Introduction

WinRAR is one of the easiest and user friendly archivers, it has a build in shell command which can be used from within the windows explorer to compress or decompress files. It's compression feature is much better than WinZip.

RAR versus ZIP :

WinRAR is able to create archives in different formats: i.e. RAR and ZIP.
The advantages of each RAR and ZIP format are described below :

ZIP archives :

The main advantage of ZIP format is its popularity.  For example, most archives on the Internet are ZIP archives. So if you are going to send an archive to somebody, but you are not sure that your addressee has WinRAR to extract the contents of the archive, it might be a good idea to use the ZIP format. From the other side you can send a self-extracting archive. Such archives are slightly larger, but can be extracted without external programs.  Another ZIP advantage is speed.  ZIP archives are usually created faster than RAR but this only because its compression is poor.

RAR archives :

RAR format in most cases provides significantly better compression than ZIP, especially in solid mode. Another important feature of RAR is support of multi-volume archives. They are more convenient and easier to use than so called ZIP "span disks" archives.  WinRAR does not support ZIP disks spanning, if you need to create a multi-volume set, use RAR volumes instead. RAR format also has a few important features, absent in ZIP such as recovery record, which allows the physically restoration of damaged data, and locking of important archives to prevent their accidental modification. RAR format is able to handle files of practically unlimited size (up to 8,589,934,591 GB), when the maximum size of a single file in a ZIP archive is 4 GB. NOTE that older file systems do not support files larger than 4 GB and you will need to use NTFS (disk format - used by Windows NT systems) to work with such files.

Obtaining & Installing

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The WinRAR program is downloadable at www.rarlab.com, these are the most recent versions. It's an executable file (exe), so you do not need anything else. Except a license off course ;-)

Configuration

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The basic settings generated at installation are under normal conditions enough to work properly with WinRAR, but in case you need to modify them select : Options --> Settings.

GENERAL

The systems dialog :
Switch the setting "Always on top" to ON

The tool bar dialog :
Chose the button size you like and certainly in the beginning to switch on the setting "Show buttons text".

The Interface dialog :
Switch on "sound" and "Show archive comment"

Compression - Paths - File list - Viewer : those settings are not relevant for normal operation.

INTEGRATION

The Associate WinRAR with dialog :
WinRAR can handle many archive types i.e. RAR - ZIP - CAB - ARJ - LZH - ACE - TAR - GZIP - UUE - JAR - ISO - etc... You may select here, for which archive formats WinRAR will be registered as the default viewer. It is a good idea to leave these options selected, as it will allow you to open archives in WinRAR simply by pressing Enter on an archive name or icon in Explorer or Desktop, but keep in mind that when you use more than one archiver on your computer that WinRAR will take over the archive types associated to the other archivers you have.

The Shell integration dialog :
This is where you can set the integration of the shell, so that you can use WinRAR from within the windows explorer, simply by right-clicking on a file and chose one of these methods, "Add to Archive" or " Add to xxx.rar" (where xxx = name of archive), "Compress and email" or "Compress to xxx.rar and email" (where xxx = name of archive). The same set of options is also available when installing WinRAR, so it is possible to change the described options both during installation and/or later, in the WinRAR settings. See Section 05 - Compressing files

Archive information

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INFO

File statistics

This feature gives some information about contents of selected files and folders :
the total size, a number of files and subfolders, a number of archives.
Disk space is allocated to files in fixed size blocks called clusters.
For example, if a cluster size is 4096 bytes and you created a file only 1 byte size, in fact it will occupy 4096 bytes.
So, if you want to known how much space your files are really gonna take and how much you may save after archiving them, this information dialog also displays :
a cluster size for the current disk, a real size of selected files including not filled tails of clusters and so called "Files slack" = the total space wasted in these cluster tails.

