We often download large numbers of files such as video/audio files, games, E-journal, Flash animations, applications and so on from websites which provide download free. But we will find that the space of our hard disk do not big enough to store so many files and data sooner or later. That makes our computer running more and more slowly and astatically. We usually compress the files in order to saving enough space to store more data and files. So an excellent software that create compressed archives is very important for us. Which one do you use commonly, such as WINZIP, WINARJ, UC, LHA, ACE32, WinRAR etc? WinRAR is my favorite archiver in numerous of compression tools. Did you use WINRAR before? I think it is an ideal solution for me to create and manage compressed archives. If you are looking for a archiver I commend WINRAR to you and I can insure that you will love it soon.

WinRAR is a powerful archiver and archive manager that can not only open all popular compression formats but also features its own. RAR files can usually compress content 8 to 15 percent more than ZIP or ARJ files. WinRAR main features are strong general and multimedia compression, processing of non-RAR archives (ZIP,ARJ,CAB,TAR etc.) long filename support, programmable self-extracting archives (SFX), damaged archive repair, authenticity verification, embedded file comments, and encryption. WinRAR is able to browse and unpack contents of ISO files. WinRAR also supports Joliet extension of ISO9660 and displays long file names inside of Joliet CD images. WINRAR is an all-purpose archiver, it can compress and manage almost all compressed archives. After we installed it on our computer, it was added to right-click menu of Windows Explorer and we can select one or a set of archives to compress. We can also custom the rate of compressed archives. For example, we can make compressed process more quicker in low rate or get more smaller archive in high rate.

Overall, WINRAR provides a straightforward interface that is easy to use even for novice users, yet powerful enough to accommodate advanced users as well. This powerful archiver and archive manager is an ideal solution for creating compressed archives.

WinRAR is a powerful archiver and archive manager that cannot only open all popular compression formats but also features it's own.. RAR files can usually compress content 8 to 15 percent more than ZIP or ARJ files.

WinRAR's main features are strong general and multimedia compression, processing of non-RAR archives (ZIP,ARJ,CAB,TAR etc.) long filename support, programmable self-extracting archives (SFX), damaged archive repair, authenticity verification, embedded file comments, and encryption.
WinRAR is able to browse and unpack contents of ISO files. WinRAR also supports Joliet extension of ISO9660 and displays long file names inside of Joliet CD images.

WinRAR supports RAR and ZIP 2.0 archives, special algorithms optimized for text, audio, graphics, 32-bit and 64-bit Intel executables compression. You can now handle archives directly from Windows Explorer due to the shell integration including drag-and-drop facility and cascaded context menus.

WinRAR features wizards for beginners and command line interface for advanced users. It can handle non RAR archives (7-Zip, ACE, ARJ, BZ2, CAB, GZ, ISO, JAR, LZH, TAR, UUE, Z, GZip) management, solid archiving which can raise compression ratio by 10% - 50% over more common methods, particularly when packing a large number of small, similar files.

Using WinRAR you can create multivolume archives, self-extracting archives (also multivolume) using the default or optional SFX modules. You can use a lot of service functions, such as encryption, archive comments, error logging, etc. The program has an inbuilt viewer for viewing the content of text files within archives. You can create compression profiles in order to optimize your activity.

WinRAR has a very friendly user interface, so that the menus are customizable and offer access to important archive commands like extract, test, comment, protect, and lock, but also other important tools such as scan, convert, or benchmark and hardware test.

Pluses: There are several versions of RAR, for a number of operating environments: Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, DOS, OS/2, MacOS X. You can test, lock and repair/recover physically damaged archives or volumes allowing to reconstruct missing parts of multivolume archives. You can also take advantage of miscellaneous options such as Background archiving, turn PC off when done, compression estimation.

Among the new features we may mention: new buttons (options) such as: "Define volume sizes...", "Rename automatically", "Multithreading" option added to "Benchmark and hardware test" command, new command lines, increased compression speed (5 -15%) for some data types. The publisher states that they fixed some bugs in the multithreaded text compression algorithm.

The speed versus the rate of compression came out as medium compared to WinAce and WinZip: a directory containing multimedia and text files in total size of 104 Mb compressed at a normal rate by WinRAR resulted in a 64 Mb in 51 seconds compared to 76,2 Mb in 17 seconds for WinZip and 64,2 Mb in 1 minute and 11 seconds for WinAce.

Drawbacks / flaws:
In conclusion: A good compression over a quite short archiving time sets WinRAR in a very good position among the well known archivers. The program is a very good and reliable archiving solution.

WinRAR is a 32-bit Windows version of RAR Archiver, the powerful archiver and archive manager. WinRAR supports decompression of ZIP archives created using Zip64 format extension. Zip64 was introduced to remove original ZIP format limitations on archived file size.

WinRARs main features are very strong general and multimedia compression, processing of non-RAR archives, long filename support, programmable self-extracting archives (SFX), damaged archive repair, authenticity verification, embedded file comments, and encryption. This beta version of WinRAR includes an integrated GUI skinning engine. New options in "Advanced" part of extraction dialog:
a) "Delete archive" options allow to delete extracted archives;
b) "Check authenticity information" option controls processing of authenticity information in RAR archives.
-Now it is possible to change WinRARs look by installing interface themes.Theme files are RAR archives, just open them in WinRAR to install. You can manage installed themes using "Options/Themes" menu.
-Added support of multivolume (multipart) CAB archives.
Wait if other WinRAR copies are active" option in "Advanced" parts of archiving and extraction dialogs.
If enabled, it waits while other WinRAR copies are creating, modifying or unpacking an archive and starts the operation only when other WinRAR tasks are complete. If you are going to perform several archiving or decompressing tasks, such queued execution can help to reduce the amount of disk seeks and improve overall performance.
Security changes:
a) WinRAR shell does not allow to run *.pif files. Archived PIF files is one of typical ways for computer viruses to distribute;
b) WinRAR shell does not allow to run files having 5 or more continuous spaces in the name. For example, "calc.txt .exe". Viruses frequently add such spaces to confuse users and hide the real extension. WinRAR shell removes these continuous spaces except first and last also when displaying names of such files in the file list.
In Windows XP WinRAR highlights the sorted column in the file list using the different color, like it is done in Windows Explorer.

WinRAR is a powerful compression tool with many integrated additional functions to help you organize your compressed archives.
WinRAR puts you ahead of the crowd when it comes to compression. By consistently creating smaller archives, WinRAR is often faster than the competition. This will save you disc space, transmission costs AND valuable working time as well.
WinRAR supports all popular compression formats (RAR, ZIP, CAB, ARJ, LZH, ACE, TAR, GZip, UUE, ISO, BZIP2, Z and 7-Zip).
WinRAR is ideal for multimedia files. WinRAR automatically recognizes and selects the best compression method. The special compression algorithm compresses multimedia files, executables and object libraries particularly well.
WinRAR allows you to split archives into separate volumes easily, making it possible to save them on several disks for example.
WinRAR is also ideal, if you are sending data through the web. Its 128 bit password encryption and its authenticated signature technology will give you the peace of mind you have been looking for.
WinRAR is shareware, meaning you have the chance to thoroughly test it. The program can be used absolutely free of charge for 40 days!
WinRAR licenses are valid for all available language and platform versions. If you have purchased several licenses, you can even mix versions to meet your own personal needs.
WinRAR gives you all future UPDATES for FREE! Not like the competition that will make you pay again every one or two years.

The license of this software is Free Trial Software, you can free download and get a free trial.