WinRar is probably the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to solid and heavy compression and it contains just about everything you could possibly want or need from a desktop compression software.
WinRar has been around for more than 18 years or so and if you are not familiar with it lets take a moment and see what all the fuss is about and what can it do.
One of the most important features is multimedia compression, damage protection for your files and it can process almost all kind of archives (rar, zip and all other non- rar archives).
It has Windows x64 shell integration and provides complete support for RAR and ZIP archives and additionally, it supports extraction for 13 other archive types such as CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, ACE, UUE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, Z, 7-Zip and it is available in over 40 languages.
WinRar Main ScreenInstallation & Requirements
The installation process is actually very simple, and the whole process will take you just a couple of minutes. The system requirements are quite low since the software’s main purpose is to run basically on any machine.
For the 32 Bit version any basic Intel Pentium (or compatible) will do and of course for 64 Bit you’ll need a 64 Bit CPU and the 64 Bit Windows version.
Users that are still using older version such as Win98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP or Vista will also be able to install WinRar.
Hard drive space and memory requirements are certinly not an issue, WinRar will demand just 64MB of RAM and 3MB of available hard disk .
Interface
The interface is very easy to use: you can start by creating an archive by using drag and drop files or you can use the browsing method from the folder-tree side panel, but in order to so you must enable it.
The icons are displayed in a wonderful array of colours forming a most intuitive interface and if by any chance you are not happy with the default interface you must keep in mind that it can be fully customized by downloading certain themes from the company’s Web site.
You will find Add files to, Extract, Test, Delete, and the Repair button right from the main interface. If you choose the Drop-down menus you’ll be able to discover further advanced features such as self-extracting archives, archive locking, benchmarking, and even auto-deletion of temp files.
Pros
Powerful tool, it does what it’s supposed to do perfectly, it is fast, it has a simple interface, and some nice advanced features.
Cons
We all like free things but WinRar its not amongst them. It costs 29 dollars, so knock yourself out. WinRAR comes tho with a 40 day trial period, in which, you will undoubtedly be convinced to purchase it.
Alternatives
If by any chance WinRar doesn’t satisfy your needs and you want to try something similar, there are a few alternatives out there. WinZip is a good proprietary file archiver and compressor designed for Microsoft Windows, IZArc a very good freeware archive utility supporting most archive formats or 7-Zip an open source Windows utility for manipulating archives.
Conclusion
WinRar creates and unpacks archives at super speed. Compared with any other archiving software it will perform much better and you dont need super computer skills to use this one. If you need to manage RAR and any kinda of archive files, look no further because this the software you need.
