WinRAR - What's new in the latest version


Version 4.20

1. Changes in RAR compression:

a) RAR general compression algorithm is optimized for
better utilization of several processor cores. While
some speed gain is possible even in single processor
mode, best results are achieved in multi-core
environment.

Speed gain depends on data type and average file size.
Several cores are utilized more efficiently when
compressing large files.

b) we had to increase memory requirements to achieve
higher compression speed. General RAR compression
algorithm allocates about 120 MB comparing to 40 MB in
WinRAR 4.11;

c) RAR text compression algorithm cannot utilize several
CPU cores efficiently, so its performance in
multiprocessor environment is much lower than for
general algorithm. Also its decompression speed is
much lower than in general algorithm regardless of CPU
number. So we decided to disable the text algorithm by
default.

If you need maximum possible compression ratio for
plain text data regardless of speed, you can enable the
text compression in "Advanced compression parameter"
dialog. Press "Compression..." button on "Advanced"
page of archiving dialog to access it. You can also
change this option permanently in default compression
profile;

In the command line mode the text compression can be
enabled with -mct switch;

d) "Fastest" (-m1) compression mode also supports several
processor cores now. In 4.11 it could use only a
single processor
core.

2. RAR general decompression algorithm speed is slightly
improved, though not to same extent as RAR compression.
RAR decompression is not able to use several processor
cores, so its performance does not depend on a number of
cores.

3. Changes in ZIP compression:

a) now ZIP compression supports several processor cores
resulting in noticeably higher performance in
multi-core environment. Single CPU ZIP compression is
also faster than in 4.11;

b) memory use for ZIP compression is increased to about 15
MB.

4. Recovery volume creating and processing can use several
CPU cores resulting in higher speed. Though, typically
hard drive seek speed is a limiting factor for recovery
volumes, so this gain is most noticeable when working with
solid state drive.

5. Now the allowed <threads> value for -mt<threads> switch is
1 - 32, not 0 - 16 as before.

6. "Find files" command can search data in 7-Zip archives.
Previously "Find files" did not support .7z archive
format.

7. Windows 2000 is not supported by WinRAR and WinRAR
self-extracting modules anymore.

8. "Save current settings" button in "Advanced SFX options"
dialog is now available only when converting an existing
archive to SFX. Options saved with this button are
applied only to convert to SFX operation.

If you create or update SFX archive, only SFX options
stored in default compression profile are used. Options
saved in "Advanced SFX options" dialog are ignored for
these operations.

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