WinRAR

A little bit of history If you used a computer back in the late 90s or early 2000s then you know how annoying it was to deal with large files. The Internet was slow, storage was expensive and sending anything over email had a limit. You had to compress files. There was no other way.

Back then, WinZip was the popular choice. But then I discovered WinRAR and I started using it because it could handle more formats and offered a better compression. It was a different time - we were splitting files across floppy disks and later burning them on CDs. WinRAR allowed you to split archives into multiple volumes and that was a big deal. You could fit your files on several floppies or CDs without worrying too much.

The funny part? WinRAR is still here. The current version while I am writing this is 7.20 Final, released on 4 February 2025. Eugene Roshal started developing it back in 1995 and win.rar GmbH distributes the software. It has over 500 million users and I think it is the most used file archiver in the world. Actually, I still wonder if 7-Zip surpassed it but to be completely honest - I am biased as I used WinRAR and WinZIP long before I even heard about 7-zip.

The "Infinite Trial" - This was one of the best marketing strategy, probably a genius move - worthy for the history books.

You probably know the joke. WinRAR gives you a 40-day free trial. After 40 days, a window will pop up asking you to buy a licence. You close it and WinRAR keeps working. Forever.

This is not a bug. It is a business decision and as I said, a genius move. WinRAR allows home users to keep using the software because this way the RAR format stays popular. If they locked everyone out after 40 days, most people would switch to 7-Zip or another free tool and the RAR format would slowly fade away. But this was not made for 7-Zip as far as I know - WinZip and some others were the real alternatives and much popular.

The actual money comes from businesses. Companies, government agencies and educational institutions have to follow strict software auditing rules. They cannot use unlicensed software without risking legal problems. So they buy licences.

A single user licence costs about $29 (one-time payment). You get free upgrades for life. No subscription. For businesses, prices go down the more licences you buy - from $21 per user for 2-9 users down to about $6 per user for 500-999 users.

Most software now requires monthly fees. A one-time payment with free lifetime upgrades is rare and I appreciate it. Actually, as an old Internet user I hate everything that requires a huge monthly fee. I like to pay one time - the fair price of course and own it. Not sure this applies to all software titles but you get the idea.

WinRAR Features RAR and ZIP creation - You can create archives in both RAR and ZIP formats Unpack many formats - You can extract CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, UUE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, 7Z and more AES-256 encryption - You can protect your archives with strong encryption and optionally encrypt file names too Recovery records - You can add repair data to archives so you can fix them if they get corrupted - this uses Reed-Solomon error correction codes Multi-volume archives - You can split large files across several smaller archives - great for email limits or USB drives Self-extracting archives - You can create .exe archives that people can open without WinRAR Solid archiving - You can group similar files together for better compression - the trade-off is that a single corruption can affect the entire archive Dictionary size up to 64 GB - You can use very large dictionaries in the 64-bit version for better compression on big files (WinRAR 7.0 and newer) BLAKE2sp checksum - You can use the BLAKE2 hash instead of CRC-32 for better file integrity verification Dark mode - You can enable dark mode starting with version 7.10 Large Memory Page You get faster compression and decompression speed when using large dictionaries - added in version 7.10 Password profiles - You can save different compression profiles and reuse them - for example one for maximum compression, another one for speed Command line support - You get RAR and UNRAR command line tools for scripting and automation Windows 11 context menu- You get direct integration with the Windows 11 right-click menu without the extra "Show more options" click

The Interface I have to be honest - the interface looks old. And I keep saying this in all my reviews posted on dAppCDN. But similar to 7-Zip, KeePass and many others - I always choose functionality over design. So, at least for me it is not a problem, it is also much comfortable.

WinRAR has a single main window. You see a file browser at the top, an address bar and a toolbar with all the common actions such as Add, Extract, Test, Delete, Repair and more. Right-click any file in Windows Explorer and WinRAR options are right there.

The good thing is that everything is where you expect it. You do not have to search through menus or read a manual. If you want to create an archive, select your files, right-click and pick "Add to archive". Choose your format (RAR or ZIP), set the compression level, add a password if you need one and click OK. That simple. Version 7.10 added a dark mode which is nice if you prefer darker interfaces. And version 7.20 improved performance when opening large archives with millions of files - you can now open huge ZIP archives much faster.

