RAR - What's new in the latest version
Version 3.00
1. We introduced WinRAR 3.0 discount program, so a single user
license now is only $29.
As always, already registered users do not need to pay again.
RAR 1.x - 2.x registration is valid for 3.0 too.
New international RAR site is www.rarlab.com. You may visit it
to download latest versions and register RAR.
Also do not forget that we have a lot of regional sites processing
RAR registrations. Complete list is available in rar_site.txt.
2. Compression algorithm improved. Changes include:
a) dictionary size is increased to 4 MB, this helps to increase
compression on large data sets;
b) a special algorithm for text data, based on Dmitry Shkarin's
PPMII sources: ftp://ftp.elf.stuba.sk/pub/pc/pack/ppmdh.rar
We express our sincere gratitude and respect to Dmitry for
his excellent PPMII;
c) special preprocessing algorithms for 32-bit x86 executables,
Itanium executables, true color data, audio data and tables.
In many cases significantly increasing compression;
d) now RAR chooses the best combination of algorithms automatically,
so "Multimedia compression" mode and switch -mm are obsolete.
By default, RAR uses only the general compression algorithm
in the "Fast" and "Fastest" compression methods (-m1 and -m2),
advanced algorithms such as audio and true color processing are
enabled only in "Normal"..."Best" (-m3..-m5) modes, the advanced
text compression is activated only in "Good" and "Best"
compression (-m4..-m5). This default can be overridden using
the -mc switch.
RAR 3.0 archives can be unpacked by any RAR version beginning
from RAR 2.9, currently it is 2.9 and 3.0. RAR 3.0 can unpack
archives created by all older RAR versions.
3. Encryption algorithm is changed to AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)
with 128 bit key length.
4. Francesco Indrio <naradamoon@operamail.com>, <naradamoon@libero.it>
has once again done a nice job redesigning WinRAR graphics.
5. "Wizard" command helps novice users to perform basic
archive operations in simple, step by step mode.
Just click on Wizard button on the toolbar and choose
an operation which you want to perform.
6. "Send archive by email" option in the "Files" part of archiving
dialog. Your email program must support MAPI interface,
otherwise this option will not work.
In the command line mode you may use -ieml[.][addr] switch
to send a created archive by email.
7. WinRAR adds "Compress and email" item to Explorer context menu.
8. Default volume naming scheme is changed from volname.rar,
volname.r00, ..., to volname.part001.rar, volname.part002.rar, etc.
Switch -vn and "Old style volumes names" option in the archiving
dialog allow to use the old extension based scheme.
9. Added support of so called recovery volumes (.rev files),
which can be used to reconstruct missing files in a volume set.
One .rev file allows to reconstruct one missing RAR volume,
for example, 5 .rev files are able to reconstruct any 5 volumes.
In WinRAR you may create recovery volumes either specifying
their number in the archiving dialog or using "Protect" command
inside of the first volume.
In the command line RAR it can be done by the command 'rv[n]'
or switch -rv[n].
RAR and WinRAR automatically use .rev files to reconstruct
missing volumes when unpacking or testing a volume set.
It is also possible to double click on .rev file in WinRAR shell
or use the command 'rc' in the command line to force reconstructing.
I wish to thank developers of Mirror program, who invented
this idea and proposed to implement it in WinRAR.
10. SFX modules:
a) Windows SFX modules now support archives larger than 4 GB
and Unicode names;
b) It is possible to replace the standard SFX icon with your own.
Just specify the icon file name in "Load SFX icon from the file"
field of "Advanced SFX options/Text and icon" dialog.
c) new "Shortcut=DestType,SrcName,DestFolder,Description"
SFX script command allows to create shortcuts to unpacked
files on Desktop, Start Menu, Start Menu/Programs or Startup.
This feature is also available through "Shortcuts" list
in the "Advanced SFX options" WinRAR dialog;
d) modified syntax of TempMode SFX script command. It now uses
comma instead of '@' as a question and title separator.
