From this instruction you will learn how to install WinRAR on Windows 10 (on Windows 7, 8 and XP the procedure is the same; the instructions can be considered universal for all versions of Windows).

To get started, download the latest version of WinRAR, select an archiver of the same bit size as your operating system to get maximum archiver performance.

Then run the downloaded file. The installer will prompt you to select a folder for installation and read the license agreement.

Click on the button Install».

After a few seconds, WinRAR will install and you will be prompted to configure it. First, you need to choose which file extensions to associate with the program.

By default, almost all file formats are checked there. When you double-click on such files, they will open in the WinRAR archiver. You can enable or disable any formats from the association, or change nothing - the default settings are optimal for most users.

The next settings window is responsible for where the WinRAR shortcut will be added - on the desktop, in the Start menu, in the program group.

In the last window you can configure WinRAR integration into Explorer.

This means the appearance of commands “archive via WinRAR”, “unpack archive”, etc. in the Explorer context menu. That is, if you right-click on any file, you will see these commands in the menu that appears.

By default, this feature is enabled; if you do not need it, you can uncheck the settings items.

Then click OK.

Most applications and documents distributed on the Internet are usually archived into a single file using a special program - the so-called archiver. The archiver allows you not only to combine many files into one for ease of placement, for example, on file hosting services or sending by mail, but also to reduce their overall size (sometimes even by several dozen times). The compression percentage of files largely depends directly on their type. For example, audio and video files cannot be compressed by standard archivers; they are usually compressed using a variety of codecs. We'll talk about compression of media files a little later. But documents from the Microsoft Office application package, pictures in BMP format, and some executive applications can be compressed tens and sometimes hundreds of times.

Today, the most common archive formats are ZIP and RAR. And to work with them, I suggest using the universal WinRAR archiver for Windows 7, which supports both formats. Among other things, using the WinRAR archiver you can create a self-extracting archive, but we will talk about this in another article. First, we need to install the archiver. I suggest you download and install the WinRAR archiver version 4.20 for 64-bit operating systems, the link to which I will post at the end of this article. By the way, the file will be just a self-extracting archive created by the same archiver.

Installing the WinRAR archiver

So, it will be assumed that you have downloaded the WinRAR archiver for Windows 7. Installing self-extracting archives is simple and quick. Right-click on the WinRAR.v4.20 file and select the “Run as Administrator” menu item from the drop-down list.

The system will ask you for permission to make changes to the installed program on your computer. Agree by clicking on the “Yes” button.


Will begin installation of the WinRAR archiver. As a rule, installation of self-extracting archives is performed in the background, that is, you will not see the installation process itself. You will know that the installation is complete when you find a shortcut for the WinRAR program in the “Start” menu. Installation takes 1-2 seconds. Congratulations, you did it. Simple, isn't it? Now let's configure the archiver so that it always runs as Administrator. This is done so that the archiver can unzip files into system folders, that is, he has full access. To do this, right-click on the WinRAR shortcut and select the “Properties” menu item from the list with the left mouse button.

In the properties window that appears, select the “Compatibility” tab at the top and check the box next to “Run this program as an administrator” at the bottom.

Ready. Now all archives (compressed files such as RAR and ZIP) on your hard drive will be automatically opened by the WinRAR archiver. Let's check it out.

Unpacking a file in Windows 7

Let's unpack the file to activate the ESET Smart Security antivirus, which is called TNOD. But first you need to make some settings on the antivirus program itself. Or rather, add exceptions. For more information about how and why this is done, read the article “”. So, double-click on the archive with the left mouse button (in my case it is the program TNod-1.4.2.1-final). By the way, each archive will have an icon in the form of books tied with a leather belt.


Allow the program you are running to make changes on your computer by clicking on the “Yes” button.


The packed file should open with the WinRAR archiver.


Now in the “Commands” menu item you need to select “Extract to the specified folder”, as shown in the picture below.


The path and extraction options window will open. Here you need to select the folder into which the TNOD application will be unpacked. This will be the folder with ESET antivirus on drive “C” in the “Program Files” directory. Once you have made your selection, click OK.


