Hello Friends,

After having a lot of thought and consideration, I have finally come to this point that in this post I will discuss about Winrar which is one of the most popular archiver utility mainly for Windows.

Actually, there is no such solid guide and resource available online regarding the topic.In this post I will try to explain some common facts about WinRar which I think can be helpful to many of us.

So let’s begin.

 What is WinRar?

WinRar  is actually a file archiver utility for Windows, developed by Eugene Roshal.

Not only a file achiever, but WinRar is also used as a  great file compression tool like WinZip.

It is widely used to compress file , including context menu integration and archive spanning.

Is WinRAR free? What happens when WinRar trial ends?

No.

WinRar is not free technically.

It is a trialware which is free for 40 day time period. After that you have to buy a license to use it.

But if you wish, you can use it as long as you want to. But in this case there will be a reminder message  to buy it every now and then.

Now after this ,the obvious question is if the companies allow users to use it for infinite period of time then how does it make money?

The answer is simple they follow a genuine business plan where they believe genuine users who love WinRar actually buy their products.

If not the home users they potentially target the corporate customers who really tend to buy the license to avoid any legal problems.

There is also another benefit.

It is a proven fact ,that no matter how much you try to avoid piracy but there are people who are bound to make piracy of any popular software .So providing a free option and a friendly message to buy a license is a valid option to restrict the piracy in the same time encouraging users to go for a real product.

Who Developed WinRar?

WinRar was actually developed by Russian Software Engineer EUGENE ROSHAL in 1993.But the copyright of the file format was made available by his brother Alex Eminent two years after its initial release.

Image Source

What Compression Algorithm does WinRar Use?

The compression algorithm of WinRar is proprietary.

But in general it can be said that it uses very complex and superior technology to  compress redundant strings of code, minimizing  file size and makes the process of file transmission easy and efficient

Source

The compression ratio of WinRar is 31.0 which is very efficient  and good compression ratio.

How WinRar Works?

WinRar is mainly a compression tool which uses different complex algorithm to store and transmit data.

Technically WinRar applies many advanced multimedia filters for wav, bmp, and delta encoded data very well.

Then it applies lzss with huffman encoding or PPM when required.

For more details about the technical specifications please checkout this excellent  guide about compression technology.

How to Put an Encryption on WinRAR?

When archiving data it is important to make it secure for further use.

WinRAR makes it very easy to compress and encrypt files for the purpose.

Basically Putting an Encryption can me done in three categories:

• Converting an Existing Archive
• Encrypting Existing WinRAR Archives
• Creating Encrypted WinRAR Archives

For keep things simple,I am only describing the first two.

Converting an Existing Archive:

1. First of all Open the latest version of the WinRAR application and click on “Tools” from the menu bar.
2. Then Click on “Convert Archives” from the options and then click the “Add” button.
3. After that Choose the archive that you want to encrypt and then click “OK.” option
4. Next,Click the “Compression” option and then click the “General” .
5. Then Click the “Set password…” option and then type your desired password in the “Enter password” input box.
6. Reenter the same password in the verification input box which you put in the step 5 and then click on the check box next to “Encrypt file names.”
7. After this,Click the “OK” twice.
8. Click “Yes” when prompted if you want to encrypt the converted archive.
9. Click “OK” to convert and encrypt the archive. Click the “Close” button once the encryption is done.

Encrypting Existing WinRAR Archives:

1. Open the WinRAR application and then use the built-in file browser to navigate to the RAR archive on your PC  that you like to encrypt.
2. Click “File” from the menu bar and then click “Set default password.”
3. Type a desired password for the archive in the “Enter password” text input box and then repeat the same password in the “Reenter password for verification” box.
4. Click the check box next to “Encrypt file names” and then click the “OK” button.

Is WinRar Safe?

It is safe and secure if you download it from  reputable sources.Link below:

http://www.rarlab.com/  But  that does not mean any files archived with WinRar is safe.

If you archive any harmful file using it,it can be dangerous. WinRar is just an utility archiever,how you use it completely depends upon you.

How to Download WinRar?

First of all go to  http://rarlab.com/,

• Then navigate to the Download Section ,
• Then look under the section which says english winrar and release and click on winrar x86 32-bit
• once you do the download will automatically start .
• After that click WinRAR X 64 X otra dot exe in the installation window, read the agreement and accept the formalities.

You will be then successfully download WinRar.

Here is the Video guide how you can download WinRar:

What are some alternatives of WinRar?

Though WinRar is a very popular one in the category,there are also some other alternatives of WinRar which can work for different situations.

Some such WinRar alternatives are listed below:

• 7zip(7zip gives you higher compression and security options)
• (PeaZip)( better for sharing and receiving files)
• Bandizip(Light weight archiving tool but lacks the virus scanning feature)
• Zipware(Like a trimmed vesion of WinRar with only  two main buttons – New and Open)
• FreeArc(Open-source file compression utility for personal computers)

What Operating system does WinRar supports?Does it supports Linux?

Though WinRar is mainly a windows based utility,there is also support available for Android , Linux,MAC OS X,Free BSD.

The android version is called “RAR for Android”.

The detailed download link is here:

https://www.win-rar.com/download.html

Last Words:

Hope you like the post about WinRar.

Do you use another compression utility

?Do you have any questions reagarding this?Please put all your comments below in the comment box and I will be more than happy to answer.

Have a good time ahead!

Cover image source: https://pixabay.com/en/compress-file-zip-archive-add-27103/

(Under CC0 Creative Commons)

The post 9 Top WinRAR Facts You Need To Know appeared first on Tekkibytes.com.