Compression prognosis

This feature gives a prognosis about compression size and the time to compress the selected files.
NOTE : that the compression estimation is performed very quickly and very roughly, so do not expect an exact result here. Though it can show if it is worth spending time to compress selected data.
If you set "Start automatically" option before closing the dialog, then when you open the dialog next time, the estimate operation will be initiated automatically, without necessity to use the "Estimate" button.
Also, after completing the scan operation, it is possible to switch to other pages of this dialog and specify different archive options like a comment, recovery record, SFX module, etc. Unlike the scan step, self-extracting archives are also processed here.

OPTIONS

Protect archive

Here you can set the size of the recovery record in percent. NOTE : this will increase the size of the archive, but it helps to repair. If ie. a small physical damage of the archive data may occur. This feature is supported only by RAR archives.

IMPORTANT
If you store/send your archive through a media that it is very possible to be damaged then increase this number (default=1). Increasing this number will make the archive bigger. There are very small chances to recover a damaged archive if it doesn't have a recovery record. If the damage is big (>5% of archive lost) and the recover record is small (1%) then it also can't be recovered.

The idea is to decide how importan are the data storend in the archive for you, how many space you want to sacrifice with the recovery record and how possible is to have a storage failure. Thanks God, today floppy disk are not used any more and maybe soon we will get rid of optical drives (DVDs and esspecial CDs which are very unreliable).

You can't modify the Recovery size value for an existing archive, UNLES you unpack the files and repacke them with the desired value.

Create recovery volumes

Here you can create recovery volumes for the archive. Just enter a number of .rev volumes to create. You may also append a percent character to this parameter, in such case the number of creating .rev volumes will be equal to this percent taken from the total number of RAR volumes.

Lock archive

Here you can lock the archive, so that it can't be modified anymore.

Sign archive

This option, "Add authenticity information", forces WinRAR to put in archive information concerning the creator, last update time and archive name.

Compressing files

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USING WINDOWS SHELL

There are 2 ways of compressing files using Windows shell. See the screenshot on the right.

First method

The first method is to use the shell command "Add to xxx.rar" which allows you to select one single file or multiple files at once and compress them to the same name as the original file.
NOTE : Chosing the option "Compress to xxx.rar and email" will result in the same as above, except that your email client popups and allows you to mail the archived file.

Second method

The second method is to use the shell command "Add to archive" which allows you to select one single file or multiple files at once and compress the files to a directory of your choice and chose the name you want for the archived file, at this stage a popup window will appear, called "Archive name and parameters" here you can create the type of archive format you want, the compression method, the volume size, etc..
NOTE : Chosing the option "Compress and email" will result in the same as above, except that your email client popups and allows you to mail the archived file.

USING WINRAR GUI

Open Winrar, select your files to archive and click this button

The General dialog

Archive name

Enter the name manually or press the "Browse" button to browse for the archive name. You may enter a name containing a disk letter or the full path to the archive.

Profiles

Opens the menu allowing to create new, organize and select compression profiles. Compression profiles allow you to quickly restore previously saved compression options or to specify default options for this dialog.  WinRAR provides a few predefined profiles optimized for creating e-mail attachments, backup files and other operations. See the topic Compression profiles for more information.

Archive Format

Chose the format you want.  If ZIP format selected, some advanced options, not supported by this archive format, will be disabled.

Compression method

When creating a new archive, you first need to select the archive format. ZIP is preferable only if you are not sure that a receiver of your archive has WinRAR. Otherwise it is recommended to select RAR, which supports more functions and higher compression. See RAR versus ZIP in the introduction topic. Regardless of the archive format the next step is the selection of compression method. Six compression methods are supported:
"Store", "Fastest", "Fast", "Normal", "Good" and "Best". The "Best" method provides highest, but slowest compression.
"Fastest" compresses poorly, but is very fast.
"Store" merges files into an archive without compression. If you create an archive for distribution or for long storage, probably you should ignore time and use the "Best" compression method to reduce the size as much as possible.
"Normal" compression is usually the best choice for daily backups.

If you selected the ZIP archive format, your preparations are finished on this stage. The features below are supported only by RAR archives.

The next parameter is dictionary size. It can be 64, 128, 256, 512 and 1024KB. Higher values of this parameter lead to better, but slower compression, so from this side it is similar to selecting compression method. Generally the best decision is to set the dictionary size to 1024KB and use the compression method to regulate the size/speed ratio. But a larger dictionary size requires more memory, memory usage can be estimated, approximately, as < dictionary size > *5 + 2560 KB. If your computer has only 16 MB of memory, you should select a lower dictionary size value, for example, 256 KB. NOTE : that if you create a self-extracting archive using DOS SFX module, the dictionary size must be 64KB, because DOS SFX cannot handle larger dictionary. This limitation does not exist for other SFX modules.

NOTE : that neither compression method nor dictionary size change the extraction speed or extraction memory requirements.
The next option is solid archiving. This mode is explained in the Solid archives topic, so here only the main concept will be given. If you need to maximize compression - use solid mode, if you need to have maximum archive updating speed or if you want to minimize data losses in case of archive damage, do not use solid mode.

A special topic is multimedia compression. It tries to use an additional algorithm to improve compression of data such as digital audio, containing up to four 8-bit or two 16-bit channels or true color (24-bit) bit maps. Improvement in the compression ratio up to 30% over the normal compression may be achieved but when this method is applied to normal data, in most cases it will not change compression. It's possible that, when applied to normal data, compression may be only slightly improved or in some cases even decreased. NOTE : that this method cannot improve compression of already packed audio or graphics, so there is no sense to use it with JPEG or MPEG files. But it can show good results on unpacked WAV and true color BMP files.
These are all the main settings, which affect compression ratio and speed. Actually, you do not need to set them before each archiving. Simply select your favorite default values once in the default compression profile, which can be created from the "Compression settings dialog" and later you may change values in the "Archive name and parameters dialog" or using command line switches, when executing WinRAR from the command line.  The only exception is archive format, which does not have a selection command line switch. Instead to overwrite the default archive format settings in the command line you should specify complete archive name with .RAR or .ZIP extension. In the WinRAR shell mode, the archive format can be selected in Archive name and parameters dialog in the same way as all other settings.

Volume size, bytes

By default it is entered in bytes. But if you add a lower case letter 'k' at the end of the volume size, the entered value will be considered as kilo bytes (multiplied by 1024). Use an upper case 'K' to denote thousand of bytes (multiply by 1000), 'm' means megabyte and 'M' - million of bytes. NOTE : that if you are archiving to a removable disk, you may select "Auto detect" from the list and WinRAR will choose the volume size automatically for each new volume.

Update mode

Add and replace files (default) :
Always replace archived files, which have same name as files to be added. Always add those files, which are not present in the archive.

Add and update files :
Replace archived files only if added files are newer. Always add those files, which are not present in the archive.

Freshen existing files only :
Replace archived files only if added files are newer. Do not add those files, which are not present in the archive.

Synchronize archive contents :
Replace archived files only if added files are newer. Always add those files, which are not present in the archive. Delete those archived files, which are not present in the added files. It looks similar to creating a new archive, but with the one important exception : if no files are modified since a last backup, the operation is performed much faster than the creation of a new archive.

Archiving options

Delete files after compression : The original files will only be deleted after a successful compression.

Create SFX archive

Creates a self-extracting archive (exe file), which can be unpacked without using any other programs. You may select the type of SFX module and set a few other SFX parameters like a destination folder in the Advanced options of this dialog.

Create solid archive

Creates a solid archive. Usually gives higher compression ratios, but applies some restrictions.

Put Authenticity verification

Put, in the archive, information concerning the creator, last update time and archive name. In archive management mode it is possible to read the authenticity information using the Show archive information.

