Very often users ask themselves the question: "How to open a RAR file?" This file format is quite popular and is used in all versions of Windows, Linux, MacOS and even Android, but for some reason it causes difficulties when opening for users.
RAR is a special file compression format, in fact it is an archive that has a high compression ratio, which is why it has become very popular on the Internet.
To open RAR archives, the generally recognized WinRAR utility is most often used, which allows both creating archives and extracting files from them.
When working with the WinRAR application, the user can create compound and multivolume archives, as well as set a password on them. At the moment, there are a huge number of different archivers that can work with the Rar compression format. I propose to consider the best programs for different operating systems.
If you have already paid attention, you have probably noticed that by default there is a standard option to open only Zip archives. Therefore, users often simply cannot open the RAR archive until they download a special utility. If you do not know what exactly you need, then consider several options.
WinRaR
Probably the most popular archiver for the Windows operating system. WinRar is able not only to open and extract files from an archive, but also allows the user to create archives on their own.
Download the program, as always, from the official website of the developer - www.win-rar.ru/download/.
It is worth paying attention to the fact that the program is shareware. There is a 30 day trial version that allows the user to familiarize himself with all the functions.
With WinRar installed, in order to place a file into an archive, just right-click on it and select "Add to archive".
In order to unpack a compressed file, just click on it with the left mouse button and in the program window that opens, click on the "Extract" button located in the toolbar.
Main functions of WinRAR:
- Ability to create archives no more than 8GB;
- Yes, attachment of e-mail, blocking of the archive, and more;
- Recovery of damaged archives;
- The presence of a file manager;
7-zip
Another equally popular archiver created in 1999. The main advantage of 7-zip is that it is completely free and open source. The program has two versions:
- GUI version;
- Command line version;
Like the previous archiver, 7-zip copes well with Rar archives, and also supports working with such file types as: tar, gz, tb2, wim, 7z. By the way, the main compression format for this program is Zip. 
The user, at his discretion, can install several archivers at once on his PC, but by default the archives will open in WinRar.
The main advantages of the program:
- Excellent speed of creating and unpacking archives;
- Support for native 7z format, which has more advantages over zip;
- Simple and straightforward interface that allows users to quickly understand the functions.
FreeArc
Another completely free open source archiver. If you have FreeArc installed in your arsenal, then you will not have any questions about how to open a RAR file, since the program can work with all popular archive formats.
By the way, those who have already worked with this archiver have probably noticed that it has an excellent speed of performing operations, so it is at least twice as fast as many of its competitors. 
By the way, this archiver can be easily connected to such popular file managers as Total Commander and Far.
Distinctive sides of FreeArc:
- High speed of work;
- The ability to recover damaged archives;
- Automatic sorting of archives by date, size, etc .;
- A huge number of settings;
- Intuitive interface.
TUGZip
A lesser known free open source archiver that has proven itself not only when working with archives, but with disk images.
If the standard functionality of the program does not suit you, you can easily replenish it with specially created plugins. 
The main features of the program:
- Creation of self-unpacking archives;
- Working with disk images: ISO, BIN, IMG and others;
- Support for installing third-party plugins;
- Recovery of damaged archives;
- Integration into the explorer context menu;
I will not list all the features that TUGZip has. As you can see, there are plenty of them here and, probably, even more than the most popular archivers have. By the way, the program is independently updated via the Internet and has support for the Russian language.
IZarc
A fairly universal archiver that can also work with disk images.
The program is completely free, supports all modern formats of archives and disk images. The main advantages include the following:
- The ability to convert an archive to an image and vice versa;
- Automatic integration into the Windows context menu;
- Scanning archives for viruses using;
- Russian language support;
Having this archiver on your computer, you will no longer have any questions: "How to open a Rar file?"
Hamster Free ZIP Archiver
Quite an interesting and at the same time advanced archiver, which combines such functions that are not characteristic of most archivers.
It has capabilities like:
- Upload archives to popular cloud services: DropBox, Yandex Disc, Google Drive and others;
- Share links to created archives with friends and work colleagues;
- Supports all popular file compression methods;
- Has a high compression ratio.
Therefore, if you want to keep up with the times, then I advise you to take a closer look at this archiver.
PeaZip
At the end of our list of archivers for Windows is PeaZip. It is a freeware free archiver that does not require installation on a device. It is enough to copy the program to disk.
PeaZip is also a graphical frontend for other archivers. The program has support for creating archives of its own Pea format. 
The main functions of the program:
- Working with multivolume archives;
- Support for all modern archives;
- Checking the integrity of archives;
- Creation of encrypted archives;
In general, a standard set of functions that many archivers have.
How to open a RAR file on Android and iOS mobile devices
As a rule, on many mobile devices, various archivers and file managers are preinstalled that can work with RAR archives. Moreover, most file managers allow viewing archives in such a way as if the user opened a regular folder.
If your device does not have a program to open the archive, then you can use the options below.
Popular programs for opening RAR archives on Android
Total Commander is a popular file manager that migrated from computers to mobile devices. With it, you can easily open archives on your smartphone, although the program interface is somewhat complicated, because of this, many users are looking for alternative programs.
