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WinRAR (a.k.a. RAR) is a sharewarefile archiver and data compression utility developed by Eugene Roshal. It is arguably one of the three main file archive programs for Windows, along with WinZip and 7-Zip. It is one of the few applications that is able to create RAR archives natively, as the encoding method is held to be proprietary.
The current developer is Eugene Roshal, while his brother Alexander Roshal is engaged in business of the software.
Features
WinRAR supports the following features:
Complete support for RAR and ZIP archives, and unpacking of ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, ACE, UUE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, 7z and Z archives. Future versions of WinRAR are planned to include 7z creation.[1]
Data redundancy is provided via recovery records and recovery volumes, even allowing reconstruction of damaged archives.
Support for advanced NTFS file system options and Unicode in file names.
Optional archive encryption using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with a 128-bit key.
Version history
A comprehensive list of version information can be found here. Below is a summary of version information.
Since version 2.9, the new RAR3archive format is implemented. The new compressed archives cannot be managed by old versions of WinRAR.
Since version 3.50 beta 1, WinRAR adds support for interface skins and themes.
Since version 3.50, WinRAR supports Windows XP x64.
Since version 3.60 beta 1, WinRAR includes a multithreaded version of the compression algorithm, which improves compression speed on systems with multiple, dual-core or hyperthreading-enabled CPUs.
Since version 3.70 beta, WinRAR features support for Windows Vista. [2]
Version 3.70 (May 30, 2007)
Version 3.71 (September 24, 2007)
Version 3.80 beta 1 (May 30, 2008)
Easter eggs
WinRAR features a number of easter eggs. They include:
When using version 3.20 or above, clicking on the archive 'book' on the left side of the "About WinRAR" dialog will cause it to fall and bounce, complete with sound effects.
One can mouse over the title picture "WinRAR" in the "About WinRAR" dialog for animating the beach background.
WinRAR Unplugged
WinRAR Unplugged is a portable version of WinRAR that can be easily carried on a flash drive.