Put recovery record

Adds the recovery record, which may help to restore an archive in case of damage. You may specify a size of the recovery record in the Advanced options of this dialog. But the default value is about 1 % of the total archive size.

Lock archive

A locked archive cannot be modified by WinRAR. You may lock important archives to prevent accidental modification.

The advanced dialog

Save file security

This option has meaning only for NTFS file system under Windows NT/2000/XP and allows to save file owner, group, access control and audit information. You need to have the necessary privileges in order to use this facility. Processing of security data may decrease the speed of archiving operation, so set this option only if you really need it, in most cases security processing is not required for home users.

Save file streams

This option has meaning only for NTFS file system under Windows NT/2000/XP and allows to save alternative data streams associated with a file. It is especially important under Windows 2000/XP, which uses streams to keep some file dependent information such as file descriptions. If you use WinRAR to backup your NTFS disks, it is recommended to enable this option. This option is supported only for RAR archives.

Background archiving

Minimizes WinRAR to tray when starting the archiving process. NOTE: it slows down a little bit the compression process.

Recovery record

Set a size of the recovery record in percents to the total archive size. The maximum allowed value is 10%. Larger recovery record allows to recover from more serious damages, but at the same time it increases archive size, so 1 - 3% is optimal. This input field is available only if you enabled "Put recovery record" option in the General options of this dialog.

Dictionary size, KB

Size of the dictionary used by the compression algorithm. If your computer has at least 32MB, 1024KB dictionary size will be optimal. Otherwise you need to set a lower value to decrease memory usage.

SFX options

Select a self-extracting module and set a number of optional SFX parameters like a destination folder or window title. Note that SFX parameters are applicable only to Windows GUI module and are not supported by console or non-Windows SFX. The "SFX options" button is available only if you enabled "Create SFX archive" option in the General options dialog. It is possible to store selected SFX options in a compression profile, WinRAR puts commands describing SFX parameters to the archive comment.

Set password

Set a password to encrypt archived files. It is valid only during a single archiving operation and overrides the default password entered in File menu. If the default password is present, it will be restored after the archiving operation is completed. If the default password was absent before starting archiving, it also will be absent after finishing the operation.

The files dialog

Files to add
Names of files and folders to compress. This field is automatically filled by selected file names, but, if necessary, you may edit them manually or press the "Append" button to choose more files to add to the list. It is allowed to enter wild card masks here, in this case WinRAR will search for files matching a mask in the current folder and all sub folders. For example, you may enter : *.txt *.doc - to archive all .txt and .doc files.

Files to exclude

File masks and file names to exclude from the archiving operation. For example, you may enter : *.bak *.tmp - to skip .bak and .tmp files.

File paths Select the method of storing file paths in archive. WinRAR may store paths relative to the current folder (default), full file paths except a drive letter and leading backslash character or store only file names without paths. NOTE : that in the latter case it is possible to create an archive containing several files with the same name, so use "Do not store paths" option with care.

Put each file to separate archive

Puts each selected file in the current folder and all files in selected subfolders to separate archives, each archive contains only one file. If you set this option, an entered archive name is ignored and archive names are generated basing on file names.

The backup dialog

Erase destination disk contents before archiving

All files and folders on the target disk will be erased before starting the archiving operation. If you create volumes, erasing will be performed before creating of each volume, giving you the chance to archive to non-empty removable disks. But you must be sure that the disks do not contain any useful information. The option applies only to removable media, so hard disk cannot be erased using this function ;-)

Add only files with attribute "Archive" set

Only those files which have attribute "Archive" set, will be added. This option is designed for backup purposes.

Clear attribute "Archive" after compressing

Clear attribute "Archive" on successfully compressed files. This option is designed for backup purposes.

Open shared files

Allows to process files opened by other applications for writing. This option could be dangerous, because it allows a file to be archived, while that file may be in the process of being modified by an other application. Use with great care.

