RAR / WinRAR - What's new in the 2024 release!

Note: Always update to the most recent release RAR / WinRAR release as earlier versions are then out of date, and may be compromised if they were not downloaded from the official sites: https://www.win-rar.com/download.html?&L=0 or https://www.rarlab.com/download.htm.

Alternatively you can access the latest version from your local Authorised Distributor, listed here: https://www.rarlab.com/registration.php

Version 7.01 Released 15 May 2024.

1. Bugs fixed:

a) updating an encrypted file in a solid RAR archive produced

a corrupt archive if updated file was the first in archive,

no password was specified when starting updating and file name

encryption in the updated archive wasn't enabled;

b) WinRAR 7.00 crashed after switching to "Flat folders view" mode

from archive subfolder;

c) switch -ep4 duplicated the specified path instead of excluding it

when extracting;

d) if archive created by Unix RAR version contained symlinks with

path separator characters in target paths, these characters could be

broken when modifying such archive with Windows RAR;

e) invalid file name was displayed in file rename and file execute

WinRAR error messages;

f) SFX "Shortcut" command failed to recognize empty parameters

defined like "Shortcut=D,"",folder", while correctly recognizing

such parameters without quote marks like "Shortcut=D,,folder";

g) volume reconstruction didn't work in WinRAR.exe if "rc" command

was specified with .rev file, such as "WinRAR rc arc.part1.rev".

Unlike RAR, WinRAR required to use only .rar file name here.

Version 7.00 Released 26 February 2024.

1. Compression dictionary sizes larger than 1 GB are supported

for RAR archive format. Depending on the amount of physically

available memory, dictionary up to 64 GB can be selected.

Not power of 2 dictionary sizes can be specified for dictionaries

exceeding 4 GB. So we are not limited to 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 series

and can use values like 5 GB or 22 GB.

Archives with dictionaries exceeding 4 GB can be unpacked only

by WinRAR 7.0 or newer. 64-bit WinRAR version is needed to unpack

archives with dictionaries exceeding 1 GB.

Increasing the dictionary size can improve the compression ratio

for large files with distant repeated blocks, like virtual machine

disk images. It also can be efficient for sets of large similar files

in a solid archive, such as a collection of software ISO images

differing by version or localization.

2. WinRAR issues a prompt allowing to cancel or continue if dictionary

size in extracted RAR archive exceeds "Maximum dictionary size

allowed to extract" parameter in "Settings/Compression".

It is done to prevent the unexpected excessive memory allocation.

In the command line mode by default WinRAR refuses to unpack archives

with dictionary exceeding 4 GB. Use -md or -mdx to allow

unpacking dictionaries up to and including the specified size.

Unlike -md, -mdx is applied to extraction only and can be

added to RAR environment variable, not affecting archiving commands.

3. "Define dictionary sizes" dialog in "Settings/Compression" can be used

to customize dictionary sizes proposed in the drop down list associated

with "Dictionary size" field in "Archive name and parameters" dialog.

4. Alternate search algorithm, optimized to locate longer and more distant

repeated data blocks, can be used when creating RAR archives.

It helps to improve the compression ratio and sometimes speed

for redundant data like big text files.

It increases memory usage and might reduce the compression speed

for some types of data. It can be turned on or off with

"Long range search" options in "Advanced compression parameters" dialog

or with -mcl[+|-] switch. If "Auto" option is selected, WinRAR applies

the long range search depending on the compression method, dictionary

size and other parameters.

This algorithm is required for dictionaries exceeding 4 GB

and turning it off is ignored for such dictionaries.

5. Much slower and more exhaustive repeated data search and compression

algorithm can be enabled with "Exhaustive search" option

in "Advanced compression parameters" dialog or with -mcx switch.

It might provide the additional compression gain for some types of

redundant data, but at much lower compression speed.

Long range search is needed to implement this mode efficiently,

so the exhaustive search option activates it automatically.

Both long range and exhaustive search option do not affect

the compatibility of created archives. So if dictionary size

is in 128 KB - 4 GB range, archives created with these search options

can be unpacked by all WinRAR versions beginning from 5.0.

6. Maximum path length limit is increased from 2047 to 65535 characters.

7. Creating archives in RAR 4.x format isn't supported anymore.

Options and switches specific for this format are removed.

It doesn't affect RAR 4.x archives decompression, which is included

into WinRAR.

8. "Propagate Mark of the Web" option in "Settings/Security" dialog

controls assigning the archive Mark of the Web to extracted files.

It is possible to prohibit propagating, allow it for several

predefined file groups, for all files or for files matching user

defined file masks.

Mark of the Web is the security zone information added by Internet

browsers to downloaded files. It can be used by various software

for security purposes.

It is supported only by GUI WinRAR. Console RAR doesn't propagate

Mark of the Web regardless of this option.

9. "Attributes" column can be enabled in "Settings/File list/Columns".

It displays file attribute abbreviations, such as 'A' for "Archive"

and 'D' for directory.

If file attribute isn't among those recognized by WinRAR,

the numeric value of file attributes is also displayed.

This value uses hexadecimal format for Windows attributes

or octal format for Unix attributes.

10. "Benchmark" command allows to specify the exact number of threads

and copy results to clipboard. Information about WinRAR and Windows

versions, CPU and memory is added to benchmark window.

11. "Remove redundant folders from extraction path" option

in "Settings/Paths" is now applicable also to extraction commands

invoked from WinRAR user interface and to multiple archives

unpacked to separate folders. It removes a destination path

component, only if its name matches both the archive name and root

archived folder name, provided that there are no other folders

or files in archive root.

For example, it will remove one of "Pictures" in the destination path

if we unpack Pictures.rar containing the root "Pictures" folder

to "Pictures\" destination.

Previously it worked only for a single archive extracted from

context menu and didn't check if archived folder name matches

the last destination path component.

12. "Word wrap in comment" option in "Interface" options group

in "Settings/General" toggles the word wrap mode in archive comment

window.

13. Dictionary size data in archive information dialog is now available

for .bz2, .lz, .tar.bz2, .tar.gz, .tar.lz, .tar.zst archives.

14. Switch -ol- prohibits archiving and extracting symbolic links.

15. Switches -sl[u] and -sm[u] recognize [k|K|m|M|g|G|t|T]

size units for kilobytes, thousands of bytes, megabytes, millions

of bytes, gigabytes, billions of bytes, terabytes, trillions of bytes.

If unit character is 'b', 'B' or not present, bytes are assumed.

Previously these switches accepted bytes only.

16. SFX TempMode command accepts the optional @set:user parameter

allowing to modify temporary folder permissions, so only the current

user can access it. It prohibits a local user to replace files

in a temporary folder if SFX is started under another account.

It also can be enabled with "Restrict folder access" option

in "Advanced SFX options/Modes" dialog.

Some installers might fail to start in a folder created with

@set:user parameter.

17. File permissions and NTFS alternate streams are not saved for

hard link entries. They are saved only for the source file these

entries refer to. It allows to reduce the archive size, because

such file properties are automatically propagated to hard links

copies when extracting.

18. Keyboard shortcuts, such as Ctrl+A to select all files or Alt+E to

unpack found archives, are now functional in "Search results" window

also while search is still in progress. Previously they were available

only after completing search.

19. Switch -v[unit] recognizes 't' and 'T' as terabytes and

trillions of bytes for volume size units.

20. Warning is issued if leading '-' character is missing in a parameter

specified in "Additional switches" field of WinRAR archiving

and extraction dialogs. Also it is issued for parameters lacking '-'

in RAR environment variable and rar.ini file.

Previously such malformed parameters were ignored silently.

21. "Convert archives" command displays the smooth total operation progress.

Previously the total progress was updated abruptly after converting

an archive and was visible only when processing multiple archives.

22. Proper progress is displayed when compressing symbolic link targets.

23. "Integrate WinRAR into shell" option in WinRAR "Settings/Integration"

is grayed out if "Global\Integration=0" is present in winrar.ini file.

24. 64-bit WinRAR version uses 64-bit SFX modules by default.

64-bit SFX modules are needed to unpack archives with dictionaries

exceeding 1 GB.

32-bit modules are renamed to Default32.SFX, Zip32.SFX, WinCon32.SFX.

25. Maximum allowed dictionary size for archiving and extraction

can be specified in gigabytes in MaxDictA and MaxDictE variables

in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinRAR\Policy" Registry key.

If these variables are smaller than corresponding values defined

in WinRAR interface, they override interface values.

26. Console RAR filters out character 27 from screen output. It is done

for security reasons, because this character can be used to declare

ANSI escape control sequences in some terminal applications.

We are thankful to Siddharth Dushantha for bringing this issue

to our attention.

27. Bugs fixed:

a) it was possible to overwrite Mark of the Web, propagated from

archive to extracted files, and modify its security zone information

utilizing a specially crafted .rar archive.

We are thankful to Orange Tsai and NiNi from DEVCORE Research Team

working with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative for letting us know

about this security issue.

Unlike WinRAR, unrar.dll library doesn't propagate the archive

Mark of the Web and leaves it to a caller application to assign it

to extracted files. So unrar.dll isn't affected by this issue;

b) "User defined archive extensions" field in "Settings/Integration"

was not saved if winrar.ini was used to store settings

and WinRAR was started under non-administrator user account.

Version 6.24 was released 5 October 2023