• New Version of RAR archiver

    From Janis Kracht@1:261/38 to All on Fri May 5 13:45:56 2023
    WinRAR - What's new in the latest version


    Version 6.21

    1. Both file and folder modification timestamps are restored
    when unpacking TAR and TAR based archives like tar.gz and tar.bz2.
    Previously only file modification timestamps were set
    for these archive formats.

    2. Added decompression of .tar.zst archives with dictionary
    exceeding 128 MB. WinRAR 6.20 allowed such dictionary for .zst,
    but not for .tar.zst.

    3. Switches -ed and -e+d are also supported by ZIP archives.
    Previously they worked only for RAR archives.

    4. Bugs fixed:

    a) if unencrypted file was stored after encrypted in the same
    RAR archive and both files had been unpacked in the same extraction
    command, WinRAR 6.20 failed to unpack the unencrypted file;

    b) in some cases a wrong detailed reason of file open error could be
    displayed in the second line of open error message.


    Version 6.20

    1. If "Autodetect passwords" option in "Organizer passwords" dialog
    is enabled and password matching a processing archive is present
    among saved passwords, it is applied automatically. This option
    is applicable only for archives in RAR 5.0 and ZIP formats,
    which allow to verify the password validity quickly.

    There is a minor chance of incorrect password detection
    for ZIP archives if stored passwords do not include a proper one.
    If encrypted ZIP archive extraction fails, you can try to disable
    this option, repeat extraction and enter a valid password manually.

    2. If extraction command involves only a part of files in RAR archive,
    the additional archive analysis is performed when starting extraction.
    It helps to properly unpack file references even if reference source
    is not selected. It works for most of RAR archives except for volumes
    on multiple removable media and archives containing a very large
    number of references.

    Also in some cases such analysis may help to optimize the amount
    of processing data when extracting individual files from
    semi-solid archives created with -s<N> and -se switches.

    3. "Save original archive name and time" option on "Options" page
    of archiving dialog allows to save the original archive name
    and creation time. If archive includes such saved name and time,
    they are displayed on "Info" page of "Show information" command
    and can be restored on "Options" page of same command.
    Restoring involves renaming an archive to original name and setting
    the saved time as the archive creation and modification time.

    Switch -ams or just -am together with archive modification commands
    can be used to save the archive name and time in the command line mode.
    These saved parameters are displayed in header of "l" and "v" commands
    output and can be restored with -amr switch combined with "ch" command,
    such as "rar ch -amr arc.rar". If -amr is specified, "ch" ignores
    other archive modification switches.

    4. Faster RAR5 compression of poorly compressible data on modern CPUs
    with 8 or more execution threads. This applies to all methods
    except "Fastest", which performance remains the same.

    5. "Repair" command efficiency is improved for shuffled data blocks
    in recovery record protected RAR5 archives.

    6. If file size has grown after archiving when creating non-solid
    RAR volumes, such file is stored without compression regardless of
    volume number, provided that file isn't split between volumes.
    Previously it worked only for files in the first volume.

    7. Added decompression of .zipx archives containing file references,
    provided that both reference source and target are selected
    and reference source precedes the target inside of archive.

    Typically, if .zipx archive includes file references, it is necessary
    to unpack the entire archive to extract references successfully.

    8. Added decompression of .zst long range mode archives with dictionary
    exceeding 128 MB. Previously it was possible to decompress them only
    if dictionary was 128 MB or less.

    9. If "Turn PC off", "Hibernate", "Sleep" or "Restart PC" archiving
    options are enabled in WinRAR, a prompt to confirm or cancel
    such power management action is displayed directly before starting it.
    If no selection was made by user for 30 seconds, the proposed action
    is confirmed and started automatically.

    This prompt is also displayed for -ioff switch in WinRAR command line,
    but not in console RAR command line.

    10. Context menu in WinRAR file list provides "Open in internal viewer"
    command for archive files. It can be helpful if you wish to view
    the archive raw data in internal viewer. For example, to read
    an email archive with UUE attachments included.

    Usual "View" command always displays the archive contents.
    If file is recognized as UUE archive, "View" would show UUE attachments.

    11. Recovery record size is displayed on "Archive" page of file properties
    invoked from Explorer context menu for archives in RAR5 format.
    Previously there was only "Present" instead of exact size
    for RAR5 archives.

    12. When archiving from stdin with -si switch, RAR displays the current
    amount of read bytes as the progress indicator.

    13. If wrong password is specified when adding files to encrypted
    solid RAR5 archive, a password will be requested again.
    Previous versions cancelled archiving in this case.

    14. If both options "Test archived files" and "Clear attribute "Archive"
    after compressing" or their command line -t -ac equivalents are
    enabled when archiving, "Archive" attribute will be cleared only
    if test was completed successfully. Previously it was cleared even
    when test reported errors.

    15. NoDrives value containing the bit mask to hide drives can be now
    read from "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinRAR\Policy" Registry key,
    which allows to include it to winrar.ini if necessary.
    Its "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies" locations
    in HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE are also supported.

    Previously only "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies"
    in HKEY_CURRENT_USER was recognized.

    16. Bugs fixed:

    a) archive modification commands could fail for some ZIP archives
    with file comments;

    b) fixed a memory leak when reading contents of .tar.bz2 archives;

    c) if source and resulting archive format is the same, the archive
    conversion command didn't set the original archive time
    to a newly created archive even if "Original archive time" option
    was selected in archiving parameters;

    d) if "Merge volumes contents" option in "Settings/File list" was
    turned on, the folder packed size in WinRAR file list could be
    less than expected when browsing a multivolume archive contents.
    It didn't include the packed size of file parts continuing from
    previous volume into calculation;

    e) even if "Set file security" extraction option was turned off
    by default, extraction commands in Explorer context menu still
    attempted to restore NTFS file security data;

    f) WinRAR could read data beyond the end of buffer and crash
    when unpacking files from specially crafted ZIP archive.
    We are thankful to Bakker working with Trend Micro Zero Day
    Initiative for letting us know about this bug.



    Version 6.11

    1. Added support for Gz archives with large archive comments.
    Previously the extraction command failed to unpack gz archives
    if comment size exceeded 16 KB.

    2. Archive comments in gz archives are displayed in the comment window
    and recognized by "Show information" command. Large comments are
    shown partially.

    Previous versions didn't display Gzip comments.

    3. Reserved device names followed by file extension, such as aux.txt,
    are extracted as is in Windows 11 even without "Allow potentially
    incompatible names" option or -oni command line switch.
    Unlike previous Windows versions, Windows 11 treats such names
    as usual files.

    Device names without extension, such as aux, still require these
    options to be unpacked as is regardless of Windows version.

    4. Switch -mes can be also used to suppress the password prompt
    and abort when adding files to encrypted solid archive.

    5. Additional measures to prevent extracting insecure links are
    implemented.

    6. Bugs fixed:

    a) if password exceeding 127 characters was entered when unpacking
    an encrypted archive with console RAR, text after 127th character
    could be erroneously recognized as user's input by different
    prompts issued later;

    b) wrong archived file time could be displayed in overwrite prompt
    when extracting a file from ZIP archive. It happened if such
    archive included extended file times and was created in another
    time zone. It didn't affect the actual file time, which was set
    properly upon extraction.


    Version 6.10

    1. WinRAR can unpack contents of .zst and .zipx archives utilizing
    Zstandard algorithm.

    2. Added support of Windows 11 Explorer context menus.

    Beginning from Windows 11, an application can add only a single top
    level command or submenu to Explorer context menu.

    If "Cascaded context menus" in "Integration settings" dialog is on,
    this single item is a submenu storing all necessary WinRAR commands.

    If this option is off, only one extraction command for archives
    and one archiving command for usual files are available.
    You can select these commands with "Context menu items..." button
    in "Integration settings" dialog.

    3. "Legacy context menus" option in "Settings/Integration" dialog
    can be used in Windows 11 if WinRAR commands are missing in
    "Show more options" Windows legacy context menu or in context menus
    of third party file managers. If WinRAR commands are already present
    here, keep "Legacy context menus" option turned off to prevent
    duplicating them.

    This option is not available in Windows 10 and older.

    4. Windows XP is not supported anymore. Minimum required operating
    system version is Windows Vista.

    5. "Close" item is added to "When done" list on "Advanced" page of
    archiving dialog. It closes WinRAR window, when archiving is done.

    6. "When done" list is added to "Options" page of extraction dialog.
    It allows to select an action like turning a computer off
    or closing WinRAR after completing extraction.

    7. Switch -si can be used when extracting or testing to read archive
    data from stdin, such as:

    type docs.rar | rar x -si -o+ -pmypwd dummy docs\

    Even though the archive name is ignored with this switch,
    an arbitrary dummy archive name has to specified in the command line.

    Operations requiring backward seeks are unavailable in this mode.
    It includes displaying archive comments, testing the recovery record,
    utilizing the quick open information, processing multivolume archives.

    Prompts requiring user interaction are not allowed.
    Use -o[+|-|r], -p<pwd> or -mes switches to suppress such prompts.

    8. New -ep4<path> switch excludes the path prefix when archiving
    or extracting if this path is found in the beginning of archived name.
    Path is compared with names already prepared to store in archive,
    without drive letters and leading path separators. For example:

    rar a -ep4texts\books archive c:\texts\books\technical

    removes "text\books" from archived names, so they start
    from 'technical'.

    9. New -mes switch skips encrypted files when extracting or testing.
    It replaces the former -p- switch.

    10. New -op<path> switch sets the destination folder for 'x' and 'e'
    extraction commands. Unlike <path_to_extract\> command line parameter,
    this switch also accepts paths without trailing path separator
    character.

    11. If 'p' command is used to print a file to stdout, informational
    messages are suppressed automatically to prevent them mixing
    with file data.

    12. "Generate archive name by mask" option and switch -ag treat only
    first two 'M' characters after 'H' as minutes. Previously any
    amount of such characters was considered as minutes.

    It makes possible to place the time field before the date,
    like -agHHMM-DDMMYY. Previous versions considered all 'M'
    in this string as minutes.

