WinRAR is one of the most popular file compression programs. Its initial version was released back in 1995. WinRAR 5.11 is designed to handle information and its size. It uses various data compression methods in order to shrink large quantities of data to the possible minimum. WinRAR can be used to create new, manage existing and extract already made archive files in multiple formats.

Features

• Various archive format support

• Multi-threaded compression

• Self-extracting and multi-volume archives

• Optional encryption

• Cross-platform

WinRAR is a cross-platform utility and it supports Windows OS, Mac OS, Linux and FreeBSD. This particular version of the app can work on both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. In addition, it is fully globalized in 20+ languages. WinRAR is capable of compressing RAR, RAR5 and ZIP and decompress ZIP, CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, ACE, GZ, ISO, 7z etc. You can even create self-extracted and multi-volume archives within a few seconds. Let’s not forget its Windows shell integration. Thus you can easily access some app features right from the context menu.

Interface

You may not believe, but unlike other applications, WinRAR didn’t change its GUI during the years. Users find it very user-friendly, familiar and intuitive. Actually, its workplace is organized like most Windows-based applications. For instance, all menus are placed on top. The Address Bar is right underneath them. Sounds familiar, right? Right within its main workspace, you can display the folder tree. In addition, there is a status bar, placed at the very bottom of the screen and includes information about the total number of the files and the total size.

Basic Operations

Please beware that WinRAR trial version is only 40 days, within which you will have to purchase a license. As you probably have noticed, there are two main ways to take advantage of WinRAR. The fastest one is by accessing the context menu. You will find this menu only if you have selected a file(s) or a folder(s). Users can choose from the options available there and even add or remove some of them from the Settings panel. The other standard way is to open the application. Thus you can access all files you want to add to archives or extract existing ones. 

Conclusion

WinRAR is a great software solution, especially when you need some help to send lots of and/or large files as attachments. Actually, some more complex archives such as self-extracting or volume ones are not a challenge as well. We strongly recommend that you pick WinRAR, because it is a top notch product. So please give it a try and then share your observations with us.