I'm looking for a "good", or as good as I can get for free, encryption utility...preferably one that also compresses files when it encrypts. Anyone have any suggestions?
Axcrypt is really great, it uses AES 128-bit encryption which is decent for personal use. Also, it's really simple and easy to use. Oh, and yes, it can compress files too.
I'd reccommend you try it: www.axantum.com/AxCrypt/.
Also, if you want more security, Truecrypt is the way to go, but that's a disk encryption program, not single file encryption, but this is the way to go to keep your files really, really, really safe!
Truecrypt link: www.truecrypt.org