    13. Maximum allowed size of RAR5 recovery record is increased to 1000%
    of protected data size. Maximum number of RAR5 recovery volumes
    can be 10 times larger than protected RAR volumes.

    Previous WinRAR versions are not able to use the recovery record
    to repair broken archives if recovery record size exceeds 99%.
    Similarly, previous versions cannot use recovery volumes
    if their number is equal or larger than number of RAR volumes.

    14. Warning is issued if entered password exceeds the allowed limit
    of 127 characters and is truncated. Previously such passwords
    had been truncated silently.

    15. If archive includes reserved device names, the underscore character
    is inserted in the beginning of such names when extracting.
    For example, aux.txt is converted to _aux.txt. It is done to prevent
    compatibility problems with software unable to process such names.

    You can use "Allow potentially incompatible names" option
    in "Advanced" part of extraction dialog or command line -oni switch
    to avoid this conversion.

    16. WinRAR attempts to reset the file cache before testing an archive.
    It helps to verify actual data written to disk instead of reading
    a cached copy.

    17. Multiple -v<size> switches specifying different sizes for different
    volumes are now allowed also for ZIP archives:

    WinRAR a -v100k -v200k -v300k arcname.zip

    Previously multiple -v<size> switches were supported only for
    RAR archives.

    18. Switches -sl<size> and -sm<size> can be used in WinRAR.exe command
    line mode when extracting archives in any supported formats,
    provided that such archive includes unpacked file sizes.
    Previously these switches could filter files by size only in RAR
    and ZIP archives.

    19. Newer folder selection dialog is invoked when pressing "Browse" button
    in WinRAR "Settings/Paths" page, "Repair" and "Convert" commands,
    also as in few other similar places. Previously a simpler XP style
    folder selection dialog was opened.

    20. When restoring from tray after completing an operation,
    WinRAR window is positioned under other opened windows,
    to not interfere with current user activities.

    21. "650 MB CD" is removed and "2 GB volumes" is added to the list of
    predefined volume sizes in "Define volume sizes" dialog invoked
    from WinRAR "Settings/Compression".

    22. "Rename" command selects the file name part up to the final dot.
    Previously it selected the entire name.

    23. If SFX archive size exceeds 4 GB, an error message is issued
    during compression, immediately after exceeding this threshold.
    Previously this error was reported only after completing compression.

    Executables of such size cannot be started by Windows.

    24. Command line -en switch is not supported anymore.
    It created RAR4 archives without the end of archive record.

    End of archive record permits to gracefully skip external data
    like digital signatures.

    25. Bugs fixed:

    a) when editing a file inside of .rar or .zip archive,
    WinRAR created a new SFX archive instead of updating an existing
    archive if "Create SFX archive" option was set in the default
    compression profile;

    b) the total progress could be displayed incorrectly when using
    -oi, -f, -u switches or appropriate GUI options;

    c) "Find files" command with "Use all tables" option and command line
    "it" commands failed to find strings in UTF-16 encoding.


    Version 6.02

    1. ZIP SFX module refuses to process SFX commands stored in archive
    comment if such comment is resided after beginning of Authenticode
    digital signature. It is done to prevent possible attacks with
    inclusion of ZIP archive into the signature body.

    We already prohibited extracting contents of such malformed archives
    in WinRAR 6.01.

    We are thankful to Jacob Thompson - Mandiant Advantage Labs
    for reporting this issue.

    2. WinRAR uses https instead of http in the web notifier window,
    home page and themes links. It also implements additional checks
    within the web notifier. This is done to prevent a malicious web page
    from executing existing files on a user's computer. Such attack
    is only possible if the intruder has managed to spoof or otherwise
    control user's DNS records. Some other factors are also involved
    in limiting the practical application of this attack.

    We would like to express our gratitude to Igor Sak-Sakovskiy
    for bringing this issue to our attention.

    3. Where appropriate, SFX archive displays the additional line
    with detailed error information provided by operating system.

    For example, previously such archive would display "Cannot create file"
    message alone. Now this message is followed by a detailed reason
    like access denied or file being used by another process.

    In the past this extended error information was available in WinRAR,
    but not in SFX archives.

    4. Switch -idn hides archived names also in 'v' and 'l' commands.
    It can be useful if only the archive type or total information
    is needed.

    5. If -ibck -ri<priority> switches are used together, WinRAR process
    sets the priority specified in -ri switch. Previous versions ignored
    -ri and set the priority to low in the presence of -ibck switch.

    6. When using "File/Change drive" command, WinRAR saves the last folder
    of previous drive and restores it if that drive is selected again
    later.

    7. Name of unpacking file is now included into WinRAR incorrect password
    warning for RAR5 archives. It can be helpful when unpacking
    a non-solid archive containing files encrypted with different passwords.

    8. Bugs fixed:

    a) "Convert archives" command issued erroneous "The specified password
    is incorrect" message after succesfully converting RAR archive
    with encrypted file names if new password was set and archive
    was opened in WinRAR shell;

    b) if command progress window was resized up and then quickly resized
    down to original dimensions, window contents could be positioned
    incorrectly.


    Version 6.01

    1. Ctrl+A keyboard shortcut selects the entire text in WinRAR comment
    window.

    2. If -idn switch is used together with -t or -df in console RAR
    when archiving, it additionally disables "Deleting <filename>"
    or "Testing <filename>" messages, normally issued by these switches.

    Also -idn disables folder creation messages when extracting
    a file to non-existing folder.

    3. WinRAR and ZIP SFX module refuse to extract contents of ZIP SFX
    archives if ZIP central directory is resided after beginning
    of Authenticode digital signature. It is done to prevent possible
    attacks with inclusion of ZIP archive into signature body.

    4. Bugs fixed:

    a) "Convert archives" command could incorrectly convert Unicode
    comments in RAR archives.

    b) if two archive information windows had been opened from Explorer
    context menu, the compression ratio bar in the first window
    could erroneously display a value for second archive.

    It did not affect the ratio and other text details at the right
    of window. Only the vertical bar at the left could be updated
    to a wrong value;

    c) if "Wait if other WinRAR copies are active" option was enabled
    in extraction dialog, "Waiting for another WinRAR copy" title
    was not set in command progress window while waiting;

    d) when extracting a symbolic link, previous versions did not
    overwrite existing symbolic links even if user requested it
    in overwrite prompt.


    Version 6.00

    1. "Ignore" and "Ignore All" options are added to read error prompt.
    "Ignore" allows to continue processing with already read file part
    only and "Ignore All" does it for all future read errors.

    For example, if you archive a file, which portion is locked by another
    process, and if "Ignore" is selected in read error prompt,
    only a part of file preceding the unreadable region will be saved
    into archive.

    It can help to avoid interrupting lengthy archiving operations,
    though be aware that files archived with "Ignore" are incomplete.

    If switch -y is specified, "Ignore" is applied to all files by default.

    Previously available "Retry" and "Quit" options are still present
    in read error prompt as well.

    2. Exit code 12 is returned in the command line mode in case of read errors.
    This code is returned for all options in the read error prompt,
    including a newly introduced "Ignore" option.

    Previously more common fatal error code 2 was returned for read errors.

    3. If several archives are selected, "Extract archives to" option group
    in "Options" page of extraction dialog can be used to place extracted
    files to specified destination folder, to separate subfolders
    in destination folder, to separate subfolders in archive folders
    and directly to archive folders.

    It replaces "Extract archives to subfolders" option and available
    only if multiple archives are selected.

    4. New -ad2 switch places extracted files directly to archive's own folder.
    Unlike -ad1, it does not create a separate subfolder for each unpacked
    archive.

    5. "Additional switches" option in "Options" page of archiving
    and extraction dialogs allows to specify WinRAR command line switches.
    It might be useful if there is no option in WinRAR graphical interface
    matching a switch.

    Use this feature only if you are familiar with WinRAR command line
    syntax and clearly understand what specified switches are intended for.

    6. Compression parameters in "Benchmark" command are changed to
    32 MB dictionary and "Normal" method. They match RAR5 default mode
    and more suitable to estimate the typical performance of recent
    WinRAR versions than former 4 MB "Best" intended for RAR4 format.

    Latest "Benchmark" results cannot be compared with previous versions
    directly. New parameters set produces different values, likely lower
    because of eight times larger dictionary size.

    7. When unpacking a part of files from solid volume set,
    WinRAR attempts to skip volumes in the beginning and start
    extraction from volume closest to specified file and with reset
    solid statistics.

    By default WinRAR resets the solid statistics in the beginning
    of large enough solid volumes where possible. For such volumes
    extracting a part of files from the middle of volume set can be
    faster now.

    It does not affect performance when all archived files are unpacked.

    8. Previously WinRAR automatically resorted to extracting from
    first volume, when user started extraction from non-first volume
    and first volume was available. Now WinRAR does so only if all volumes
    between first and specified are also available.

    9. Warning is issued when closing WinRAR if one or more archived files
    had been modified by external apps, but failed to be saved back to
    archive, because an external app still locks them. Such warning
    includes the list of modified files and proposes to quit immediately
    and lose changes or return to WinRAR and close an editor app.

    Previous versions issued a similar warning while editing a file,
    but did not remind it again when quitting.

    10. "Move to Recycle Bin" option in "Delete archive" options group
    of extraction dialog places deleted archives to Recycle Bin
    instead of deleting them permanently.

    11. New "Clear history..." command in "Options" menu allows to remove
    names of recently opened archives in "File" menu and clear drop down
    lists with previously entered values in dialogs. For example,
    these values include archive names in archiving dialog
    and destination paths in extraction dialog.

    12. "File time" options in "Advanced" part of extraction dialog are
    now available for 7z archives. Additionally to modification time,
    WinRAR can set creation and last access time when unpacking such
    archives.

    13. ""New" submenu items" options group is added to
    "Settings/Integration/Context menu items..." dialog. You can use
    these options to remove "WinRAR archive" and "WinRAR ZIP archive"
    entries in "New" submenu of Windows context menu.

    New state of these option is applied only after you press "OK"
    both in "Context menu items" and its parent "Settings" dialog.

    14. <Max>, <Min> and <Hide> commands can be inserted before the program
    name in SFX "Setup" command to run a program in maximized,
    minimized or hidden window. For example:

    Setup=<Hide>setup.exe

    15. It is possible to specify an additional high resolution logo
    for SFX module. If such logo is present, SFX module scales
    and displays it in high DPI Windows mode, providing the better visible
    quality compared to resizing the standard logo.

    Use "High resolution SFX logo" in "Advanced SFX options" dialog
    to define such logo. In command line mode add second -iimg switch
    to set the high resolution logo.

    Recommended size of high resolution logo PNG file is 186x604 pixels.

    16. If archive currently opened in WinRAR shell was deleted or moved
    by another program, WinRAR displays "Inaccessible" before archive name
    in the window title. Also it flashes the window caption and taskbar
    button.

    17. "Total information" option in "Report" dialog is renamed to
    "Headers and totals". Now it also adds headers of report columns
    additionally to total information about listed files and archives.

    18. If archive processing is started from Windows context menu
    in multiple monitor system, WinRAR operation progress and dialogs
    use the monitor with context menu.

    While basic multiple monitor support was present in previous versions
    shell extension for mouse driven commands, now it is extended to
    operations initiated from keyboard and to dropping files to archives.

    19. New -imon<number> switch allows to select a monitor to display
    WinRAR operation progress and dialogs in the command line mode.

    Use -imon1 for primary and -imon2 for secondary monitor.
    For example, "WinRAR x -imon2 arcname" will start extraction
    on secondary monitor.

    It works only in the command line mode and does not affect
    interactive WinRAR graphical inteface also as console RAR.

    20. Switch -idn hides archived names output in archiving, extraction
    and some other commands in console RAR. Other messages and total
    percentage are not affected.

    You can use this switch to reduce visual clutter and console output
    overhead when archiving or extracting a lot of small files.

    Minor visual artifacts, such as percentage indicator overwriting
    few last characters of error messages, are possible with -idn.

    21. Former "-im - show more information" switch is changed to
    "-idv - display verbose output" for consistency with console RAR
    -id[c,d,p,q] message control options and avoid a potential name
    conflict with newer -imon switch.

    While WinRAR still recognizes both -im and -idv, in the future
    -im support can be dropped.

    22. It is allowed to add an optional %arcname% variable to compression
    profile name. Such variable will be replaced with actual archive name.
    It might be convenient when using with "Add to context menu" profile
    option. For example, you can create ZIP compression profile
    and set its name to "Add to %arcname%", to display it with actual
    ZIP archive name in context menu.

    23. Ctrl+C and Ctrl+Ins keyboard shortcuts can be used
    in "Diagnostic messages" window to copy contents to clipboard.

    24. More text is allowed in tray icon hint before a lengthy text
    is truncated. Also such text is now truncated in the middle of string,
    so both command type and completion percentage are still visible.

    25. In case of clean install, if previous version compression profiles
    are not present, "Files to store without compression" field
    in newly created predefined compression profiles is set to:

    *.rar *.zip *.cab *.7z *.ace *.arj *.bz2 *.gz *.lha *.lzh
    *.taz *.tgz *.xz *.txz

    You can change this field and save a modified value to compression
    profile later.

    Previous versions set this field to blank for clean install.

    26. Destination path history in extraction dialog treats paths like
    'folder' and 'folder\' as the same path and displays only 'folder'
    entry. Previously they occupied two entries in the history.

    27. "Enable Itanium executable compression" GUI option and -mci command
    line switch are removed. Optimized compression of Itanium executables
    is not supported anymore. WinRAR still can decompress already existing
    archives utilizing Itanium executable compression.

    28. Bugs fixed:

    a) "Lock", "Comment" and "Protect" commands could not be applied
    to several archives selected in WinRAR file list at once;

    b) SFX archive process did not terminate after completing
    extraction in Windows 10 if archive comment included "Setup"
    and "SetupCode" commands, did not include "TempMode" command
    and setup program was running for more than 8 minutes;

    c) compression profiles with quote character in profile name
    could not be invoked from Explorer context menu.


    Version 5.91

    1. Dialogs are centered inside of WinRAR window similarly to WinRAR 5.80
    and not inside of entire screen as in WinRAR 5.90.

    2. When editing an archived file with external software, extra measures
    are taken to reduce the probability of interfering with editor
    and opening its temporary files while editor still may need them.

    3. "Version to extract" field in archive properties opened from
    Windows Explorer context menu provides the additional information
    about ZIP compression and encryption algorithms, such as LZMA or AES.
    This information was already available in WinRAR "Info" command,
    but missed in archive information accessible from Windows Explorer.

    4. "MS DOS" and "Unix" host OS types are recognized and included
    for LZH archives in "Info" command. Previously the host OS field
    was always "Unknown" for LZH archive format.

    5. Files created by external editor and matching "Settings/Viewer/
    Ignore modifications for" masks are never added to archive.
    Previously WinRAR still added them if some file not matching
    these masks was also created or modified.

    6. Bugs fixed:

    a) empty file names were displayed inside of some Unix LZH archives;

    b) WinRAR could not process more than 999 7z volumes in a single set;

    c) if user cancelled the user account control prompt after changing
    "Integrate WinRAR into shell" option, a new state of this option
    was displayed in "Settings" dialog, even though the actual state
    of shell integration was not modified;

    d) the main window size could be too small on the first run after
    clean install with no previous WinRAR version present;

    e) WinRAR could stop responding after editing an archived file
    with external software in Windows 10 version 2004.


    Version 5.90

    1. RAR compression speed is improved for CPUs with 16 and more cores.

    2. "Fastest" method (-m1 command line equivalent) typically achieves
    a higher compression ratio for highly compressible data types
    when creating RAR5 archives.

    3. Maximum number of utilized threads is increased from 32 to 64.
    Command line -mt<threads> switch accepts values from 1 to 64.

    4. "Multithreading" parameter on "General" page of WinRAR settings
    is replaced with "Threads" input field, where you can specify
    the desired number of CPU threads. It can take values from 1 to
    maximum number of available logical CPU units.

    5. WinRAR displays packed and unpacked folder sizes when browsing
    archive contents.

    6. "Total folders" field is added to list of archive parameters
    displayed by WinRAR "Info" command. Same field is added to
    "Archive" page in archive properties in Windows Explorer.

    7. Window including a progress bar and "Cancel" button is displayed
    if reading archive contents takes noticeable time.
    It can be useful for archive formats with slower access to contents,
    such as large TAR based archives like .tar.gz and tar.bz2.

    8. Archiving and extraction progress windows, also as progress windows
    for some other commands, can be resized.

    9. "Repair" performance for RAR5 archives with recovery record
    and without data shifts is improved. It deteriorated in WinRAR 5.80
    and is now restored to original level.

    10. Password prompt is not issued when performing recovery record based
    repair for RAR5 archives with encrypted file names.
    This command can be performed without providing a password.

    11. If folder for converted archives in "Convert archives" command
    does not exist, WinRAR attempts to create it. Previous versions
    failed to create converted archives in non-existent destination folder.

    12. Added extraction support for GZIP archives with optional header
    checksum field.

    13. Bugs fixed:

    a) "Repair" command could erroneously display "Recovery record is
    corrupt" message when processing an archive with valid recovery
    record. This message did not prevent further repair operation;

    b) if quick open information option was set to "Do not add" in default
    compression profile and this profile was loaded by some command
    or dialog, WinRAR ignored quick open information when browsing
    contents of RAR archives. For example, it happened after opening
    archiving or password dialogs;

    c) Ctrl+C "Copy" shortcut key did not work in archive comment window;

    d) if "Put each file to separate archive" and "Archives in subfolders"
    options were set, WinRAR ignored the destination path specified
    in archive name field.


    Version 5.80

    1. "Preserve source files last access time" option on "Time" page
    of archiving dialog permits to preserve the original last access time
    of archiving files.

    2. Command line -tsp switch can be used to preserve the original
    last access time of archiving files. It can be combined with other
    -ts switches, like: rar a -tsc -tsp arcname files

    3. It is allowed to combine several modifiers in the same -ts switch.
    For example, we can use -tscap instead -tsc -tsa -tsp.

    4. WinRAR can read default values of command line switches from rar.ini
    text file, which can be stored either in the same folder as WinRAR.exe
    or in %APPDATA%\WinRAR folder. This file includes strings in following
    format:

    switches=<any RAR switches separated by spaces>
    switches_<command>=<any RAR switches separated by spaces>

    First applies switches to all and second to individual commands.
    For example:

    switches=-m5 -s
    switches_x=-o+

    Most of switches specified in rar.ini are used only in the command line
    mode. Some switches can be applicable both in shell and in command line
    modes. Previously this rar.ini format was supported only by console RAR.

    5. Command line -agf<default_format> switch specifies the default format
    string for -ag switch. It has a practical value only if placed to
    rar.ini configuration file or to RAR environment variable.
    For example, if we set RAR environment variable to -agfYYYY-MMM-DD,
    we can use -ag without a parameter with YYYY-MMM-DD format string
    assumed.

    6. Switches -ed and -e+d can be used in archive processing commands
    for any combination of RAR and archive operating systems.
    In older versions RAR for Windows could not use them for Unix RAR
    archives also as RAR for Unix for Windows RAR archives.

    7. Previously "Test" command failed to check integrity of archived NTFS
    alternate data streams and issued "Unknown data header format" warning
    if size of such stream exceeded 16 MB. This limitation is removed now.

    8. Archiving speed for large NTFS alternate data streams on multi-core
    CPUs is increased.

    9. "Find" command:

    a) when extracting encrypted files directly from "Search results"
    dialog, password prompt was issued for every found file
    even if all files belonged to same archive.

    Now password is requested only once per archive;

    b) Ctrl+A hotkey selects all files in "Search results".

    10. Archive comment window:

    a) previous versions did not allow to use Ctrl+W shortcut to close
    WinRAR when comment window had keyboard focus. Now Ctrl+W works
    also from comment window;

    b) mouse wheel is supported also for comments with ANSI Escape sequences;

    c) for some lenghty comments with ANSI Escape sequences last line
    of comment was visible only partially even after scrolling up to
    bottom. It is displayed comletely now.

    11. Maximum path length for files in 7z archives is increased up to
    2048 characters. While such lengthy paths were already supported
    for RAR and ZIP formats, previous versions limited the path length
    to 260 characters for 7z archives.

    12. If archive or file name is too lengthy to fit to archiving
    or extraction progress window, it is truncated. Previously such names
    were truncated at the end, making the file extension invisible.
    This version truncates them removing the path component and symbols
    in the middle, but preserving beginning of file name and file extension.

    13. If files selected for archiving differ only by extension,
    a proposed archive name is based on their name part.
    For example, archiving dialog will propose Readme.rar if we selected
    Readme.txt and Readme.doc.

    Previous versions always generated the archive name based on parent
    folder name for several selected files.

    14. "Symlink" and "Hardlink" is diplayed in "Type" column for symlink
    and hardlink records in .tar archives. Previous versions displayed
    a proper type for such records only in .rar archives.

    15. Copying and pasting files from large archives could fail if
    extraction took a lot of time. This version can paste files from
    such archives as well, but we have to start extraction already on
    "Copy" command and not on "Paste" to achieve this.

    16. Similarly to RAR5 volumes, recovery volumes in RAR4 format use
    the same width of volume number field as corresponding RAR volumes.
    While previously WinRAR could create arc.part01.rar and arc.part1.rev
    in RAR4 format, now both types of volumes will use "part01".

    17. "Set font..." button in "Settings/File list" also changes the folder
    tree panel font. Previously it changed only the file list font.

    18. "Find files" and command line mode "i" commands:

    a) if "Use all tables" option or "t" modifer of "i" command are used,
    additionally to already supported ANSI, OEM and UTF-16 encodings
    WinRAR will search the specified string in UTF-8 files as well;

    b) better support for Unicode text strings;

    c) better performance, especially for case insensitive search;

    d) hexadecimal search output includes both text and hexadecimal
    representation of found matches.

    19. File and total progress bar is displayed when unpacking
    tar.bz2, tar.gz, tar.lz, tar.xz, tar.z archives.

    Previously only the total progress was displayed properly for tar.bz2,
    tar.gz and tar.z. Neither file nor total progress was displayed
    for tar.lz and tar.xz.

    20. "File list/Files/Exact sizes" option also changes the file size format
    in WinRAR status bar.

    21. Bugs fixed:

    a) if non-existent path is specified in archive name in archiving
    dialog, WinRAR proposes to create such path. Previous versions
    could create such path in WinRAR start-up folder instead of
    currently displayed folder;

    b) WinRAR could crash when adding the recovery record in RAR5 format
    on CPUs not supporting CPUID EAX=7 command and returning random
    data in response. These are some CPUs from early 2000s;

    c) WinRAR failed to create archives after dragging files with
    right mouse button in Windows shell, dropping them to another folder,
    selecting "Add to archive..." in context menu and enabling
    "Put each file to separate archive" option;

    d) "winrar r *.zip" command repaired only the first ZIP archive
    in the set if all archives had numeric names like 1.zip, 2.zip
    and signatures in the beginning of archives were missing;

    e) previous WinRAR version failed to unpack folder records
    in archives created by RAR 1.50;

    f) in rare cases WinRAR failed to extract and reported an error
    for valid .gz archives produced by some compression optimization
    tools;

    g) progress bar in tray icon never reached 100% in high DPI mode;

    h) creation and last access time was not displayed for archived folders
    if folder records were stored in archive after folder contents;

    i) "Skip encrypted archives" option in "Convert archives" command
    did not work for 7-Zip archives with headers encryption.


    Version 5.71

    1. "Convert archives" command:

    a) improved performance when processing a lot of small archives
    in Windows 10;

    b) fixed memory leaks which could lead to excessive memory use
    when converting to ZIP format.

    2. Corrupt ZIP archive processing:

    a) "Repair" command replaces packed and unpacked file sizes stored
    in local file header with sizes from central directory
    if local header sizes look invalid;

    b) file extraction is stopped at unpacked size stored in ZIP headers
    even if available packed data allows further extraction.
    It is done to prevent unexpected hard drive space usage.

    3. Ctrl+C allows to abort RAR "l" command quickly. In previous versions
    it could take several seconds until list command stopped.

    4. Bugs fixed:

    a) WinRAR could crash when attempting to display some types of archive
    comments in GUI shell, resulting in a denial of service;

    b) if "Save archive name" and "Add to context menu" options were
    set in compression profile parameters and profile was invoked
    from Explorer context menu, WinRAR proposed an automatically
    generated archive name instead of name saved in profile.

    c) WinRAR displayed an unneeded pair of round brackets in "Archive"
    column of "Diagnostic messages" window for system error messages;

    d) "Extract to folder\" Windows Explorer context menu command could
    fail to unpack ZIP archives if their names included a numeric
    part followed by .zip extension, arbitrary data was present
    before the first file record and "Remove redundant folders from
    extraction path" WinRAR option was switched on;

    e) in "RAR x -x<mask> arcname" command, parent folders of files
    matching the specified mask also were excluded from extracting;

    f) "Find" command returned the current folder own name additionally
    to its contents for "Current folder" search area if folder name
    matched "File names to find" mask;

    g) if "Find in files" and "Find in archives" are both enabled,
    "Find" command did not match an archive name itself against
    "File names to find" mask after searching inside of archive.
    So it did not display archive names for masks like *.rar
    and applied this mask only to files inside of archives;

    h) when running an executable directly from archive, WinRAR 5.70
    did not set a temporary folder with unpacked files as current.
    So executables attempting to access other archived files
    in current folder could fail to work;

    i) WinRAR could be inaccessible for few seconds after closing
    an archived file opened in internal viewer in Windows 10;

    j) dragging a file to subfolder of ZIP archive with "Store full paths"
    option enabled produced invalid pathnames consisting of repeated
    subfolder name. Same invalid pathnames were produced if adding files
    to ZIP archive with -ap<folder> -ep2 switches.


    Version 5.70

    1. "Files to process" option on "Time" page of archiving dialog
    allows to choose files based on modification, creation or last access
    file time. Previously it was possible for modification time only.

    2. Command line -ta, -tb, -tn, -to switches accept 'm', 'c' and 'a'
    modifiers after the switch name. So file time conditions can include
    not only the file modification time as in previous versions,
    but also creation and last access time.

    Such switch can include multiple modifiers to set the same date
    for all specified times. For example, -tamc20190215 will process files
    modified and created after 2019-02-15.

    New 'o' modifier permits to switch from AND to OR logic,
    so -tamco20190215 includes files modified or created after 2019-02-15.
    It is also allowed to specify several time filtering switches
    with different dates in the same command line, like:
    -taco20190201 -tbmo20190210

    Switches -ta and -tn also include files matching the specified date
    exactly. Switches -tb and -to exclude such files.

    3. WinRAR file list can display creation and last access file times
    if they are available.

    Creation and last access columns are disabled by default and can be
    enabled in "Select file list columns" dialog. This dialog is opened
    after right clicking on file list column headers or after pressing
    "File list/Files/Columns..." button in WinRAR settings.

    4. "Double extensions for archives" and "Archives in subfolders"
    options on "Files" page of archiving dialog modify behavior of
    "Put each file to separate archive" option.

    You can switch between archive names in filename.ext.rar
    and filename.rar style with "Double extensions for archives".

    You can create a separate archive for every file in selected subfolders
    or store the entire contents of every selected folder in separate
    archive depending on the state of "Archives in subfolders" option.

    5. New -ad1 switch can be used when unpacking multiple archives
    recursively, such as 'rar x -r -ad1 arc\*.rar'. It creates
    a separate folder for files unpacked from each archive,
    but unlike already existing -ad switch, it creates such folders
    in each archive folder.

    6. If context menu "Extract each archive to separate folder" is applied
    to archives from different folders in Windows Explorer "Search results",
    subfolders with unpacked files are created in each archive folder.
    Previous versions created them all in a folder of right clicked archive.

    7. New "File list/List style/Checkboxes" option in WinRAR settings
    allows to use checkboxes to select file list items.

    8. New "File list/Files/Exact sizes" option in WinRAR settings.

    If this option is on, file sizes are always displayed in bytes.
    If it is off, sizes are rounded up and use units such as KB or MB.
    Smaller files can be still displayed in bytes.

    9. If several console RAR are started with -ioff switch, PC is turned off
    by RAR copy finished last. Previously this switch was processed
    by first finished copy.

    10. Read and write buffer size is increased for .iso files.
    It can help to improve .iso extraction performance in some cases,
    such as for network drives.

    11. If "Delete archive" option in extraction dialog is applied to a set
    of RAR and REV volumes in volname.part# format, WinRAR will delete
    REV volumes as well. Previously only RAR volumes were deleted
    keeping REV files intact.

    12. If "Delete archive" option in extraction dialog is applied to set
    of ZIP volumes with .zip.001, .zip.002, .zip.003 extensions,
    WinRAR will delete all ZIP volumes. Previously only .zip.001 volume
    was deleted for such volume naming scheme.

    13. If we unpack arcname.rar using "Extract to arcname\" Explorer context
    menu command and "arcname" file already exists, WinRAR shell extension
    will propose "Extract to arcname~1\" instead. Previously this context
    menu command attempted to create a folder with same name as already
    existing file and failed.

    14. If we pack a shortcut file with .lnk extension from Explorer context
    menu, .lnk file itself is added to archive. Previous versions added
    .lnk file target instead of .lnk file.

    15. Windows does not allow executables exceeding 4 GB, so WinRAR issues
    an error immediately when attempting to create 4 GB or larger
    RAR SFX volumes. Previously WinRAR issued such error only after
    creating the first RAR volume.

    16. Total extraction progress is displayed for 7z multivolume archives.
    Accuracy of 7z total extraction progress is improved.

    17. "Find" command "Disks and folders" drop down list has been renamed
    to "Search area". Additionally to already existing choices,
    it includes a new "Selected items" option restricting search
    to files and folders selected in WinRAR file list.

    18. "Find" command displays the number of found items in status bar.

    19. "Diagnostic messages" window displays archive names in a separate
    column to provide the better message visibility for lengthy
    archive names.

    20. Switch -isnd[-] in command line WinRAR mode allows to override
    "Enable sound" option in WinRAR settings. Use -isnd to turn sound
    notifications on and -isnd- to turn them off.

    21. Nadav Grossman from Check Point Software Technologies informed us
    about a security vulnerability in UNACEV2.DLL library.
    Aforementioned vulnerability makes possible to create files
    in arbitrary folders inside or outside of destination folder
    when unpacking ACE archives.

    WinRAR used this third party library to unpack ACE archives.
    UNACEV2.DLL had not been updated since 2005 and we do not have access
    to its source code. So we decided to drop ACE archive format support
    to protect security of WinRAR users.

    We are thankful to Check Point Software Technologies for reporting
    this issue.

    22. Bugs fixed:

    a) console RAR mixed up source and destination file sizes and times
    in the overwrite prompt when updating a file in RAR archive
    with -o switch;

    b) dragging files from 32-bit applications to 64-bit WinRAR window
    did not work;

    c) WinRAR Shift+Del command applied to a folder could fail to delete
    some its subfolders. This command is used to delete files and folders
    permanently instead of moving them to Recycle Bin;

    d) folder tree panel could not change folders if archived pathnames
    started from path separator, such as in archives created by tar tool
    with --absolute-names option;

    e) if relative "Path=.\somefolder" was specified in SFX comment
    and SFX archive needed to elevate privileges when extracting,
    it created 'somefolder\somefolder' instead of 'somefolder';

    f) commands modifying an existing RAR4 volume reset the volume number
    field to 1. While it did not affect extraction, WinRAR displayed
    a wrong volume number for such volumes;

    g) fixed a crash when reading a comment from a corrupt RAR file;

    h) toolbar in "Find" command "Search results" window was not adjusted
    to different toolbar icon sizes properly.


    Version 5.61

    1. "Delete archive" extraction option deletes all volumes even if user
    started extraction from non-first RAR volume, but first volume
    is present and all files are unpacked successfully. In such case
    previous versions ignored "Delete archive" even if WinRAR was able
    to locate the first volume and process the volume set from beginning.

    2. Compression ratio bar is not displayed on "Archive" page of
    Explorer file properties for archives with encrypted file names.
    WinRAR cannot reliably calculate it for such archives without
    a password and previously it just displayed 0% here.

    3. Bugs fixed:

    a) WinRAR displayed "The specified password is incorrect" message
    infinitely when attempting to open RAR5 archive with encrypted
    file names if wrong global password was set with Ctrl+P;

    b) memory management bug in the password dialog could lead to
    access to already freed memory followed by crash.
    This issue may be also associated with security risks;

    c) fixed crashes in corrupt RAR, ACE and LZH archives.
    This issue may be also associated with security risks;

    d) while starting, WinRAR could cause a brief flickering in menu bars
    of few other applications;

    e) WinRAR "Find" command matched "String to find" against all
    archived files ignoring "File names to find" mask when searching
    in CAB archives;

    f) SFX module "License" command did not set a title of license window;

    g) if "Start-up folder" in WinRAR settings included the trailing
    backslash, WinRAR ignored first "Up one level" command.


    Version 5.60

    1. We updated WinRAR graphics.

    We are grateful to http://weirdsgn.com and http://icondesignlab.com
    designers participated in this endeavor and proud to announce that
    WinRAR uses the new icon set prepared by Aditya Nugraha Putra
    from http://weirdsgn.com.

    Previous WinRAR icons are available as interface theme here:
    https://rarlab.com/themes/WinRAR_Classic_48x36.theme.rar

    2. "Repair" command efficiency is improved for recovery record protected
    RAR5 archives. Now it can detect deletions and insertions of unlimited
    size also as shuffled data including data taken from several recovery
    record protected archives and merged into a single file in arbitrary
    order.

    3. "Turn PC off when done" archiving option is changed to "When done"
    drop down list, so you can turn off, hibernate or sleep your PC
    after completing archiving.

    4. Use -ioff or -ioff1 command line switch to turn PC off,
    -ioff2 to hibernate and -ioff3 to sleep your PC after completing
    an operation.

    5. If encoding of comment file specified in -z<file> switch is not
    defined with -sc switch, RAR attempts to detect UTF-8, UTF-16LE
    and UTF-16BE encodings based on the byte order mask and data
    validity tests.

    6. WinRAR attempts to detect ANSI, OEM and UTF-8 encodings of
    ZIP archive comments automatically.

    7. "Internal viewer/Use DOS encoding" option in "Settings/Viewer"
    is replaced with "Internal viewer/Autodetect encoding".
    If "Autodetect encoding" is enabled, the internal viewer attempts
    to detect ANSI (Windows), OEM (DOS), UTF-8 and UTF-16 encodings.

    8. Normally Windows Explorer context menu contains only extraction
    commands if single archive has been right clicked. You can override
    this by specifying one or more space separated masks in "Always display
    archiving items for" option in Settings/Integration/Context menu items",
    so archiving commands are always displayed for these file types
    even if file was recognized as archive. If you wish both archiving
    and extraction commands present for all archives, place "*" here.

    9. SFX module "SetupCode" command accepts an optional integer parameter
    allowing to control mapping of setup program and SFX own error codes.
    It is also accessible as "Exit code adjustment" option
    in "Advanced SFX options/Setup" dialog.

    10. New "Show more information" WinRAR command line -im switch.
    It can be used with "t" command to issue a message also in case of
    successful archive test result. Without this switch "t" command
    completes silently if no errors are found.

    This switch is applicable only to WinRAR.exe and ignored by console
    RAR.exe.

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

    12. If a wrong password is entered when opening or unpacking RAR archive
    with encrypted file names, WinRAR proposes to enter a valid password
    again instead of aborting the operation. Previous versions already
    did so for RAR archives with encrypted file data, but aborted
    for archives with file name encryption.

    13. WinRAR recognizes GZIP files with arbitrary data preceding
    an actual GZIP archive, such as .scexe firmware files.

    14. @filelist parameter can be specified in "Files to add" field of
    archiving dialog. In this case WinRAR will attempt the list of archiving
    files from 'filelist' file, which should be the plain text, one file
    name per line.

    15. Info dialog:

    a) compression ratio graph is updated;

    b) "Names and data" is displayed in "Encryption" field for
    archives with encrypted file names.

    16. Full archive name is displayed if mouse pointer is placed over
    an archive name in the operation progress window. It can be useful
    if archive name is lengthy and does not fit to available window space.

    17. If -ts1 switch is used with -u or -f, file time comparison is performed
    with 1 second precision. Previosuly in such case we could wrongly treat
    an adding file as newer than archived just because we compared the high
    precision adding file time against the low precision archived file time.

    18. "Update" and "Fresh" commands ('u' and 'f' in the command line mode)
    quit immediately if no files are to be updated. Previously they created
    a temporary archive before quitting when updating archives with recovery
    record or quick open information.

    19. Prompt is issued after creating 500 volumes from WinRAR GUI shell,
    so user can continue or quit further archiving. It is done to prevent
    creating many thousands of volumes in case of wrongly entered
    volume size.

    20. WinRAR uses megabytes instead of bytes as default units for volume size
    field in the archiving dialog.

    21. "Repair" command issues "Recovery record is corrupt" message
    after repairing RAR5 archive containing a broken recovery record.
    Previously such message was issued only by "Test" command
    and "Repair" handled most of recovery record damages silently.

    22. Bugs fixed:

    a) fixed potential security issues when processing corrupt
    RAR archives;

    b) non-English characters in TAR files with PAX extended headers
    were not displayed correctly;

    c) "rar x arcname.rar .." command unpacked files to current folder
    instead of its parent;

    d) pasting files from Windows Explorer to archive opened in WinRAR
    blocked further copy and paste operations in Explorer until
    archiving was finished;

    e) SFX module issued "The specified password is incorrect" message
    infinitely not prompting for correct password once a wrong password
    was entered;

    f) folders time was always set when extracting ZIP archives even if
    "File time" options in the extraction dialog were turned off;

    g) if "Delete archive: Always" was selected when extracting
    and user pressed "Cancel" in the file overwrite or password prompt,
    an archive could be deleted even after cancelling extraction
    for .zip and .7z formats.


    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.


    Version 5.31

    1. Following issues are corrected in Windows high DPI mode:

    a) if text size in Windows settings was set to 150% or larger,
    the font size in WinRAR help was not increased accordingly,
    resulting in too small text;

    b) default columns width in WinRAR file list was less
    than expected for 125% or larger Windows text setting.

    2. Interface improvements for right to left languages:

    a) proper text alignment in simple WinRAR prompts, such as
    confirmations to delete archived files or to clear the log file;

    b) "OK", "Cancel", "Help" buttons in multi-page dialogs,
    such as archiving and extraction options or WinRAR settings,
    are aligned correctly and translated to default Windows
    display language.

    3. Bugs fixed:

    a) WinRAR SFX module could load DLL libraries from its own executable
    folder as a result of calling some Windows API functions.
    It could lead to security threat if DLL files with malicious code
    were stored in the same folder as SFX archive. Now SFX module
    takes additional steps to prevent such situation in Windows Vista
    and newer.

    Be aware that users without latest Windows security patches
    installed also as Windows XP users still can be affected,
    so they must be especially careful to run SFX archive from
    a folder without suspicious DLL files;

    b) WinRAR 5.30 failed to run .lnk files from file list.


