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WinRAR
WinRAR 3.71
Maintainer	Eugene Roshal / Alexander Roshal
Stable release	3.71  (2007-09-21) [+/-]
Preview release	none  () [+/-]
OS	Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista
Use	File archiver
License	Proprietary, Shareware
Website	Primary: www.rarlab.com Secondary: www.win-rar.com

WinRAR is a shareware file archiver and data compression utility developed by Eugene Roshal. It is arguably one of the two main file archive programs for Windows, along with WinZip. It is one of the few applications that is able to create RAR archives natively, as the encoding method is held to be proprietary.

The current developer is Eugene Roshal, while his brother Alexander Roshal is engaged in business of the software. Eugene Roshal was born in Russia on March 10, 1972 and graduated from South Ural State University (former Chelyabinsk Technical University), Electronics' Faculty.

WinRAR supports the following features:

• Complete support for RAR and ZIP archives, and unpacking of CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, ACE, UUE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, 7z and Z archives. Future versions of WinRAR are planned to include 7z creation. [1]
• The ability to create self-extracting and multi-volume (split) archives.
• Data redundancy is provided via recovery records and recovery volumes, even allowing reconstruction of damaged archives.
• Support for advanced NTFS file system options and Unicode in file names.
• Optional archive encryption using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with a 128-bit key.

There is no WinRAR for other platforms. See RAR for a multiplatform archiver for RAR format from the same author.

• Notable version changes include:
  • From version 3.50 beta 1, WinRAR adds support for interface skins and themes.
  • From version 3.50, WinRAR supports Windows XP x64.
  • From version 3.51, a few security vulnerabilities and bugs are addressed.
  • From version 3.60 beta 1, WinRAR includes a multithreaded version of the compression algorithm, which improves compression speed on systems with dual-core or hyperthreading-enabled CPUs.
  • From version 3.70 beta [2], WinRAR supports Windows Vista.

• Release dates:
  • Version 3.70: May 29, 2007
  • Version 3.71: September 21, 2007 - a bug fix release

• When using version 3.20 or above, clicking on the archive 'book' on the left side of the "About WinRAR" dialog will cause it to fall and bounce, complete with sound effects
• One can click on the title picture "WinRAR" in the "About WinRAR" dialog for an animation of a beach

WinRAR Unplugged is a portable WinRAR which can be easily carried in a flash drive.

• Comparison of file archivers

• RARlab WinRAR website (win-rar.com)
• RARlab main website (rarlab.com)
• Maximum Compression, a site providing test results for various file types using different compression tools (including WinRAR)
• WinRAR older versions - All of the old versions from version 1.54 to the latest one