What is a RAR file? Learn about RAR files here

A RAR file is an compressed file, which means that it is a file that has been reduced in size. This is often done to speed up distribution over the Internet and to save storage space.

RAR file details

A RAR file is a form of compressed archive which is mainly used on Windows based PCs. It is one of the most popular ways of compressing data, and it provides both archiving and compression, which means you can have multiple files that have been reduced in size inside a single RAR file.

The RAR format was designed by Eugene Roshal, a Russian software engineer.

The RAR format is gaining increased popularity, especially on file sharing networks and torrent sites, as the RAR format provides better compression than e.g. ZIP. On average files are between 9 and 30% smaller when using RAR compression instead of ZIP compression. RAR is however slower when compressing and decompressing the files.

RAR has a number of additional benefits. It incorporates redundancy which means that it is sometimes possible to repair damaged archives, it support strong encryption of data and splitting of archives into multiple chunks to match e.g. the size of CD-ROMs.

Opening RAR files

If you are trying to open RAR files on a Windows PC, then you will need a tool like BitZipper. After installing BitZipper, you can open a RAR file simply by double-clicking it or by right-clicking on it in Windows Explorer, or by starting BitZipper and opening the RAR file the same way you open a document in your word processor.

Technical details

If you are looking for technical details and the complete history of the .RAR file format, please refer to this Wikipedia article.