    Version 5.30

    1. Information about the critical vulnerability in WinRAR self-extracting
    archives published in news in September and October 2015 is incorrect.
    Unfortunately mass media failed to recognize that what was described
    as WinRAR vulnerability is Windows OLE vulnerability patched
    in November 2014:

    https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms14-064.aspx

    Even if unpatched, this Windows OLE vulnerability does not introduce
    new risk factors for WinRAR SFX archives.

    Please read http://rarlab.com/vuln_sfx_html2.htm for more details.

    No patches for WinRAR are needed.

    2. Added extraction of multipart ZIP archives created by 7-Zip.
    Such archives have .zip.001, .zip.002, ... file extensions.
    You need to open .zip.001 file in WinRAR shell to browse
    or unpack such archive. All parts must be stored in the same folder
    before starting extraction.

    3. Added extraction of files split to multiple parts with .001,
    .002, ..., extensions. You can open .001 file as a usual archive
    and then unpack its contents. WinRAR will combine all parts
    and save them to extracted file. All parts must be stored
    in the same folder before starting extraction.

    "001" item is included to "Associate WinRAR with" list
    in "Settings/Integration" dialog.

    4. WinRAR file list allows to use mouse Back and Forward buttons
    or Alt+Left and Alt+Right keyboard shortcuts to navigate
    in recently visited folders.

    5. Folder wildcards are allowed in RAR command line in file names to
    archive. For example:

    rar a backup c:\backup\2015*\*

    will archive all '2015*' folders in c:\backup. Use -r switch to search
    for '2015*' also in c:\backup subfolders.

    6. "Extract" button in SFX archive is changed to "Pause" when extraction
    is started, so it is possible to pause SFX extraction and resume it
    later.

    7. "Skip encrypted" option in "Find files" dialog to silently skip
    encrypted archives while performing search command.

    8. Archive test command works for tar.gz, tar.bz2 and tar.xz archives.
    Since TAR format does not provide file data checksums, WinRAR checks
    only validity of GZIP, BZIP2 or XZ container.

    9. Adding a new string to WinRAR diagnostic messages window could be
    slow and affect the operation performance in case of thousands
    of errors. Now it works fast regardless of errors number.

    10. New 'R' object for -sc switch defines encoding of console
    RAR messages sent to redirected files and pipes. For example:

    rar lb -scur data > list.txt

    will produce Unicode list.txt with archived file names.

    11. Sleep time parameter in -ri<priority>[:<sleep_time>] switch is
    adjusted to lower its impact to RAR performance and especially
    to recovery record related operations. Higher sleep time values
    are needed to reduce the system load to same level as
    in previous versions.

    12. Console RAR "l" and "v" commands display file time in YYYY-MM-DD
    format.

    13. When extracting RAR and ZIP archives created in Unix, WinRAR maps
    decomposed Unicode characters to precomposed. Such conversion
    is required for some Unix and OS X archives to correctly unpack
    non-English archived names in Windows. It works for Windows versions
    starting from Windows Vista.

    14. Modification time is set for all folders created when unpacking
    .7z archives. Previous versions set it only for non-empty folders.

    15. WinRAR prevents a computer to go to sleep by inactivity timeout
    until current operation, such as archiving, extraction or another
    archive processing, is done.

    16. Total progress bar is displayed when extracting .arj, .lzh and .cab
    archives (except multivolume archives).

    17. Progress bar is displayed when deleting files after archiving
    and when clearing "Archive" attribute of archived files.

    18. "Test" command also verifies contents of NTFS alternate data streams
    in RAR 3.x - 5.x archives. Previously their contents was checked
    only during extraction command.

    19. SFX module sets sfxstime environment variable, which contains
    the module start time in "YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS-ms" format.
    You can specify it in Path command if you need to generate a time
    based unique installation path, such as "Path=myapp-%sfxstime%".

    20. Bugs fixed:

    a) console RAR crashed instead of displaying an overwrite prompt
    when attempting to add files to already existing volumes;

    b) console RAR "lt" command did not display seconds in file timestamp;

    c) WinRAR failed to decompress .xxe files if they did not include
    "section N of xxencode" string in the body;

    d) WinRAR could not restore contents of NTFS alternate data stream
    saved with -os switch if it was split between different volumes.


    Version 5.21

    1. "Drag and drop context menu" options in "Settings/Integration/
    Context menu items" dialog allow to disable WinRAR archiving
    and extraction commands in context menu displayed after dragging
    and dropping files with right mouse button.

    2. If winrar.ini file is present in the same folder as WinRAR installer,
    winrar.ini will be copied to WinRAR program folder after completing
    installation.

    3. While previous versions could produce RAR5 volumes of slightly
    smaller than requested size sometimes, such situation is less
    likely now. In most cases volume size equals to specified by user.

    4. Now by default WinRAR skips symbolic links with absolute paths
    in link target when extracting. You can enable creating such links
    with "Allow absolute paths in symbolic links" option on "Advanced"
    page of extraction dialog or with -ola command line switch.

    Such links pointing to folders outside of extraction destination
    folder can present a security risk. Enable their extraction only
    if you are sure that archive contents is safe, such as your own backup.

    5. Bugs fixed:

    a) WinRAR 5.20 issued unnecessary user account control (UAC) prompt,
    when running an executable from archive stored in UAC protected
    folder. Since nothing is extracted to folder containing an archive
    in such case, UAC prompt is not needed;

    b) WinRAR could overwrite files with read-only attribute only
    when unpacking RAR and ZIP archive formats. Now it is also
    implemented for other archive formats supported by WinRAR;

    c) "Elapsed time" and "Time left" were displayed incorrectly
    when applying "Convert" command to multiple archives
    and enabling "Add recovery record" option.


    Version 5.20

    1. If Windows User Account Control prevents extracting or archiving
    commands to create files in system protected folders, WinRAR attempts
    to start its another copy with administrator privileges to complete
    the operation. It is necessary to confirm privileges elevation
    in response to User Account Control prompt to allow such second
    WinRAR copy to run.

    2. You can drag files in Explorer with right mouse button, drop them
    to some folder and select WinRAR archiving commands in context menu
    to create an archive with these files in the destination folder.

    3. It is possible to use WinRAR.ini file instead of Registry to store
    WinRAR settings. You may prefer such approach if you plan to install
    WinRAR to removable media, such as USB flash drive, and then run it
    on different computers.

    See "WinRAR.ini file" topic in "Configuration settings" chapter
    of WinRAR help for details.

    4. Added extraction support for ZIP and ZIPX archives using
    XZ compression algorithm.

    5. If ZIP or ZIPX archive contains any compression algorithms except
    usual "Store" or "Deflate", algorithm names are displayed
    in "Version to extract" field of archive information dialog.
    Algorithms with names unknown to WinRAR will be assigned "m<num>"
    name, where "num" is a compression algorithm numeric identifier.

    6. "Open with WinRAR" command is available in Windows context menus
    for archive formats supported by WinRAR. It can be turned off
    with "Open with WinRAR (for usual archives)" option in WinRAR
    "Settings/Integration/Context menu items..." dialog.

    7. Command line RAR can read the default set of switches from rar.ini
    file stored in RAR program folder. Previously it was possible to
    define only the same set of switches for all RAR command with
    "switches=<switches>" string. Now rar.ini also allows to specify
    separate switch sets for individual RAR commands using
    the following syntax:

    switches_<command>=<any RAR switches, separated by spaces>

    For example:

    switches_a=-m5 -s
    switches_x=-o+

    8. Command "ch" supports switches -tl, -cu, -cl also for ZIP archives.
    Previously "ch" allowed these switches only for RAR archive format.

    9. For archive formats lacking file time information, such as .bz2,
    .xz and .Z, WinRAR sets container archive modification time
    to extracted files. It does not apply to tar.bz2, tar.xz and tar.Z,
    which use file time stored in tar headers.

    10. "Keep broken files" extraction option is supported for bzip2 archives.

    11. WinRAR icon in Windows context menus is scaled up correctly
    in high DPI screen modes such as 150% or 200% of normal text size.

    12. It is possible to disable WinRAR "Benchmark" command with
    "Benchmark" variable of HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinRAR\Policy
    Registry key. In multi-user environment "Benchmark" command might
    abuse shared computational resources. See "Registry variables" topic
    in "Configuration settings" chapter of WinRAR help for more details.

    13. Additionally to "sfxcmd" variable containing the entire command line,
    SFX module sets "sfxpar" variable containing command line parameters
    only, without leading SFX module name. These variables are set before
    starting a program specified in "Setup" command.

    14. File overwrite prompt in console RAR displays the size and modification
    time for existing and new files.

    15. When archiving from stdin with -si switch, RAR sets the current system
    time to modification time of archived file. Previous version did not
    set this time at all.

    16. It is possible to use -si and -v<size> switches together. Previous
    versions did not allow to create volumes when archiving from stdin.

    17. Warning is issued when starting unpacking 4 GB or larger file
    from RAR or ZIP archive to FAT32 patition, so user may cancel
    the operation. FAT32 does not support files of such size.

    Also this warning is issued when starting to create RAR archive
    with "Store" (-m0) method if estimated archive size is 4 GB or more.

    18. "Select all" button in "Settings/Integration" dialog is renamed to
    "Toggle all". Now it deselects archive formats if all they are
    already selected.

    19. "Delete archive" extraction option correctly removes all .zip and .7z
    volumes. Previously it removed only the first volume in the set
    for these archive formats.


    Version 5.11

    1. WinRAR can unpack TAR archives containing folders with pax
    extended headers. Previous versions failed to unpack them.

    2. "Keep broken files" extraction option is supported for 7-Zip archives.

    3. Bugs fixed:

    a) WinRAR 5.10 did not set "hidden", "read-only" and "system"
    file attributes when unpacking ZIP archives;

    b) WinRAR 5.10 failed to update self-extracting RAR archives
    containing nested ZIP archives stored without compression;

    c) ZIP archive created with "Do not store paths" option
    included unnecessary empty name records for folders;

    d) archived files could have 1 hour modification time error
    in Windows XP;

    e) deleting a file in RAR5 solid archive containing files stored
    with -ver switch caused such files to lose version information;

    f) black rectangles were displayed instead of toolbar buttons
    in 16- and 24- bit screen color modes and Windows custom text size
    larger than 100%.


    Version 5.10

    1. Added extraction support for ZIP and ZIPX archives using
    BZIP2, LZMA and PPMd compression.

    2. Added extraction support for 7z split archives
    (.7z.001, .7z.002, ...).

    3. Added support for AES-NI CPU instructions allowing to improve
    RAR encryption and decryption performance.

    4. Default theme images are scaled up with better quality
    in high DPI display mode.

    5. Environment variables, such as %temp%, can be used
    in "Files to add" field of archiving dialog.

    6. Switch -ai can be used when creating RAR archive,
    so predefined values, typical for file and folder,
    are stored instead of actual attributes.
    Previously this switch could be used only when extracting.


    Version 5.01

    1. RAR 5.0 archives can include an optional quick open information
    controlled with -qo[-|+] switch or "Quick open information" options
    group in archiving dialog. It allows to open the archive contents
    in WinRAR faster.

    This version provides better update performance for archives
    containing both quick open information and service records,
    such as NTFS file security. Also default parameters of quick open
    information are optimized to achieve faster open time for such archives.

    2. Bugs fixed:

    a) "Find" command could fail when searching text string in .7z archives;

    b) when opening RAR 5.0 archive with encrypted file names stored
    in another such archive, WinRAR could issue an erroneous message
    that password is incorrect. It happened only if passwords to inner
    and outer archives were different. It did not affect extraction,
    all files could be unpacked regardless of this message;

    c) option "Use for all archives" in password dialog did not suppress
    additional password requests for RAR 5.0 archives with encrypted
    file names;

    d) WinRAR address bar did not process correctly environment variable
    based paths, such as %temp%;

    e) storing NTFS file security and alternate data streams did not work
    for file pathnames longer than 260 characters;

    f) "Test" command could erroneously report damaged data in valid
    recovery record if only a part of files in RAR 5.0 archive
    was tested. It did not happen if entire archive contents was tested;

    g) "Test" command erroneously reported errors when verifying
    RAR 4.x Unix symbolic links;

    h) WinRAR "View" command did not work for files inside of BZIP2 archives;

    i) if "High precision modification time" option in archiving dialog
    was turned off, WinRAR did not store the modification time at all
    instead of storing a lower precision time;

    j) destination paths containing .\ or ..\ component did not work
    when extracting non-RAR archives in WinRAR command line mode;

    k) WinRAR failed to unpack multivolume CAB archives.


    Version 5.00

    1. New RAR 5.0 archiving format. You can use "RAR 5.0" option
    in archiving dialog or -ma command line switch to create
    RAR 5.0 archives.

    Older software including older WinRAR versions is not able to
    decompress RAR 5.0 archives, so if you plan to send an archive
    to other people, it is necessary to take the compatibility issue
    into consideration. You can select "RAR" instead of "RAR5" option
    in archiving dialog to create RAR 4.x archives compatible with
    previous WinRAR versions.

    2. Changes in RAR 5.0 compression algorithm:

    a) maximum compression dictionary size is increased up to 1 GB
    in 64 bit WinRAR. 32 bit WinRAR version can use up to 256 MB
    dictionary when creating an archive. Both 32 bit and 64 bit
    versions can unpack archives with any dictionary size,
    including 1 GB;

    b) default dictionary size for RAR 5.0 is 32 MB, typically resulting
    in higher compression ratio and lower speed than RAR 4.x 4 MB.
    You can use "Dictionary size" archiving dialog option or -md<size>
    switch to change this value;

    c) -md<size> switch syntax is modified to support larger dictionary
    sizes. Append 'k', 'm' and 'g' modifiers to specify the size
    in kilo-, mega- and gigabytes, like -md64m for 64 MB dictionary.
    If modifiers are not present, megabytes are assumed,
    so -md64m is equal to -md64;

    d) RAR 5.0 format includes Intel IA-32 executable and delta
    compression algorithms, but RAR 4.x text, audio, true color
    and Itanium algorithms are not supported. These excluded algorithms
    are not efficient for modern data types and hardware configurations;

    e) RAR 5.0 decompression can utilize several CPU cores.
    Though not to same extent as in compression algorithm,
    it improves the decompression speed on large files
    with poorly compressible data or when using BLAKE2 checksums.

    3. Changes in RAR 5.0 archive format:

    a) file times are stored as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
    instead of former local time, making file exchange among
    several time zones more straightforward;

    b) file names and archive comments use UTF-8 encoding.

    4. RAR 5.0 recovery record is based on Reed-Solomon error correction
    codes. If recovery record size is large enough, 5% and more,
    the new error correction scheme provides much higher resistance to
    multiple damages comparing to RAR 4.x recovery record.
    Smaller record, such as 1 - 2%, or less random damage type would
    result in less difference between 4.x and 5.0. For single continuous
    damage 4.x and 5.0 efficiency is about the same.

    Additionally to usual data erasures, the new recovery record
    is able to detect deletions and insertions of much larger size
    than in previous RAR versions. Maximum insertion size is several
    megabytes. Maximum deletion size depends on the damage type
    and in some cases can be as large as the recovery record size.

    Still, the best recovery performance and efficiency is achieved
    if no deletions and insertions are present, so all data including
    damaged sectors preserve their original positions. Thus, if you use
    some special software to copy an archive from damaged media,
    it is better to choose the mode, when damaged sectors are filled by
    zeroes or any other data instead of cutting them out completely
    from resulting file.

    RAR 5.0 recovery record is more resistant to damage of recovery record
    itself and can utilize a partially corrupt recovery record data.
    Note, though, that "Repair" command does not fix broken blocks
    in recovery record. Only file data are corrected. After successful
    archive repair, you may need to create a new recovery record
    for saved files.

    New recovery record is not based on 512 byte sectors anymore
    and incorporates more complicated data structures. So it is impossible
    to specify its size in sectors. For RAR 5.0 archives the parameter of
    -rr[N] switch and rr[N] command is always treated as a percent of
    archive size regardless of presence of % character. Typically N%
    recovery record can repair up to N% of continuously damaged data
    and increases the archive size by only slightly more than N%.
    Ability to fix multiple damages is proportional to N.

    We used "Screaming Fast Galois Field Arithmetic Using Intel
    SIMD Instructions" paper by James S. Plank, Kevin M. Greenan
    and Ethan L. Miller to improve Reed-Solomon coding performance.
    Also we are grateful to Artem Drobanov and Bulat Ziganshin
    for samples and ideas allowed to make Reed-Solomon coding
    more efficient.

    5. "Test" command verifies validity of RAR 5.0 recovery record.
    Recovery record is tested after processing all archived files.

    If corrupt archive contains the recovery record, it might be possible
    to repair it even if recovery record validity test is failed.
    "Repair" command attempts to utilize even a partially damaged
    recovery record. So treat the negative recovery record test result
    as a reason to re-create the archive if original files are still
    available, but not as a reason to avoid "Repair" command.

    6. Changes in RAR 5.0 encryption algorithm:

    a) encryption algorithm is changed from AES-128 to AES-256 in CBC mode.
    Key derivation function is based on PBKDF2 using HMAC-SHA256;

    b) special password verification value allows to detect most of
    wrong passwords without necessity to unpack the entire file;

    c) if archive headers are not encrypted ("Encrypt file names" option
    is off), file checksums for encrypted RAR 5.0 files are modified
    using a special password dependent algorithm, to make impossible
    guessing file contents based on checksums. Do not expect such
    encrypted file checksums to match usual CRC32 and BLAKE2 values.

    7. RAR 5.0 archives allow to utilize 256 bit length BLAKE2sp hash
    ( https://blake2.net ) instead of 32 bit CRC32 as a file checksum.
    Enable "Use BLAKE2 file checksum" option in "Options" page of
    archiving dialog or specify -htb command line switch to use BLAKE2
    checksums.

    While producing slightly larger archives, BLAKE2 can be used
    for file contents identification. If two files have the same
    BLAKE2 value, it practically guarantees that file contents
    is the same. BLAKE2 error detection property is also stronger
    than in much shorter CRC32.

    8. Features removed:

    a) authenticity verification feature did not provide the required
    level of reliability and was removed;

    b) switch -en (do not add "end of archive" block) is not supported
    by RAR 5.0 archives, which always have the end of archive block.
    This block helps WinRAR to safely skip external data like
    digital signatures appended to archive;

    c) old style extension based arcname.rNN volume names are not
    supported by RAR 5.0 archives, which use only arcname.partN.rar
    volume names;

    d) file comments are not supported anymore both in RAR 4.x
    and RAR 5.0 archives. Console RAR 'cf' command is removed.
    It does not affect the archive comment support, which is present
    in both versions of archive format and is not planned for removal.

    9. "Set password" command and "Dictionary size" option are moved to
    "General" page of archiving dialog.

    10. You can use "Save symbolic links as links" option on "Advanced" page
    of archiving dialog to save and restore NTFS symbolic links
    and reparse points as links, so their contents is not archived.
    Command line equivalent of this option is -ol switch.

    Similar option for NTFS hard links is "Save hard links as links".
    Its command line equivalent is -oh switch.

    Both options are available only for RAR 5.0 archive format.

    11. Added extraction only support for XZ archive format.

    12. Changes in recovery volume processing in RAR 5.0 archive format:

    a) maximum number of RAR+REV volumes in RAR 5.0 format is 65535
    instead of 255;

    b) recovery volume operations are faster than in RAR 4.x;

    c) additionally to recovery data, RAR 5.0 REV files also store
    service information such as checksums of protected RAR files.
    So they are slightly larger than RAR volumes which they protect.
    If you plan to copy individual RAR and REV files to some removable
    media, you need to take it into account and specify RAR volume
    size by a few kilobytes smaller than media size.

