About this release
WinRAR has outlived most of its competition by being unremarkable in the best way. It reads every archive format you are likely to be handed, writes RAR and ZIP, integrates into the shell so extraction is two clicks from anywhere, and then does not ask anything of you again.
The RAR format is the reason to use it rather than the built in Windows handler. Recovery records let a damaged archive be repaired rather than discarded, which matters on anything that travelled over an unreliable connection. Solid compression squeezes collections of similar files far harder than per file compression can. Volume splitting breaks a large archive into parts sized for whatever medium it has to cross.
The rest is quality of life. Strong encryption on both content and file names, repair and test operations, a benchmark tool for finding the right compression level for your hardware, command line support for scripted archiving, and a shell menu you can trim down to only the entries you use. The nag screen that the trial shows is not present in this build.
What it does
- Reads RAR, ZIP, 7Z, TAR, GZ, BZ2, XZ, ISO, CAB, ARJ, LZH, UUE and more
- Writes RAR and ZIP with adjustable compression levels
- Recovery records that allow a damaged archive to be repaired
- Solid compression for much better ratios on many similar files
- Volume splitting into fixed size parts
- Strong encryption covering both file contents and file names
- Archive test and repair operations
- Shell integration with a configurable context menu
- Command line interface for scripted and unattended archiving
- Forty five interface languages included
Changes in this version
- Improved handling of very large archives above 100 GB
- Faster extraction on multi core processors
- Fixed a rare failure when repairing archives with damaged headers
- Updated format support for recent variants of several containers
- Reduced installer size
What the package contains
- WinRAR Professional installer for both architectures
- All forty five interface languages
- Theme pack for the file list icons
- Command line tools
- Readme with the install order written out step by step
Installation notes
Follow these in order. Most reports of a failed install come from skipping a step rather than from the package itself.
- Remove any older WinRAR installation from add or remove programs.
- Extract the small archive anywhere.
- Run the installer matching your architecture, 64-bit for a modern machine.
- Choose which shell menu entries you want during setup.
- Apply the included licensing step so the nag screen stays gone.
- Launch it once to confirm the title bar shows a licensed state.
System requirements
| Operating system | Windows 7 or newer, 32-bit or 64-bit |
| Processor | Any processor, faster helps compression |
| Memory | 256 MB minimum |
| Graphics | No requirement |
| Storage | 20 MB free |
| Display | Any |
Things worth knowing
- Trim the context menu during setup, the default adds a lot of entries you will never use.
- Turn on recovery records in the archive settings if the file has to travel anywhere unreliable.
- Solid archives compress better but a single damaged part affects everything after it, so weigh that for backups.
Questions about this title
Does it still show the reminder?
Should I use RAR or ZIP?
Can it open 7Z archives?
What compression level should I pick?
What people are saying
Repaired a 40 GB archive that came across a bad connection. Recovery record earned its keep.
No reminder screen. That is the whole reason people look for this.
Trimmed the context menu to three entries during setup. Much cleaner.
Listing information
This entry is catalogued under Utilities & Tools and carries the tags below. Language coverage is Multilingual, 45 interface languages, and the supported platform list is Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11. Version 7.23 is the current catalogued build, last checked 1 week ago, and the entry has been in the index since it was added 4 years ago.