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How to open and create rar files in Windows

 

If you discovered a file that has a .rar extension then you must know that a .rar file is an archive file format that includes support for data compression, error recovery, and file spanning. The algorithm was developed by Eugene Roshal and it's now licensed by win.rar GmbH. A .rar file is a filename extension used by RAR algorithm and it can be created easily with WinRAR. We are going to show you how easily is to open or create a .rar file and the advantages of using it.

 

We are going to use the best program for managing .rar files called WinRAR. If you don't have it, you can download WinRAR from here and you will obtain the latest version. We are going to use WinRAR because it's the only software ( at the time that this article was written ) capable to open and create a .rar archive. There are many other programs that are able to open .rar files but this is the only one that can create rar archives. Now, supposing that you have installed WinRAR on your Windows we are going to open a .rar file with this program. To do so, do a right-click with your mouse on the RAR file that you want to open and select "Open", like in the picture below :

 

This is the simplest method to open a rar file - with your mouse

 

You can proceed in this way if you want to view the content of the RAR file but it won't work if the RAR file is password protected. We are going to discuss about this in this article, now if you were able to open the file you should see a similar window with the one from this picture :

 

I have managed to open the RAR file using WinRAR

 

You may ask yourself : how can I extract the content from this RAR file ? It's easy, there are more ways to do it and we are going to show you the simplest method. You can close this window and again, do a right-click with your mouse on the file and this time select "Extract Files" only if you want to extract the files from the RAR archive on a different location on your computer or select "Extract Here" if you want to extract the content of the RAR file on your current location ( in my example, I have my RAR file on my Desktop, if I want to extract it on the Desktop I would choose "Extract Here" ) please take a look at the following picture :

 

Select where to extract the RAR file - select "Extract files" if you want to extract it on a different location on your computer or choose "Extract Here" and the content of the RAR file will be extracted in the same place where you have your RAR file.

 

If you chosed "Extract Here" look for the files in the same location, if you chosed "Extract files" a new window will appear like in this picture :

 

WinRAR will show you a similar picture with this one if you choosed to select a different location on your computer

 

And that is how you can open, extract a RAR file using WinRAR and now we are going to learn how to create a .rar archive using WinRAR. Please locate the file that you want to archive it and do a right-click with your mouse on it and then select "Add to archive..." - like in this picture :

 

You can archive a file in RAR format by using "Add to archive..." function

 

A new window, will appear with a lot of options. I am going to show you the ones that I am using but you can choose the ones that suit your needs.

 

Options to choose from when archiving RAR files

 

For example, from the "Compression method" - you can choose between "Store, Fastest, Fast, Normal, Good, Best" I personally always choose "Best" because I want to compress the file at the best level. Make sure to check the "Archive Format" to be set on .RAR and also look at the "Archive Name" and make sure to type the desired name for this archive, regardless your name make sure that the name will end in .rar extension.

 

Choose or specify archiving parameters when archiving the file with WinRAR

 

If you want to have a password-protected RAR archive you can setup a password, to do so choose the second tab from your main window - the one named "Advanced" and enter a password - make sure to remember your password as it is very hard or impossible to recover your password once forgotten.

 

You can enter a password if you want to password protect your RAR archive, just make sure that you will remember your password.

 

Moving on, you can also add a comment to your archived file. It will help you in the future if you want to refresh your memory with important informations about the content of the archived file. Look at this picture :

 

Add a comment to a RAR archive

 

If there is nothing else that you want to remove or add to your RAR archive, click on "OK" button and you will return to the main tab :

 

If you are ready to create your archive choose OK and WinRAR will start to create your RAR archive

 

If you clicked on "OK" button, depending on how large your files are and how fast your computer is, WinRAR is going to create your archive.

 

A RAR archive created with WinRAR program

 

You have learned how to open a RAR file, how to create a .rar archive in Windows. In fact, after years of using it, opening and archiving files with WinRAR maked me to consider it the best application that I ever used. There are many reasons but the good one would be the ability to create .rar archives since it's the only one as I already said. It's simple and fast and I never seen an error, practically it's running great on Windows and it's a must have software.