One thing I want to mention - you can save compression settings as profiles. If you always compress with the same settings (for example maximum compression with a password and recovery record), save it as a profile and apply it with a single click next time. This saves time if you archive files regularly.

Recovery Records - Why This Matters

This is one feature that most people skip or ignore but it can save your data.

When you create a RAR archive, you can add a recovery record. This is extra data that WinRAR adds to the archive file. If the archive gets corrupted later (bad sectors on your HDD, interrupted download, damaged USB drive), WinRAR can use this recovery record to repair the archive.

The technology behind it goes by the name Reed-Solomon error correction - the same type of error correction that satellite communications and RAID storage use. You choose a percentage (for example 3% to 5%) and WinRAR adds that amount of extra data. For most situations, 3-5% is enough to recover from typical corruption without increasing the file size too much.

This is something that ZIP files cannot do. And 7z files cannot do either. If your ZIP or 7z archive gets corrupted, you lose the data. With RAR and a recovery record, you have a chance to fix it. For backups and long-term storage, this feature alone is worth considering.

Security - The Good and The Bad

The good part: WinRAR uses AES-256 encryption in CBC mode with PBKDF2 key derivation. You can also encrypt file names so that nobody can see what is inside the archive without the password. This is strong encryption and when used properly it is very secure.

The bad part: WinRAR has had some serious security bugs over the years. The most recent one is CVE-2025-8088, a directory traversal bug that version 7.13 patched (released on 30 July 2025). This bug allowed attackers to create specially prepared archives that could drop files into your Windows Startup folder. When you open such an archive with an old version of WinRAR, malware runs automatically the next time you restart your computer. Google reported that government-backed groups from Russia and China used this bug to attack military and government targets.

Another bug from 2023 (CVE-2023-38831) also allowed remote code execution through ZIP file processing. Version 6.23 fixed this. Here is the problem - WinRAR does not have an automatic update feature. You have to manually go to the website, download the new version and install it yourself. Most people do not do this. So millions of computers are running old, vulnerable versions right now.

My personal advice: if you use WinRAR, please check your version right now. If it is not 7.13 or newer (or 7.20 which is the latest), please update it.

Windows 11 Native Archive Support (this needs to be mentioned as well) Starting with Windows 11 version 24H2, Microsoft added built-in support for extracting RAR, 7z and TAR files directly from File Explorer. This uses the open-source libarchive project.

However, the native implementation is much slower than WinRAR or 7-Zip. In tests, extracting a 1.5 GB RAR archive took WinRAR about 80 seconds while Windows 11 File Explorer took around 380 seconds - almost five times slower. Also, the native tool cannot create RAR files (the format is proprietary), cannot handle multi-part archives and does not support recovery records or encrypted archives with encrypted file names. For some files I used it myself. Let me say that for a quick, one-time extraction of a small file it works fine. But for anything beyond that, you still need WinRAR or 7-Zip.

WinRAR Alternatives Free or Paid - The main difference

7-Zip - Free, Open source, the 7z format often has better compression ratios, it is lighter than WinRAR but the interface is even older and there is no archive repair feature NanaZip - Free - A fork of 7-Zip designed for Windows 11, it has a modern interface with dark mode and Mica effects, auto-updates from the Microsoft Store PeaZip -Free - Supports over 200 archive formats, it offers secure file deletion and a password manager for archives Bandizip - Free with paid features. Known for fast compression and modern interface but some features are now locked behind a paywall WinZip- Paid ($35+) More visual, includes cloud integration but it requires a yearly subscription

As a conclusion WinRAR is 30 years old. The interface is not modern. It does not have auto-updates and that might be a security issue (debatable).

But it does one thing very well - it compresses and decompresses files with a high level of reliability. The recovery record feature is something no other free archiver offers. The licence model is fair - pay once, use forever. And the RAR format remains one of the most used archive formats in the world.

If you only need to open a ZIP file once a month then use 7-Zip or the built-in Windows 11 extractor. But if you work with archives often, need recovery records for your backups or want a tool that people have used and trusted over three decades, WinRAR is still a strong choice.

Just please update it regularly. Check the official website at https://www.win-rar.com for the latest version. And if you have been using WinRAR for years without paying, consider buying a licence. $29 for a lifetime is probably worth it.

Here's a trick that might stop working: I went on the buy WinRAR page and clicked on the "Buy Now" then I waited for a few seconds - clicked on the Price scales and I got a pop-up window which offered me a -20% discount.

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