It is important only for those users, who write SFX script
manually instead of specifying SFX parameters in WinRAR
"Advanced SFX options" dialog;
e) "Delete" SFX script command and "Files to delete" field
in "Advanced SFX options" dialog may include wildcard masks.
For example:
Delete=*.tmp
f) removed "Allow external signature" advanced SFX option
and the corresponding "ExtSign" script command.
RAR 3.0 archive format includes the end of archive marker,
so SFX module automatically stops extraction when reaching
the end of archive and all data appended to archive are
ignored by default;
g) if you specified INF file in SFX "Setup" command, SFX will
attempt to install it instead of opening its contents
in Notepad as in the previous version;
h) the new DOS SFX module is 32-bit, so it is not limited to 64 KB
dictionary more and can unpack any RAR 3.0 archives regardless
of dictionary size;
i) "SFX options" button in the archiving dialog opens directly
"Advanced SFX options" without intermediate selection of
SFX module. If you need to change SFX type, use "Module"
page in the advanced SFX options.
Please note that new SFX modules are able to unpack only RAR 3.0
archives. They must not be used with archives created by older
RAR versions.
11. Switch -hp<pwd> can be used instead of -p<pwd> to encrypt
both file data and file headers, so such information as file
names, sizes, comments will not be visible without a password.
"Encrypt file names" option in the password dialog provides
the same function in WinRAR shell.
12. Added support for ISO9660 (.iso) file format, which is widely
used to store CD images. 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.
13. Using switch -mc you may set advanced compression parameters
such as prediction order and memory size for the text compression
algorithm. It is also possible in WinRAR shell using "Compression..."
button in the "Advanced" part of archiving dialog.
14. Switch -ms allows to specify files, which will be stored
without compression. For example, -msrar;zip;jpg.
It helps to increase archiving speed without noticeable
loss in the compression ratio.
The same option is available in WinRAR shell through
"Files to store without compression" field in the advanced
part of the archiving dialog.
15. "Info" command now is available also outside of archives,
when working with uncompressed files. One task of this command
is getting information about selected files, another is
performing miscellaneous operations with groups of archives.
After the files scan step is completed, you may switch to
other pages of the dialog and apply commands like "Comment"
and "SFX" to all found RAR and ZIP archives.
"Info" replaces "Estimate" command, which function is available
as a part of the information dialog. Amount of estimation information
is reduced, because an accuracy of Estimate results was not enough
to provide reliable results for different compression methods.
16. "Comment", "Protect", "SFX", "Lock" and "Extract" WinRAR commands
can be also used outside of archives. Their buttons are disabled
by default, but you may enable them in toolbar settings or
use "Commands" menu. "Repair" command is also available
inside of archives.
17. "Test archived files" WinRAR option and the command line switch -t
allow to test files after archiving. This option is especially
useful in combination with the move command, so files will be
deleted only if archive had been successfully tested.
18. "Backup" part of the archiving dialog provides two new file
time selecting modes allowing to archive files modified
before or after the specified date.
19. Switches -ta<date> and -tb<date> allow to add or extract files
modified after or before the specified date. Date format
is YYYYMMDDHHMMSS. It is allowed to insert separators like '-'
or ':' to date string and omit trailing fields. For example,
the following switch is correct: -ta2001-11-20.
20. Switch -ver tells RAR to keep old file versions in archive
when adding their new versions.
The corresponding WinRAR shell option is "Keep previous file
versions" in "Backup" part of archiving dialog.
21. "My Network Places" item is added to WinRAR address bar,
so you may browse the network in WinRAR file list.
The address bar also includes some other shell folders
like "My Computer" and "My Documents".
22. When you press "Up one level" toolbar button or Backspace
in the disk root, WinRAR will display the disks list in
the file panel.