ES File Explorer is another very popular file manager that, in addition to its main tasks, has a number of additional features that work great on rooted devices.
FX File Manager is one of the few file managers that can work in two-window mode. True, it will not always be convenient for owners of gadgets with a small display.
Amaze File Manager is a less popular, but rather nimble file manager that works without freezing. Loved by users because of the interface, which is similar to Google services.
The best programs for iOS that can work with archives.
File Manager is probably one of the advanced managers that cloud storage users will love. Since he knows how to upload archives to the cloud.
USB Disk Pro - allows you to preview files, and also has a bunch of functions that will appeal to both beginners and advanced users.
Documents 5 is the best file manager that allows you to search for files on the device, copy and move, as well as add to the archive.
How to open a RAR file on Linux
If you are using the Linux operating system on your computer, then I can please you. You don't have to search and download anything, since the distributions of this operating system already have built-in software packages for working with Rar archives. True, this set of programs does not have the usual graphical interface.
WinRar archiver is one of the most convenient and easy to use among all existing ones. It comes in handy when you need to send a large folder or capacious video that you have created, but there is a size limit. The principle of operation of the archiver is simple: it compresses the file, thereby reducing its size.
And sometimes the situation is the other way around: you downloaded a file from the Internet, and it turned out to be archived. In this case, you also cannot do without an archiver, it is worth starting it, and it will unpack everything that you need. I propose to discuss all issues related to unpacking in this article.
How to unzip a file using WinRar
So, before starting the unpacking process, you need to download the archiver, if you haven't already. Once you've downloaded and installed it, follow my prompts. Select the archive with the mouse and right-click on it. In the drop-down context menu, there are three lines that relate to the unpacking process, namely: "extract files", "extract to the current folder" and "extract to (archive name)".
Methods for unpacking an archive
If we press the first line, a window will open, after which it is necessary to specify the path to the folder into which the file will be unpacked, and then press "OK". You can change the extraction parameters if you want, but there is no special need for this.
If you select the item "extract to the current folder", then the file will be unpacked to the same place where the archive is located. For example, if you wondered how to unpack the winrar archive, which is located on the desktop, then after clicking this line, the unpacked file will appear right there.
And finally, the last, perhaps the most mysterious way of unpacking, it is also the easiest. If you choose the third line, this means that the program will automatically create a folder, which is named the same as the archive, and unpack the contents there.
By the way, if you want to check what it contains before unpacking the file, double-click on the archive. A window will open in front of you where you can check the contents.
If you wish, you can unpack the files directly from here. To do this, you need to click the "Extract" or "Wizard" button and the unpacking process will automatically start.
Also, do not forget that WinRar is ideal for backing up information from your computer.
As you can see, you don't have to be a guru to figure out how to unpack a winrar file. It is very easy to do this, the main thing is to choose the right action from those offered in the context menu.
Video to help
Quite often, files that are sent by e-mail or posted on the Internet are pre-archived using one of the popular archivers, for example, using the RAR archiver. This allows you to reduce the size of the file and speed up its download, but at the same time creates some difficulties for the user, because such a file must be unpacked before use. In this article, we will tell you how to unpack a RAR archive and what programs you need for this.
RAR is a proprietary archiving format developed in the early 90s by Russian programmer Yevgeny Roshal for the DOS operating system. Later, he also created versions of this archiver for other operating systems. The version for the Windows operating system was named WinRAR and became quite popular.
Since RAR is a proprietary format, you need to install special software to work with it. Unlike, with which you can work using only the built-in Windows tools. Therefore, in order to unpack a RAR archive, you need to select and install on your computer one of the programs that support this format. For example, you can use programs such as 7-Zip, Universal Extractor, HaoZip, Hamster Free ZIP Archiver, IZArc, TUGZip, ExtractNow, or PeaZip. In this article, we will unpack RAR files using the free 7-Zip archiver, since it is the most popular one and is already installed by many users.
As already mentioned, to unpack a RAR archive you will need an archiver that supports this format. If such an archiver is already installed on your computer, then you can skip this step. If not, then go to the site, download the 7-Zip archiver there and install it on your computer.
The installation process itself is extremely simple, all the user needs to do is click on the "Install" button.
Step # 2. Viewing the contents of the archive.
After installing the 7-Zip archiver, you can start working with RAR files. For example, you can view the contents of an archive without unpacking it. To do this, right-click on the RAR archive and select the "7-Zip - Open archive" menu item.
As a result, the 7-Zip program interface will appear, in which you can familiarize yourself with the contents of this archive.
If necessary, you can extract the file from the archive without unpacking it. To do this, simply drag and drop files from 7-Zip onto your desktop or into a folder of your choice.
Step # 3. Unpacking the RAR archive.
The 7-Zip archiver offers different methods for unpacking archives. One of the options is unpacking from the program interface. To do this, open the RAR file as described above and click the "Extract" button.
After that, click on the button and specify the folder into which you want to unpack the archive, and then click "OK". As a result, the contents of your RAR archive will be unpacked into the folder of your choice. The decompression time depends on the performance of your computer and the size of the archive. But, if the archive is small, then usually unpacking occurs instantly.
You can also unpack the RAR archive via the context menu. To do this, right-click on the archive and select the option "Unpack here" or "Unpack to folder name".
If you select the "Unpack here" option, your RAR archive will be unpacked to the same folder where the RAR file is located. And if you select "Unpack to folder name", a folder with the same name will be created next to the RAR file and the contents of the archive will be unpacked into it.
In this article, I will teach you how to unpack archives. It’s very simple.
An archive is one file with a set of others to reduce the space they occupy.
They are very effective to use if access to information is needed very rarely and the space it occupies is large.
They usually have extensions:
Well, others. There are a lot of extensions. These are the most popular.
The archive can be compressed and this seriously saves free space. They are also often used to convey a large amount of information. This is especially useful if you need to transfer it over the Internet, and the traffic limit is limited.
Also, if you put a password on the archive, it will provide reliable information protection. And for this you just need the skills to work with them.
Additionally, I want to say that it is not necessary to completely extract all files. You can only get what you need. It is very convenient than digging through the whole heap of information.
You can use Windows tools to unpack the ZIP. In other cases, you will have to use an archiver.
Archiver is a program for working with archives.
In the example, I will use 2 of the most popular and universal ones:
- WinRar is shareware.
- 7zip is completely free.
It is worth noting that unpacking creates a copy of the files in open form and therefore you can safely delete the unpacked archive ( not always like this). Now I will show you how to do it.
You can see this instruction both in the article and in the video. Everything is described in great detail in it.
Extract ZIP using Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer allows you to unpack ZIP archives. To do this, right-click on it. In the context menu that appears, select "Extract All ..." as in the picture below.
Then a window will appear. In it, specify the path where to unpack and start extracting.
This method only works with ZIP format. For other formats, you need to use a third-party archiver.
Unpack with 7-zip
Download the free 7-zip software. For 32-bit or 64-bit. It will allow you to quickly and easily unpack various archive formats. Look at the bit depth in the characteristics of your computer.
After installing it, the 7-zip tab will appear in your context menu. Go into it and select "Unpack" as in the image below.
In the window, specify the extraction path ( by default its location).
The files will appear in the location you specified.
Unpack with Winrar
Winrar is a very user-friendly program and works with all extensions. It is paid, but has a free trial period of 40 days. Then you will be constantly shown a window about the purchase of a license. In general, it is free to use.
Download it from the official site and install.
Unpacking in it is the same as in 7-zip. They differ in convenience and additional features.
As you can see on the left, there are several additional functions to simplify the work. Confirm the extraction and browse to the extracted files.
Unpacking a damaged archive
When unpacking, an error "The archive is corrupted" appears and to extract the files, you will need to use the Winrar capabilities. Such an error can occur even if 1 kilobyte of information is damaged, and therefore it makes sense to extract and see which files are still working.
When extracting, check the box next to "Do not delete files extracted with errors" and it will be unpacked. Look, it is on the left in the image above.
Please note that in this case, not all files will work.
Unpacking an archive consisting of several volumes
To do this, it is enough to collect all volumes into one folder and unpack the first volume. After it, others will be unpacked along the chain.
Please note that all volumes must be present and must be extracted with the same archiving program that they were made with. Then everything will go well.
See the example in the picture below.
They look something like this, at the end an extension with a serial number is added. Otherwise, they are no different from ordinary ones.
I hope you managed to extract the files you need and you can easily do it in the future. If you have any questions, ask in the comments.
How do you unpack archives?
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It often happens that the downloaded files are packed into an archive in Rar, Zip or some other format. And the newbie has a question how to unpack such an archive, and the WinRAR program will help us. Also, in this article we will analyze how to create an archive using WinRAR.
ProgramWinRAR, is one of the most popular archivers. With the help of rar wines, you can pack a large number of files into one archive, while significantly reducing their weight. This is very convenient when downloading, because downloaded files are often in the archive.
Download WinRAR program you can from the official website by following this link. At the bottom you will find the Russian version. Please note that the program WinRAR is of two types, for 32 and 64 bit Windows operating systems.
How to unpack an archive using WinRAR
It is necessary to move the cursor over the archive, then right-click. In the drop-down menu, there are three items with the WinRAR icon.
1. If you select "Extract files", a window will open. Here you need to specify the folder into which the files will be unpacked and click ok. You can also change the extraction parameters, but if the archive is not damaged, this is not necessary. 
2. By selecting the "Extract to current folder" item, the files will be unpacked into the same folder where the archive is located. If the archive is on the desktop, the files will be extracted to the desktop too.
3. The third item "Extract to wont" means that the program will create a folder with the exact same name as the archive, and unpack all files into it. It will not be "wont" for you, but the name of your archive. By the way, a very convenient way, the files will be in a separate folder.
If you need to preview the contents of the archive, double-click on it. 
How to create an archive with WinRAR
In order to create an archive using the wine rar program, we need the files that we wake up to pack. It doesn't matter what, folders, music or something else. I will show you using mp3 tracks as an example.
1. The first thing to do is select our files. 
2. Next, you need to click on them with the right mouse button. In the window that opens, select the "Add to archive" item. 
