ElcomSoft Adv. Archive Password Recovery vs nTimetools: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

ElcomSoft Adv. Archive Password Recovery

Forensic investigators and incident responders who need to recover passwords from encrypted archives should pick ElcomSoft Adv. Archive Password Recovery for its speed on legacy encryption; the Pro Edition cracks WinZip 8.0 and earlier within roughly one hour, which matters when you're working against the clock in active investigations. The tool supports ZIP, 7Zip, RAR, and ARJ formats with multiple attack vectors including known-plaintext and dictionary methods, mapping directly to NIST RS.AN incident analysis workflows. Skip this if your team primarily handles modern AES-encrypted archives or needs broader forensic capabilities beyond password recovery; ElcomSoft is deliberately narrow.

nTimetools

Forensic analysts and incident responders who need to reconstruct Windows timelines will find nTimetools invaluable for its 100-nanosecond precision, which catches timestamp manipulation that standard tools miss. The free, console-based approach means no licensing friction when you're shipping to 50 investigators across departments, and the GitHub presence (53 stars, active maintenance) suggests real practitioner feedback. Skip this if your team expects a GUI or wants to avoid command-line tools; nTimetools is deliberately stripped-down for speed and accuracy, not ease of use.