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WinRAR

By Eugene Roshal / win.rar GmbH · since 1995 · Trialware (40 days, but never expires in practice) · official site →

Overview

WinRAR is the legendary "trial that never ends" Windows archiver. It is the only mainstream tool that can create RAR archives, including multi-volume splits with recovery records that can repair corrupted downloads. The famous nag dialog asks you to buy a license but does not actually disable any functionality.

Best for

Anyone who needs to create RAR or RAR5 archives, especially with recovery records. Splitting large files across multiple volumes for upload.

Limitations

Paid software (technically). Proprietary RAR format. Closed source.

Supported formats — create

WinRAR can create the following archive formats:

RARRAR5ZIP

Supported formats — extract

WinRAR can extract:

RARRAR5ZIP7zTARGZIPBZIP2XZCABISOACEARJLZHUUE

Installation

Where to download

The official download is at https://www.win-rar.com/. Avoid third-party download sites — they often bundle adware or worse with otherwise legitimate archivers.

Operating systems supported

WindowsmacOS (CLI only)Linux (CLI only)Android (RAR for Android)

How to use WinRAR

Extracting an archive

  1. Locate the archive in your file manager (or terminal).
  2. Right-click and choose the WinRAR entry, or run the equivalent CLI command.
  3. Pick a destination folder.
  4. Wait for extraction to complete — speed depends on archive size and chosen algorithm.

Creating an archive

  1. Select the files or folders you want to bundle.
  2. Open WinRAR and choose Add (or drag the selection onto its window/dock icon).
  3. Pick a target format from the supported list above.
  4. Optionally set a password — prefer AES-256 over legacy algorithms.
  5. Click OK and wait for compression to complete.

Alternatives

If WinRAR is not the right fit, consider these alternatives covered in our software directory: