What is the best/easiest way to create ZIP archive in .NET?

Question

Which method do you think is the \"best\".

• Use the System.IO.Packaging namespace?
• Use interop with the Shell?
• Third party librar

Answer 1

Since you're targetting Framework 3.5, I'd go with System.IO.Packaging. It's a library designed specifically for zipping, and comes with the framework so there's not even an extra DLL needed by the product. The usage example is atrocious, though.

Using the shell is unrecommended. First, it would only work on Windows XP and above. But even if you don't care about that, it's pitfalls are quite numerous (I've done it before, but only because I really had no choice).

if you're not targetting 3.5, I'd use SharpZipLib. It's quite a good library, and even if you are using 3.5 you might consider it.