WinRAR - What's new in the latest version


Version 5.50

1. WinRAR and command line RAR use RAR 5.0 archive format by default.
You can change it to RAR 4.x compatible format with "RAR4" option
in archiving dialog or -ma4 command line switch.

If you prefer RAR 4.x format by default, use "Create default..."
button on "Compression" page of WinRAR settings and set "RAR4"
in the displayed dialog.

This change affects only new clean installs. If you already saved
RAR format in the default compression profile in previous versions,
WinRAR respects stored settings.

2. Use "Set master password" button in "Organize passwords" dialog
to encrypt saved password records and protect them from unauthorized
access.

If saved passwords are protected with master password, you need to
enter the master password and press "OK" in password prompt to access
them. If entered password does not match the master password,
it is treated as a usual password for archive operations.

Once entered, the master password is valid until WinRAR is closed.
Close WinRAR and open it again after specifying the master password
if you wish to see how protection works. Enter a valid and then
empty master password to remove encryption from previously protected
password records.

This WinRAR version uses a new data format for password organizer,
so passwords stored in "Organize passwords" dialog are not readable
by older versions. It does not affect archive encryption formats
and encrypted archives are compatible with previous WinRAR version.
Organizer data is converted to a new format only when you save it
and not immediately after installing WinRAR.

3. Prompt proposing to set the master password is displayed
when storing a password in compression profile. You can enter
the master password to encrypt password data stored in Registry
and protect it from unauthorized access. You will need to enter
the master password in password prompt dialog to access
such compression profile after that.

Once entered, the master password is valid until WinRAR is closed.
Close WinRAR and open it again after specifying the master password
if you wish to see how protection works.

4. By default, WinRAR uses AES-256 in CTR mode to encrypt ZIP archives.
While AES-256 is significantly more secure than ZIP 2.0 legacy
encryption algorithm, it can be incompatible with some older
unzip software. If compatibility with such tools is required,
you can enable "ZIP legacy encryption" option in the password
dialog or use -mezl switch in the command line mode.

5. Added extraction support for .LZ archives created by Lzip compressor.

6. Modern TAR tools can store high precision file times, lengthy
file names and large file sizes in special PAX extended headers
inside of TAR archive. Now WinRAR supports such PAX headers
and uses them when extracting TAR archives.

7. New "Store modification time" option on "Time" page of archiving
dialog can be used to prohibit storing the file modification time
in RAR 5.x archives. Former "High precision modification time"
option is replaced by "High precision time format".

8. New "Full paths in title bar" option in "Settings/General" dialog.
If enabled, the full path of currently opened folder or archive
is displayed in WinRAR title bar.

9. New "File types to open as archives first" option
in "Settings/Compression". Here you can define how Enter
or double click on a file with non-archive extension and archive
contents should be processed in WinRAR file list in file
management mode. Examples of such files are .docx or self-extracting
.exe archives. You can instruct WinRAR either to open such files
as archives first or to execute or open them in associated programs.

Default settings are to open self-extracting exe and to run
other types of archives with non-archive extension.

Regardless of these options, you can always open any such
archive file by pressing Ctrl+PgDn on its name in WinRAR file list.

Default folders for archives and extracted files are moved
from "Settings/Compression" to "Settings/Paths".

10. New "Copy full names to clipboard" command in "File" menu
places full names of selected files to clipboard.

11. Changes in the context menu displayed when right clicking
the file list in WinRAR:

a) several commands, which are also present on the toolbar
or in main menu, such as "View" and "Repair", are removed
from this context menu;

b) "Copy full names to clipboard" command is added;

c) "Run" for executables, "Open in associated application"
for associated files and "Show archive contents" for archives
are added. They allow to choose a way to process SFX archives
and archive files with non-archive extensions.

These items are present only in the file management mode
and are not available inside of archives.

12. LZ and ZIPX are added to list of associations in Settings/Integration
dialog.

13. LZ and ZIPX extensions are added to default list of formats for
-ms switch ("Specify file types to store") invoked without parameters.

14. You can specify 'f' charset value in -sc switch to use UTF-8
encoding. For example:

rar a -scfl arcname @filelist.txt

to read contents of filelist.txt as UTF-8 text.

15. RAR "lt" and "vt" commands display file times with nanosecond
precision. Such precision is used in RAR5 archives created
by RAR/Unix 5.50 and newer. Archives created by WinRAR have 100ns
file time precision.

16. Only '+', '-' and '1' precision modifiers are supported
in -ts switch now. Use '+' to store the file time with maximum
precision, '-' to omit the file time and '1' to store it with
1 second precision. Intermediate precision modes previously
defined with '2' and '3' modifiers are not available in RAR 5.0
archive format and ignored by -ts switch.

17. If a wrong password is entered when unpacking an encrypted file
in RAR5 archive, WinRAR proposes to enter a valid password
for same file again instead of aborting extraction.

18. File path information is displayed if mouse pointer is placed over
a name of archiving file in the operation progress window.

19. Name of currently active compression profile is displayed
in the archiving dialog above "Profiles..." button.

20. If "Find" command is invoked from inside of archive subfolder,
"File names to find" will include the path to this subfolder.
So "Find" will search only starting from this subfolder.

