Goodbye WinRAR — Windows 11 getting native RAR support
Microsoft’s Windows 11 desktop operating system (OS) will get native support for several additional archive formats — including Roshal Archive, commonly shortened to RAR.
The announcement was made in a blog post elaborating on some features coming to Windows that were revealed at Microsoft’s Build 2023 conference on Tuesday, 23 May 2023.
Until now, Windows has only supported the ZIP archive format, which Microsoft first integrated into its OS in 1998.
Windows and Devices chief product officer Panos Panay explained that supporting more archive formats was possible thanks to the libarchive open-source project.
In addition to RAR, Windows 11 will natively support TAR, 7-Zip, Gzip and “many other” archive formats in a future update.
Panay also said users would get “improved performance” in archive functionality during compression.
The change means Windows users will no longer have to download third-party apps like WinRAR to open or compress files in RAR format.
The RAR format is a particularly popular archive format for Windows users.
Developed in 1993 by Russian software engineer Eugene Roshal, the format is licenced by Win.rar GmbH and requires the WinRAR application to decompress and compress.
RAR is much more efficient than ZIP and offers several additional features —including error recovery and multi-volume archives.
Technically, the WinRAR app is trialware and is only supposed to be free for a limited period, after which individual users are requested to pay a once-off $29 (R558, excl. VAT and currency conversion fee) for a lifetime licence.
This price is localized to R618.98 excluding VAT (R711.83 with VAT) on WinRAR’s website.
However, as intended by its creator, it’s easy to bypass this and simply continue using the app perpetually without paying.
Microsoft has not shared precisely when the additional archive support will arrive on Windows 11.
The company rolled out a Windows 11 update on Wednesday, 23 May 2023, but the archive format support does not appear to be included in this patch.
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