Generate archive name by mask

Appends the current date string to an archive name when creating an archive. Useful for daily backups. The date string is formatted by the specified mask.

Include files : of any time / older than / newer than

The default value of this option is "any time", so WinRAR will archive all selected files regardless of their time stamp. But changing it to "older than" or "newer than" you may force WinRAR to archive only those files which are older or newer than a specified number of days, hours and minutes. For example, it can be useful if you wish to archive only files modified in the last 3 days.

Set archive time to : current system time / original archive time / latest file time

The default value of this option is the "current system time", so every new or modified archive receives the current system time. But you also may set this option to the "original archive time" to prevent the archive time from changing or to the "latest file time" to set the time of a changed archive to the time of the newest file in the archive.

The comment dialog

Load a comment from the file / Enter a comment manually

Here you may specify an archive comment, to add to a new or updated archive. You may either enter a name of a file containing comment text in the "Load a comment from the file" field or enter a comment manually in the "Enter a comment manually" window.

Decompressing files

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USING WINDOWS SHELL

Decompressing .rar archives

From within the windows explorer double click xxx.part1.rar (where xxx=name of the archive & part1=first part) the WinRAR window will open and you can select the "extract to button", you can now select the destination directory of your choice by selecting from the explorer window that popped up. When you click "OK" the decompression process will start.
NOTE : that if you have the file archived with a password, WinRAR will ask for it right now.

Decompressing .exe archives

(SFX archiving)
From within the windows explorer double click xxx.part1.exe (where xxx=name of the archive & part1=first part) the WinRAR window will open and you can choose the destination directory of your choice by selecting the browse button. When you click the "Install" button the decompression process starts. Note that if you have the file archived with a password, WinRAR will ask for it right now.

Decompressing *.001 archives

NOTE : This method was used by earlier versions of WinRAR, like version 2.8. So, this method has no importance, it's just informational & if you ran into such file extions, you known what to do.

This method is not standard, because this archiving has to be done from within the "General dialog - Archive (naming your file" and replace the extension from xxx.rar to xxx.001. When you have a multi-span archive of let us say 20 MB with a multi-span volume-size of 5 MB, the first file will be named xxx.001, the next one xxx.002 and so on (where xxx=name of the archive).
To decompress those files, open windows explorer, select all files from *.001 (first file) to *.999 or whatever is the last archive file you have (end of multi-span archive).
The WinRAR window will pop up and you can start the decompression of all the files you selected by clicking on the button "extract to" and select the destination directory of your choice.

USING WINRAR GUI

Open Winrar, select your file(s) to be extracted and click this button
This dialog enables to select the destination folder for extracted files. By default this folder is the same as the archive name and is placed in the current folder, but you may change this default value using the "Compression settings dialog". The dialog attempts to choose a folder name in the tree automatically.
Also this dialog provides several additional options :

Update mode

Extract and replace files (default) : Extracts all selected files.
Extract and update files : Extract those selected files, which copies either not present in the target folder or older than the extracting files.
Fresh existing files only : Extracts only those selected files, which exist in the target folder and older than the corresponding file in the archive. If a file is not present on disk, it will be skipped.

Overwrite mode

Ask before overwrite (default) : Prompts before overwriting a file.
Overwrite without prompt : Files are overwritten without any prompt.
Skip existing files : Those files which are present are not overwritten.

Miscellaneous

Extract archives to subfolders : This option is available only when more than one archive is unpacked. It will place unpacked contents of each archive to separate subfolders, which name will be generated basing on the archive name.
Do not extract pathnames : If the option is set, selected files from the root archive folder and from selected subfolders will be extracted into the destination folder. The path information is ignored.
Clear attribute "Archive" : Clear attribute "Archive" on the extracted files. This option is designed for backup purposes.
Keep broken files : WinRAR will not delete files which are not extracted properly, for example, when the archive is damaged (by default, WinRAR deletes such files). You can try to save part of the information from a broken file.