Latest changes in WinRAR


WinRAR - What's new in the latest version


Version 3.60

1. Multithreaded version of RAR compression algorithm improves
the compression speed on computers with several CPU,
dual core CPU and processors with hyperthreading technology.
Multithreading is enabled by default, but you can disable it
in "General" part of "Settings" dialog.

In the command line mode you can control multithreading with
-mt switch.

2. WinRAR can display the folder tree panel allowing to navigate
in disk and archive folders. Use "Options/Folder tree" submenu
to enable the folder tree. It can be configured separately
in file and archive management modes.

Folder tree replaces "Browse for folder" command previously
available in "File" menu and uses its Ctrl+T keyboard shortcut.

3. Now WinRAR "Rename" command also works with ZIP archives.
Previous versions could rename files only in RAR archives.

4. Added decompression of LZH archives created with "-lh7-" algorithm.

5. New "Remove duplicate folders from extraction path" option
in "Settings/Compression" dialog.

If this option is on and you unpack an archive which root folder
has no files and only one 'somename' folder and if destination
folder is new or empty and also ends with '/somename', WinRAR
will exclude one 'somename' from resulting 'somename/somename' path.

6. New "Define volume sizes..." button in "Settings/Compression".
This button activates "Define volume sizes" dialog. Here you
can customize the list of predefined volume sizes associated
with "Split to volumes, bytes" field in archiving dialog.

7. Speed of RAR general compression increased for some data types.
Depending on data type and size the gain may achieve 5 - 15%.

8. New "Rename automatically" option in the extraction dialog
and command line -or switch to rename extracted files automatically
if file with the same name already exists. You can also enable
the auto-renaming mode directly from the overwrite confirmation
prompt with "Rename All" button.

Renamed files will get names like 'filename(N).txt',
where 'filename.txt' is the original file name and 'N' is a number.

9. "Set modification time" option in "Advanced" part of extraction
dialog is accessible also for ZIP archives. Previously it could be
changed only for RAR archives.

10. "Multithreading" option added to "Benchmark and hardware test"
command, so you can compare performance of usual and multithreaded
versions of RAR compression algorithm.

11. New 'ch' (change archive parameters) command line mode command.
Its purpose is to apply switches like -av, -tl and -cl to archive.

12. New 'cv' command line mode command. It provides the command line
interface to WinRAR "Convert archives" command. It is supported
only by winrar.exe, not by rar.exe.

13. New command line -sl and -sm switches to set size
limits of processing files.

14. New command line -fcu[file] switch allows to read archive
comments from Unicode files. It also modifies behavior
of "cw" command, setting the comment output format to Unicode.

15. 7Z added to list of formats stored without compression
when using -ms switch without a parameter.

16. Switch -e[+] is now supported by most of command line
operations including extracting and deleting files. Previously
it was supported by only archiving command.

17. It is allowed to use environment variables in archive name
in archiving dialog, in destination path in extraction dialog,
in folder names on "Compression" and "Paths" pages in WinRAR
settings. For example, you can enter '%temp%' in "Folder for
temporary files" field.


Version 3.51

1. Bugs fixed:

a) fixed two vulnerabilities, which could be exploited with
specially crafted ACE and UUE/XXE archives;

b) previous version did not delete some of temporary files;

c) WinRAR could crash when processing very long (more than
1024 characters) archive name parameter in the command line.


Version 3.50

1. Now it is possible to change WinRAR's look by installing
interface themes. Theme files are available on
http://www.rarlab.com/themes.htm

Theme files are RAR archives, just open them in WinRAR to install.
You can manage installed themes using "Options/Themes" menu.

2. WinRAR supports decompression of ZIP archives created using
Zip64 format extension. Zip64 was introduced to remove
original ZIP format limitations on archived file size.

3. Added support of multivolume (multipart) CAB archives.

4. 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.

5. "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.

6. WinRAR is able to integrate to Windows context menus also
on Windows x64 systems.

7. SFX modules:

a) SFX modules are not compressed by UPX anymore, so they are
larger now. UPX compression caused numerous false alerts
by antivirus software. If you wish to use compressed modules,
you can get UPX from http://upx.sourceforge.net and compress
*.sfx files in WinRAR folder;

b) The default SFX logo can be replaced by a custom bitmap file.
You can do it either with "Load SFX logo from the file" option
in "Text and icon" part of "Advanced SFX options" dialog
or using -iimg command line switch. Note that -iimg is not
supported by console RAR, only GUI WinRAR recognizes it.
This option is not supported in Windows 95, 98 and Me.
Also you cannot use it if you compressed SFX modules by UPX.

c) It is possible to specify user defined SFX icons larger than
32x32 and with any color depth. Like the previous item,
this improvement is valid only if SFX modules are not compressed
by UPX and your operating system is not Windows 9x/Me;

d) DOS.SFX module moved to RAR/DOS32 distributive. If you need
to create DOS SFX archives using WinRAR, just copy DOS.SFX
to WinRAR folder.

8. "Wizard" command allows to specify a password when creating
or updating an archive.

9. Previous WinRAR versions unpacked the complete archive contents
if the user pressed Enter or double clicked on *.exe, *.htm and
*.html files. Now it is possible to define file masks to unpack
everything for. Such masks can be entered on the "Viewer" page
of the "Settings" dialog. For example, if you wish to unpack only
a file under the cursor when you double click on archived HTML file,
remove "*.htm *.html" from this field.

10. Additional file name extensions for archive formats supported
by WinRAR can be specified in the "User defined archive extensions"
field on the "Integration" page of the "Settings" dialog. For example,
if you have files with ".001" extension, which are in RAR format,
you can enter "001" here to associate WinRAR with such files.

11. New "Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color" option
in "File list" page of "Settings" dialog.

12. New "Lock toolbars" option in "General" page of "Settings" dialog
and in the menu displayed after clicking the right mouse button
on the toolbar. "Lock toolbars" prevents accidental toolbar moving
or resizing.

13. "Repair" and "Extract" commands replace invalid characters
(colon, question mark, etc.) by underscore also in file names
in ZIP archives. Previously WinRAR did it only for RAR archives.

14. New -n and -n@ switches set additional include
filters, so only files matching the mask will be processed.

15. New -id[c,d,p,q] switch. Additionally to previously available
-idp switch (disable percentage indicator), switches -idc, -idd
and -idq instruct the console RAR to hide the copyright message,
"Done" message and all information messages.

16. Switch -e+ allows to specify file include attributes mask.
For example, you can use -e+h switch to compress only hidden files.

17. Switch -ver[n] supports the optional 'n' parameter also when
archiving. It limits the maximum number of file versions.

18. If the short name of an already existing file is equal to the long
name of an unpacking file, WinRAR changes the short name of the
already
existing file before unpacking. In such situation previous versions
prompted to overwrite the existing file even though long file names
were not equal.

19. 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.

20. In Windows XP WinRAR highlights the sorted column in the file list
using the different color, like it is done in Windows Explorer.

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