21. Bugs fixed:

a) fixed crashes and security vulnerability when unpacking corrupt
RAR archives;

b) WinRAR failed to unpack files in ZIP archives compressed
with XZ algorithm and encrypted with AES;

c) if "Windows progress bars" option in WinRAR settings was turned off
and "Put each file to separate archive" archiving mode was used,
"gold" part of total progress bar did not display the compressed
data ratio correctly;

d) SFX archive extraction progress was incorrect in case of
multivolume SFX archive with total volume size exceeding 4 GB;

e) if archived folder name included trailing spaces, if user
selected and extracted some folders in non-root archive folder
and if "Allow potentially incompatible names" extraction option
was turned off, WinRAR could lose one or more leading characters
in extracted folder name;

f) if only creation or only last access file time was stored in RAR5
archive with 1 second precision, such as with -ma5 -tsm- -tsa1
switches, this stored time was ignored when extracting.


Version 5.40

1. "Name encoding" submenu in "Options" menu allows to select
encoding for archived file names. This selection affects archive
browsing and extraction commands. You can use Ctrl+E keyboard
shortcut to access this menu quickly.

It can be useful when unpacking an archive without Unicode file names.
For example, unpacking a zip file with Chinese archived names
in Windows with Russian specified as a language for non-Unicode
programs.

2. If RAR recovery volumes (.rev files) are present in the same folder
as usual RAR volumes, archive test command verifies .rev contents
after completing testing .rar files.

If you wish to test only .rev files without checking .rar volumes,
you can select .rev files in WinRAR file list and apply "Test"
only to them or run:

rar t arcname.part1.rev

in the command line.

3. While NTFS file system permits file names with trailing spaces
and dots, a lot of Windows programs fail to process such names
correctly. If "Allow potentially incompatible names" option
in "Advanced" page of extraction dialog is turned off, WinRAR removes
trailing spaces and dots, if any, from file names when extracting.

This option is turned off by default.

Command line RAR also removes trailing spaces and dots when extracting
unless -oni switch is specified.

4. Previously "Synchronize archive contents" update mode
(-as command line switch) aborted if some of archiving folders
could not be read. Now WinRAR continues performing the operation
and preserves archived files matching unreadable folders.

5. WinRAR Shift+Del delete command can be used to delete folders
containing non-standard file names with trailing spaces and dots.
Usual delete to Recycle Bin also as Shift+Del in previous WinRAR
versions cannot delete such folders.

Unlike Del command, Shift+Del removes files permanently,
they are not moved to Recycle Bin. No additional prompts are issued
for files with read-only and system attributes.

6. You can drag folders from folder tree panel and drop them to
other programs or Desktop to copy or unpack them. Drag the archive
icon in tree panel root to unpack the entire archive.

7. "New folder" button in extraction dialog proposes a new folder name
based on archive name instead of generic "New Folder".

8. Command line RAR version information:

a) if -iver switch is specified, RAR displays the version number
and quits. You can run just "RAR -iver";

b) "x86" or "x64" is displayed in Windows RAR version information
both for -iver and in the copyright title for other commands.

9. If -p switch is used without optional <pwd> parameter,
a password can be also set with file redirection or pipe.

For example: rar -p myarc.rar myfiles < psw.txt

10. Command line RAR treats 'arcname.partN' as 'arcname.partN.rar'
if 'arcname.partN' does not exist and 'arcname.part#.rar' exists.

For example, it is allowed to run:

RAR x arcname.part01

to start extraction from arcname.part01.rar

11. Improvements in 7z archives support:

a) "Solid" status is correctly detected and reported for 7z archives
in WinRAR "Info" command;

b) dictionary size is displayed for LZMA and LZMA2 7z archives
in WinRAR "Info" command;

c) unknown packed size for files inside of 7z solid block is denoted
as '?' instead of '0' when browsing the archive contents in WinRAR.

12. Maximum comment length for RAR archives is increased from 64 to 256 KB.

Since SFX script commands are stored in archive comment,
it allows a longer main and license text in SFX archives.

13. Size of default WinRAR viewer font is scaled up properly
in Windows high DPI mode.

14. Switch -scul can be used to process big endian UTF-16 list files
as well, provided that they have a correct byte order mark.
Previously it allowed only little endian file lists.

15. Minimum supported Windows version is Windows XP SP3 now.
WinRAR will not run in Windows XP without service packs.

16. "Settings/File list/Allow all uppercase names" option is removed.
This option was intended to simplify transition from MS DOS to
Windows and is not needed anymore.

17. Bugs fixed:

a) WinRAR 5.31 x64 "Compress and email" command did not work
with Microsoft Outlook x64;

b) if WinRAR 5.31 version for one of right to left languages
was installed in Windows with English or other not right to
left system language, WinRAR could change Windows Explorer
layout to right to left;

c) if archive was stored in a folder without "Write" permission
and if archive contents was extracted with drag and drop to
a writable folder, WinRAR issued an unnecessary privileges
elevation prompt.

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