Overview
WinRAR is one of the few pieces of software that has genuinely earned its place on every machine for thirty years. It reads every archive format you are likely to meet, writes the two that matter, handles multi part sets properly, and repairs damaged archives from recovery data that other tools do not bother to write. The famous nag dialog is the only thing anyone has ever complained about, and this build does not have it.
The licence is applied, so it never asks and never counts down. The shell integration, the command line tool, and the context menu entries all install as usual, and the compression profiles carry over from an existing installation if one is present.
Formats and multi part archives
It extracts the whole common set and a long tail of older formats besides, which is why it stays installed even on machines where nothing new is ever compressed. For writing, the native format gives better compression on most content and supports the features below, while the more universal format is there for anything that has to open on a machine without WinRAR.
Multi part archives are handled correctly, including sets where the parts arrived out of order or under renamed extensions. Pointing it at the first part is enough. It finds the rest in the same folder and stops with a clear message if something is missing, naming the part rather than failing vaguely.
Recovery records and repair
A recovery record adds a controllable percentage of redundancy to an archive so that a corrupted section can be rebuilt without the original. On anything that will be transferred over an unreliable connection or stored for years, three to five percent is cheap insurance and is the single most useful setting in the program.
The repair command uses that record where it exists and makes a best effort where it does not, which sometimes recovers enough for the extraction to complete. Test archive should be run on anything large before you delete the source, since it verifies every file rather than only the headers.
Everyday use
Compression profiles save the settings you use repeatedly, including split size, recovery record percentage and whether to delete the source afterwards. Right clicking a folder and choosing a saved profile is faster than any dialog.
Solid archiving improves compression on many similar small files at the cost of slower extraction of any single one, which is the right trade for a folder being stored and the wrong one for a folder being browsed.
What you get
- Extraction of every common archive format and a long tail of older ones
- Native and universal formats for writing
- Multi part archive handling with clear reporting of missing parts
- Recovery records with a controllable redundancy percentage
- Repair of damaged archives
- Archive testing that verifies file contents, not only headers
- Saved compression profiles on the context menu
- Solid archiving for large sets of similar files
- Command line tool for scripted use
Inside the archive
- WinRAR 7.23 installer, 32 and 64 bit
- Licence file applied during install
- Command line archiver
- Language packs for the interface list shown above
System requirements
| Operating system | Windows 7 or newer, 32 or 64-bit |
|---|---|
| Processor | Any current x86 or x64 processor |
| Memory | 256 MB |
| Storage | 20 MB |
| Display | Any |
| Other | Administrator rights for shell integration |
Installing it
- Close any open archive windows first.
- Run the installer as administrator.
- Leave the shell integration options checked unless you have a reason not to.
- Finish setup and open the program once. No dialog should appear.
- Set a default recovery record percentage under the compression profile if you archive for storage.
Mirrors
| Route | Region | Note | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct, primary | Europe | No wait, resumable | Online |
| Direct, secondary | North America | No wait, resumable | Online |
| Torrent magnet | Global | Not needed at this size | Online |
Release history
- Faster extraction on solid archives above 20 GB
- Fixed a rare header error on multi part sets written across network drives
- Context menu entries restored on the current shell build
- Repair improved on archives with no recovery record
- Reduced memory use during very large compressions
- Added handling for two older formats reported as failing
Questions about this release
Does the reminder dialog come back?
No. The licence is applied during install and it never appears.
Which format should I use?
The native one for anything staying in your own workflow, the universal one for anything going to a machine that may not have WinRAR.
How much recovery data should I add?
Three to five percent covers most real damage. More is only worth it for long term storage on unreliable media.
Does it handle archives split into parts?
Yes. Point it at the first part and it collects the rest, naming anything missing.
Comments
Recovery record got a 60 GB archive back after a bad transfer. Would have lost the lot otherwise.
Still the only thing that opens the odd formats people send me.
Comments are read before they appear. If a build stops working, say so here and it gets rebuilt rather than quietly left up.
No dialog, no counter. Installed on three machines this week.