That's it, unpacking the file in Windows 7 is successfully completed, and the unpacked file is safely saved in the folder you specified. Below you can follow the link download free version of WinRAR archiver, which will work perfectly in almost all versions of the Windows operating system. Be on friendly terms with your computer!

In order to unpack any of the archive files, you can use the simplest and free WinRAR archiver, which is perhaps the most famous of this kind of programs and, in my opinion, the most intuitive. Simply put, working with it is easy and simple; in fact, you don’t need to understand anything.

Nevertheless, for beginners, for those who may have never encountered archived files, I will explain how to work with this archiver, how to use it to perform the most important and necessary operations: view the contents of the archive, pack files and folders with the ability to install password for the archive, unzip them through the context menu (by right-clicking) and through the Winrar program itself, as well as how to configure the context menu...

WinRAR is able to work with any archive format, but the most commonly encountered by users are: zip, rar, 7z, tar, gz.

Also, this archiver can work with an ISO image file as with a regular archive, which is sometimes very convenient!

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Where to download and how to install WinRAR

You can download this archiver from the official website, from the Downloads section. Here is the direct link:

I would even say not “possible”, but “necessary” :) Because if you type the query “winrar” into a search engine, then, for example, in the 1st position a site is displayed that is not an official site. And from unofficial sites you can download a clumsy version of the program, including one with viruses, or which by itself will install several more programs on your computer that you don’t need.

In the download section at the top there are English versions of Winrar. If you want to work with English, then download from one of the links, depending on what Windows bit depth you have, 32 bit or 64.

If you need a Russian version, then you need to scroll through the list below under the name "Localized WinRAR versions" and find the Russian name there:

Also download the version that is suitable for your Windows.

Installing the program is simple. There is no need to configure anything during the installation phase. I will explain later what can be changed for convenience. And so, run the downloaded installation file and follow the installer’s instructions without changing anything and clicking “Install”, “OK” and “Finish” in the windows.

Learn more about the principle of installing programs for Windows

View the contents of any archive

If you just need to open the contents of an archive, for example, which you downloaded from the Internet or received from someone by mail or something else, then simply open the archive file the same way you open any other file in Windows.

For example, the archive I need is called “Documents of 2018”:

I double-click on it with the left mouse button and the contents open:

Another way (if suddenly for some reason the archive file does not open immediately through WinRAR) is to first open WinRAR and in it, specifying the desired folder, open the archive:

How to unpack any archive using WinRAR. 2 ways!

All archives via Winrar are unpacked the same way and this can be done in two ways...

Creating new archives (archiving files and folders) and the ability to set a password for the archive

Through Winrar you can pack any files and folders by creating an archive in the following format: zip, rar or rar4.

For example, we have several files that need to be packed into an archive:

The easiest way to archive them is to select them all, right-click and select "Add to Archive".

A window for creating an archive will open. At the top, specify the name of the archive to be created. This is what the archive file will be called after it is packaged.

By default, the archive will be created in the same folder where the files you want to pack into it are located. But if you need the archive to be created in a different folder, then select it by clicking "Browse".

Also select the format of the archive to be created. I recommend choosing "RAR" or "ZIP" since "RAR4" is rare.

Moreover, if there is no need to package it in RAR, then choose ZIP better, because archives of this format can be easily unpacked in any Windows using built-in tools, i.e. where there may not even be any archiver.

Otherwise, imagine, you packed the files into a RAR archive, sent it by mail to someone, but the person doesn’t have the archiver installed :) Or maybe he doesn’t know where to get it and how to use it... In general, you’ll cause unnecessary trouble; )

If necessary, you can choose the compression method. For example, to try to compress files as much as possible (reduce their size), you can select the "Maximum" method.

However, keep in mind that compression does not noticeably work for all types of files, and for some you will hardly notice the effect. For example, it is good to compress any documents, such as Word files, PDF files and the like. But you'll barely notice the difference in size if you try to compress video files, for example.

And the more time the program spends on packing and unpacking, the stronger the compression level you choose!

