7-Zip is an open source file archiver designed originally for Microsoft Windows. 7-Zip operates with the 7z archive format, and can read and write several other archive formats. The program can be used from a command line interface, graphical user interface, or Windows shell integration. 7-Zip began in 1999 and is actively developed by Igor Pavlov. It is related to a cross-platform port, p7zip. 7-Zip is free software distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License. It was the winner of the SourceForge.net 2007 community choice awards for "Technical Design” and for "Best Project”.