Winrar

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Brian Davis
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Winrar

Post by Brian Davis » April 30, 2021, 10:54 am

Come on you computer nerds, help me out :lol: I see this has been sitting on my computer for goodness knows how long, without me knowing what it is! Can somebody explain in basic terms what Winrar is and do I actually need it on my computer? It's not actually a Microsoft program, is it? I attempt to keep my computer clean and free of unnecessary 'stuff'. If relevant, I don't have a need to download/archive/save large files - occasional movies are about the largest I download. If it's useful in opening, viewing, speeding things along etc., I'll leave it there, but if I can delete it (it's shown in the programs list) without any resulting problems, I'll do so. Thanks.



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Re: Winrar

Post by Whistler » April 30, 2021, 11:32 am

WINRAR is a utility to unzip files. Zip files are commonly used to pack data files into a compressed format to save disk space or to send a smaller file by email etc. The commonly used tool is PKZIP, but WINRAR is a freebie (or used to be) it will not cause any harm.
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dunroaming
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Re: Winrar

Post by dunroaming » April 30, 2021, 11:43 am

Brain delete it only good for zipping up large files for emailing them and obviously unzipping, use alot at work but never at home

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sometimewoodworker
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Re: Winrar

Post by sometimewoodworker » April 30, 2021, 12:33 pm

If you get a file that’s been compressed in the .rar format then you need it or another program that has the same function. Many programs that you can download use the .rar format often within another wrapper so you get a single file rather than the tens, hundreds or thousands of individual files needed for the program to work.

It can be useful if you want to send many files to someone or get them from someone.

You can certainly delete it, though you may need to get it again.

FWIW .zip is a different older compression format.
Win-rar can both create and unzip .zip files
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mak
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Re: Winrar

Post by mak » April 30, 2021, 12:51 pm

A lot of movies that are available on the internet come in this format. You need this app to open those files.

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Chriss
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Re: Winrar

Post by Chriss » April 30, 2021, 1:51 pm

Winzip will open files with .rar suffix Gus.

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mak
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Re: Winrar

Post by mak » April 30, 2021, 2:30 pm

Ok. Thx.

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jackspratt
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Re: Winrar

Post by jackspratt » April 30, 2021, 2:42 pm

It's not a program that I would consider uninstalling, for the reason that many other program and driver updates for Windoze are downloaded in .zip or .rar format.

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Re: Winrar

Post by tamada » April 30, 2021, 4:22 pm

Winrar was my long time favorite file compressor as it made smaller compressed files than Winzip. I use satellite links a lot at work and file size is a big deal.

Now I use 7-Zip as that has the edge on both Winrar and Winzip.

I would leave it on the machine as it's not taking up much space and quids in the day after it's deleted, the OP will find that he needs it.

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Chriss
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Re: Winrar

Post by Chriss » April 30, 2021, 4:54 pm

mak wrote:
April 30, 2021, 12:51 pm
A lot of movies that are available on the internet come in this format. You need this app to open those files.
As you may have worked out from other posts, when you download a movie and it's a .rar file, that's not the format of the movie, the movie will still be maybe MP4, AVI, MKV etc. The .rar will be of those and/or/maybe other files (movie file plus subtitles file for example) in one compressed file. Winrar or Winzip are the basic programs that open the .rar for you to choose which files within you want to save.
Well, I understand what have written.

Think of .rar as a folder, inside will be the movie file and maybe other files. Winrar/Winzip opens the folder...

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Brian Davis
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Re: Winrar

Post by Brian Davis » May 1, 2021, 4:18 am

Thanks for your explanations and advice. Seems sensible just to leave it there, but now at least I understand what it is! =D>

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Re: Winrar

Post by bluejets » May 1, 2021, 5:41 am

If you need to remove it, you can always do an un-rar of future files online easily.

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Re: Winrar

Post by Mjkt » June 1, 2021, 9:55 pm

Last time I checked WinRAR was never free unless you had the cracked version.

Just as well to go with the free compression utilities like 7-Zip or PeaZip which all unRAR files also, although they won't RAR them. Only WinRAR does that, not that I ever needed to RAR anything!

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Re: Winrar

Post by tamada » June 1, 2021, 10:07 pm

^ I found that WinRAR remained usable after any free trial expired. It just had pop-ups to remind you it wasn't free but it still did the biz. Maybe newer versions are different?

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