You can set a password for the archive by clicking the corresponding button. And in the window that opens, enter the password you created twice, then click “OK.”

Now, by clicking “OK” in the main archive creation window, Winrar will begin packing files with the settings you selected.

After creation, look for the archive in the folder where you created it. In my example, I created it in the same folder where the source files were located:

You can do the same procedure for creating an archive from within the WinRAR program itself. That is, you launch the program, for example, from the “Start” menu, in the list of folders, select the one where the files and folders that you want to pack are located and click “Add”.

Configuring context menu items for convenience

Speaking about ways to extract files from an archive, I mentioned the ability to quickly unpack through the Explorer context menu. Various options for unpacking and creating an archive appear there.

You can customize the items that appear there, removing unnecessary ones and adding your own for convenience.

To do this, open the WinRAR program and go to “Options” - “Settings”.

Open the "Integration" tab and there click "Context Menu Items".

A window will open where in the “Explorer context menu commands” section you can mark the items that you want to see when working with archives in Windows Explorer.

For example, I would remove from the menu items related to sending an archive by email. In fact, we send everything by mail manually and then it turns out that these items are superfluous.

In general, you can configure it the way you find convenient!

Features and advantages of using the WinRAR archiver

The Winrar archiver combines all the advantages (with the exception, perhaps, of what I mentioned below) of other archivers, contains all the necessary functions and, in my opinion, has the following additional advantages:

I can only highlight one drawback- in WinRAR you can create only 3 archive formats: RAR, RAR4 and ZIP. But it does not offer to create archives, for example, TAR, GZ, 7Z and others. I don’t consider this a significant drawback, since, after all, RAR and ZIP archives are most often used, especially since it can unpack any archives.

Conclusion

WinRAR has long held its position as one of the best archive programs. And this is not just like that. Personally, I like it the most, although I have previously worked with different ones and especially for a long time with the 7-zip archiver.

But Winrar is still more convenient and familiar and, let’s say, more pleasant with its interface :) And so, everyone has their own opinion...

What archiver do you use? Do you think Winrar is the most convenient or maybe you found something better for yourself? Share your opinion, it’s interesting to discuss, maybe suggest something really worth trying :)

There is nothing complicated about installing the WinRar archiver on Windows of any version. The most important thing is to download the appropriate version of WinRAR. The WinRar archiver can be downloaded from many resources, but we will download the WinRAR installer from the official website www.rarlab.com as from the most reliable source, where the latest version is always available. On this site you can immediately find the version of the archiver with the desired localization.

Before downloading the required version of the WinRAR archiver, we need to find out the bitness of our operating system. Then everything is simple, for Windows 64 bit we download WinRAR x64 (64 bit) 5.40, and for Windows 32 bit we download WinRAR x86 (32 bit) 5.40.

After downloading, run our installer and install the program. If necessary, change the installation location.

The installation is very quick and at the end you can make some adjustments, which in principle can be done later. You can simply do it like in the screenshot below. It states to associate all available archive formats with the WinRAR program, integration with the Windows menu, create a shortcut and other little things.

After the first launch, we see a window with a price tag and a greeting, which we simply close.

Among the dozens of proposed archivers, it is the Winrar archiver that stands out in the background. Installation of the program occurs quickly and without any problems. Immediately after installation you can start working with it. Those who are not familiar with this product will ask questions: “What is its feature?”, “Why is it better than others?” and so on.

5 reasons why you need to install Winrar archiver

1. Reliability. Compared to similar programs, it boasts a packing and unpacking guarantee. In this case, the files will remain intact and will not be damaged by the transfer process;

2. Quality of work. Now it is very important to protect all data, since over the past 10 years the digital world has become so progressive that the value of information has increased significantly;
3. Interface. The power is in simplicity – all the functionality is before the user’s eyes. Vividly distinguished main functions, secondary features for more advanced users;
4. Security. If possible, you can set a password and never return to the issue of confidentiality of your data. This is another reason to install Winrar;
5. Write speed. Due to the high performance of the utility, the time spent on packing files is several times less than that of analogue programs.