- Quick specs
- Price: Free to try
- Operating system: Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 98
- Date added: March 25, 1999
- Total Downloads: 71,544,207
- Downloads last week: 316,497
- See full specifications
A newer version of WinRAR is available.
(Download doesn't provide access to previous versions of this program.)
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 1365 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff
There are plenty of solid compression utilities to choose from, but this shareware powerhouse offers the features and ease of use that might place it at the top of its category. WinRAR is easy to use, lightweight, and flexible. An intuitive interface lets you mouse over icons to see their functions and if you don't like their candy-coated appearance, you can always choose from several themes at the developer's site. The Folder Tree Panel, a recent addition to the interface, makes sifting through your directories to find files for archiving easier than ever. But once you see the size savings of a RAR archive (with a compression ratio of 8 percent to 15 percent better than the ZIP format), you'll understand why so many users and developers are making the switch from other compression apps. You might even be prepared to forgive the slightly slower decompression speeds and lack of integrated virus protection.
Beyond its good looks and right-click readiness for basic compression and unzipping, WinRAR offers unpacking support for a large number of archive formats, including ACE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, and ZIP. WinRAR's advanced features are icing on the cake, with Unicode support for international formatting, embedded file comments, repair of damaged archives, archive locking, self-extracting archives, and easy encryption. Anyone seeking an all-in-one archiving solution would be remiss to not evaluate WinRAR.
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Publisher's description
From RARLAB :WinRAR is a 32-bit Windows version of RAR Archiver, the powerful archiver and archive manager. RAR files can usually compress content 8 to 15 percent more than ZIP or ARJ files. WinRAR's main features are strong general and multimedia compression, processing of non-RAR archives, long filename support, programmable self-extracting archives (SFX), damaged archive repair, authenticity verification, embedded file comments, and encryption.
Version 2.50 features improved packaging speed and compression ratios; the ability to process ZIP archives without the use of external programs (WinRAR has limited support for ARJ, CAB, and LZH archives as well); integration with the Windows Shell; a new "Estimate" command; and new options in various dialogs and commands.This is a 40-day trial version. A single user license is $35.
It is recommended that you uninstall previous versions of WinRAR before installing version 2.50.
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