater: 9.22 !!
I think this proposed version can’t be modified in your side. But the result is that we need to ignore updates proposed by Avast on that software until the next stable version is available ? So probably in 2 or 3 years…
Did you have a question ???
If it helps, I’m using the latest beta of 7-zip.
Things are working fine. But you need a clean installation (with a boot in between), otherwise, issues will appear.
I don’t know what issues you talk of but I just installed 7.zip 9.22 over the top of 9.20 and no issues. Better still no reminders from avast to update it.
No matter how old it is, BETA is a beta. And beta software shouldn’t be pushed through the updater…
Agreed. If I see I need to update other programs, I use standard means to update it. I avoid using ASU because it does offer to update BETA programs, which it shouldn’t do, imo.
Hi,
You can ignore 7-zip in Software Updater, but please do not blame us that we offer update to beta version. Last “stable” version was released 5 years ago…That’s more problem of 7-Zip, not ours. We offer beta just for this special case of 7-Zip. Otherwise we don’t push you to betas.
And don’t forget Gmail was in BETA many many years 
I think that everybody here has done the update to a beta version, or just ignore 7-zip in Software Updater.
The problem is not link to the stability of 7-zip version (it seems they works well. :-P), but only with the title of that topic.
And if I well understand, it is not possible to change the last official version of 7-zip in ASU to a previous one, isn’t it?
So I think it is more than a field in a database that could be manually removed…
Because it just look like an error from a trainee, if only 7-zip has this problem ! ^_^’
Consireding that, do you think that it could be better to be aligned with the last 9.x beta version, instead of a previous beta version ?
In the infamous words of Steve Martin, “Well excuuuuuuuuse meeeeeeeeeeeee!”, but 7-Zip is responsible for deciding which version is alpha, which is beta and which is GA (Generally Available), not avast.
Avast has no right nor reason to be pushing a beta release as if it were necessary, regardless of how old it is. That is an issue each user has to take up with the publisher of 7-Zip, but not with avast.
If avast has an issue with not being able to determine which 7-Zip version is GA, and taking the 9.22beta out of the list if newer software, the I have an issue with avast.
Please fix this already. It shouldn’t be that hard.