23. It is possible to copy and paste archived and usual files
in WinRAR with Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V keys. For example, you may
select some files in archive, press Ctrl+C, open a folder
in Explorer and press Ctrl+V to unpack selected files to
that folder.
24. "Pause" button added to the operation progress window.
Archiving progress window is now displaying time left
instead of total estimated time.
25. CRC32 column is displayed inside of RAR, ZIP, ACE and ARJ archives.
CRC32 is the special control sum calculated basing on file data
and it may help to detect either two archived files are the same
without unpacking them. Same files always have the same CRC32 value.
26. When "Put each file in separate archive" option in the archiving
dialog is enabled, WinRAR uses a text entered in the archive name
field as the destination folder for created archives. Previous
versions ignored the archive name in the "separate archives" mode.
27. "Extract archives to subfolders" option in the extraction
dialog. It is available only when more than one archive
is unpacked. It will place unpacked contents of each archive
to separate subfolder, which name will be generated basing
on the archive name.
28. Switch -ad appends an archive name to destination path.
It may be useful when unpacking a few archives at once,
so files from each archive will go to separate folder.
29. "Extract each archive to separate folder" item is present
in Explorer context menu when unpacking a group of archives.
30. Two new options in WinRAR "Settings/General":
a) "Allow history in dialogs";
b) "Start in wizard mode".
31. Switch -af<type> allows to define a type of new archive
in WinRAR command line. <Type> can be 'rar' or 'zip'.
For example, 'winrar a -afzip arc' will create arc.zip archive.
This switch is supported only by WinRAR. Console RAR is not
able to create ZIP archives.
32. Switch -en disables adding "end of archive block".
By default, RAR 3.0 adds "end of archive" block to the end of
new or updated archive. It allows to skip external data like
digital signatures safely, but in some special cases it may be
useful to disable this feature. For example, if an archive
is transferred between two systems via a unreliable link and
at the same time a sender adds new files to it, it may be
important to be sure that the already received file part will
not be modified on the other end between transfer sessions.
33. Now RAR can update encrypted solid archives.
34. "Exit" button is added to the toolbar. It is disabled by default,
you may enable it manually with "Select buttons..." in WinRAR
settings.
35. "Select toolbar buttons" dialog allows to change the order
of toolbar buttons. Just select buttons to move and press
"Up" or "Down". Also you may drag buttons directly on
the toolbar while holding down the ALT key.
36. "Word wrap" option in "Settings/Viewer" selects the default
wrapping mode in new internal viewer windows.
37. Console RAR sends error messages to stderr instead of stdout.
38. New '+' modifier for -ag switch allows to place the date string
before a base archive name.
39. In the extraction dialog the entered folder is opened
in the folders tree automatically as you type, with a small
delay about 0.5 second. Also you may locate the currently
entered folder name in the tree pressing "Display" button.
40. It is possible to use wildcards in the path part of file mask
in -x switch and "Files to exclude" field of the archiving
dialog. For example, -x*\temp\*.
41. Switch -ilog accepts the optional log file name parameter.
For example, -ilogc:\log\backup.log.
42. Improved Chinese and Japanese (DBCS encoded) names processing
in ZIP archives (RAR format already supported such names since
WinRAR 2.80). But anyway, it is recommended to use RAR format
for such names, because it uses more portable Unicode encoding
instead of ZIP DBCS.
43. WinRAR uses new visual styles of Windows XP controls.
44. Improved processing of "Group Policies" settings. Earlier
it was possible to open a disk disabled in the policies
by pressing "Up" button inside of archive or entering
its path in the address bar.
45. Console rar.exe executed from NT service is continuing
to run after user's logoff.
46. If you attempt to close the command window and an archiving
or extraction operation is already performing for more than
one minute, WinRAR will ask for confirmation.
47. WinRAR recognizes and processes TAR @LongLink records.
GNU TAR uses them to store names longer than 100 characters
in TAR archives. |