    13. Maximum path length for files in RAR and ZIP archives is increased
    up to 2048 characters.

    14. Command line RAR returns the exit code 11 if it can detect that
    user entered a wrong password. This code can be returned only
    for RAR 5.0 archives. It is impossible to distinguish a wrong
    password and data damage for RAR 4.x archives.

    15. 'v' and 'l' commands display archived file names in the end of line,
    not in that beginning as before. Also some fields previously
    available in 'l' and 'v' output are now shown only by 'lt' and 'vt'.

    'vt' and 'lt' commands provide the detailed multiline information
    for every archived file.

    'vta' and 'lta' also include service headers into list.

    16. Now the default charset for filelists in commands like
    'rar a arcname @filelist' is ANSI for both WinRAR and console RAR.
    In previous versions it was ANSI for WinRAR and OEM for console RAR.
    You can use -sc<charset>l switch to override this default.

    17. Internal WinRAR viewer can detect and display files in UTF-8
    and UTF-16 little endian encodings.

    18. UTF-16 little endian encoding is used in RAR and WinRAR log file
    rar.log, so Unicode file names are stored in the log correctly.
    WinRAR automatically truncates the old rar.log file in non-Unicode
    format to avoid mixing different encoding in the same log file.
    In case of console RAR you need to delete the old rar.log manually,
    otherwide RAR will append UTF-16 messages to existing rar.log.

    You can use -sc<charset>g switch to change the default log file
    encoding, such as -scag for ANSI encoding.

    19. Command line 'r' (repair) command can include an optional destpath\
    parameter defining the destination folder for repaired archive:

    rar r archive.rar destpath\

    --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6
    * Origin: Prism bbs (1:261/38)
  • From Janis Kracht@1:261/38 to All on Thu Aug 24 15:37:42 2023
    WinRAR - What's new in the latest version


    Version 6.23

    1. Added extraction of XZ archives utilizing ARM64 filter.

    2. Rar$LS* temporary files, created when extracting or testing multiple
    archives from Windows context menu, are now deleted immediately.
    Previously they were deleted only on next WinRAR runs and only
    if they were at least 1 hour old.

    3. Bugs fixed:

    a) a security issue involving out of bounds write is fixed
    in RAR4 recovery volumes processing code.

    We are thankful to goodbyeselene working with Trend Micro Zero Day
    Initiative for letting us know about this bug;

    For full list of changes, see WhatsNew.txt in the archive.

    --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6
    * Origin: Prism bbs (1:261/38)
  • From Janis Kracht@1:261/38 to All on Tue Apr 9 15:17:36 2024
    WinRAR - What's new in the latest version


    Version 7.00

    1. Compression dictionary sizes larger than 1 GB are supported
    for RAR archive format. Depending on the amount of physically
    available memory, dictionary up to 64 GB can be selected.

    Not power of 2 dictionary sizes can be specified for dictionaries
    exceeding 4 GB. So we are not limited to 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 series
    and can use values like 5 GB or 22 GB.

    Archives with dictionaries exceeding 4 GB can be unpacked only
    by WinRAR 7.0 or newer. 64-bit WinRAR version is needed to unpack
    archives with dictionaries exceeding 1 GB.

    Increasing the dictionary size can improve the compression ratio
    for large files with distant repeated blocks, like virtual machine
    disk images. It also can be efficient for sets of large similar files
    in a solid archive, such as a collection of software ISO images
    differing by version or localization.

    2. WinRAR issues a prompt allowing to cancel or continue if dictionary
    size in extracted RAR archive exceeds "Maximum dictionary size
    allowed to extract" parameter in "Settings/Compression".
    It is done to prevent the unexpected excessive memory allocation.

    In the command line mode by default WinRAR refuses to unpack archives
    with dictionary exceeding 4 GB. Use -md<size> or -mdx<size> to allow
    unpacking dictionaries up to and including the specified size.
    Unlike -md<size>, -mdx<size> is applied to extraction only and can be
    added to RAR environment variable, not affecting archiving commands.

    3. "Define dictionary sizes" dialog in "Settings/Compression" can be used
    to customize dictionary sizes proposed in the drop down list associated
    with "Dictionary size" field in "Archive name and parameters" dialog.

    4. Alternate search algorithm, optimized to locate longer and more distant
    repeated data blocks, can be used when creating RAR archives.
    It helps to improve the compression ratio and sometimes speed
    for redundant data like big text files.

    It increases memory usage and might reduce the compression speed
    for some types of data. It can be turned on or off with
    "Long range search" options in "Advanced compression parameters" dialog
    or with -mcl[+|-] switch. If "Auto" option is selected, WinRAR applies
    the long range search depending on the compression method, dictionary
    size and other parameters.

    This algorithm is required for dictionaries exceeding 4 GB
    and turning it off is ignored for such dictionaries.

    5. Much slower and more exhaustive repeated data search and compression
    algorithm can be enabled with "Exhaustive search" option in "Advanced
    compression parameters" dialog or with -mcx switch.
    It might provide the additional compression gain for some types of
    redundant data, but at much lower compression speed.

    Long range search is needed to implement this mode efficiently,
    so the exhaustive search option activates it automatically.

    Both long range and exhaustive search option do not affect
    the compatibility of created archives. So if dictionary size
    is in 128 KB - 4 GB range, archives created with these search options
    can be unpacked by all WinRAR versions beginning from 5.0.

    6. Maximum path length limit is increased from 2047 to 65535 characters.

    7. Creating archives in RAR 4.x format isn't supported anymore.
    Options and switches specific for this format are removed.
    It doesn't affect RAR 4.x archives decompression, which is included
    into WinRAR.

    8. "Propagate Mark of the Web" option in "Settings/Security" dialog
    controls assigning the archive Mark of the Web to extracted files.
    It is possible to prohibit propagating, allow it for several
    predefined file groups, for all files or for files matching user
    defined file masks.

    Mark of the Web is the security zone information added by Internet
    browsers to downloaded files. It can be used by various software
    for security purposes.

    It is supported only by GUI WinRAR. Console RAR doesn't propagate
    Mark of the Web regardless of this option.

    9. "Attributes" column can be enabled in "Settings/File list/Columns".
    It displays file attribute abbreviations, such as 'A' for "Archive"
    and 'D' for directory.
    :
    9. "Attributes" column can be enabled in "Settings/File list/Columns".
    It displays file attribute abbreviations, such as 'A' for "Archive"
    and 'D' for directory.

    If file attribute isn't among those recognized by WinRAR,
    the numeric value of file attributes is also displayed.
    This value uses hexadecimal format for Windows attributes
    or octal format for Unix attributes.

    10. "Benchmark" command allows to specify the exact number of threads
    and copy results to clipboard. Information about WinRAR and Windows
    versions, CPU and memory is added to benchmark window.

    11. "Remove redundant folders from extraction path" option
    in "Settings/Paths" is now applicable also to extraction commands
    invoked from WinRAR user interface and to multiple archives
    unpacked to separate folders. It removes a destination path
    component, only if its name matches both the archive name and root
    archived folder name, provided that there are no other folders
    or files in archive root.

    For example, it will remove one of "Pictures" in the destination path
    if we unpack Pictures.rar containing the root "Pictures" folder
    to "Pictures\" destination.

    Previously it worked only for a single archive extracted from
    context menu and didn't check if archived folder name matches
    the last destination path component.

    12. "Word wrap in comment" option in "Interface" options group
    in "Settings/General" toggles the word wrap mode in archive comment
    window.

    13. Dictionary size data in archive information dialog is now available
    for .bz2, .lz, .tar.bz2, .tar.gz, .tar.lz, .tar.zst archives.

    14. Switch -ol- prohibits archiving and extracting symbolic links.

    15. Switches -sl<size>[u] and -sm<size>[u] recognize [k|K|m|M|g|G|t|T]
    size units for kilobytes, thousands of bytes, megabytes, millions
    of bytes, gigabytes, billions of bytes, terabytes, trillions of bytes.
    If unit character is 'b', 'B' or not present, bytes are assumed.

    Previously these switches accepted bytes only.

    16. SFX TempMode command accepts the optional @set:user parameter
    allowing to modify temporary folder permissions, so only the current
    user can access it. It prohibits a local user to replace files
    :
    16. SFX TempMode command accepts the optional @set:user parameter
    allowing to modify temporary folder permissions, so only the current
    user can access it. It prohibits a local user to replace files
    in a temporary folder if SFX is started under another account.

    It also can be enabled with "Restrict folder access" option
    in "Advanced SFX options/Modes" dialog.

    Some installers might fail to start in a folder created with
    @set:user parameter.

    17. File permissions and NTFS alternate streams are not saved for
    hard link entries. They are saved only for the source file these
    entries refer to. It allows to reduce the archive size, because
    such file properties are automatically propagated to hard links
    copies when extracting.

    18. Keyboard shortcuts, such as Ctrl+A to select all files or Alt+E to
    unpack found archives, are now functional in "Search results" window
    also while search is still in progress. Previously they were available
    only after completing search.

    19. Switch -v<size>[unit] recognizes 't' and 'T' as terabytes and
    trillions of bytes for volume size units.

    20. Warning is issued if leading '-' character is missing in a parameter
    specified in "Additional switches" field of WinRAR archiving
    and extraction dialogs. Also it is issued for parameters lacking '-'
    in RAR environment variable and rar.ini file.

    Previously such malformed parameters were ignored silently.

    21. "Convert archives" command displays the smooth total operation progress.
    Previously the total progress was updated abruptly after converting
    an archive and was visible only when processing multiple archives.

    22. Proper progress is displayed when compressing symbolic link targets.

    23. "Integrate WinRAR into shell" option in WinRAR "Settings/Integration"
    is grayed out if "Global\Integration=0" is present in winrar.ini file.

    24. 64-bit WinRAR version uses 64-bit SFX modules by default.
    64-bit SFX modules are needed to unpack archives with dictionaries
    exceeding 1 GB.

    32-bit modules are renamed to Default32.SFX, Zip32.SFX, WinCon32.SFX.

    25. Maximum allowed dictionary size for archiving and extraction
    can be specified in gigabytes in MaxDictA and MaxDictE variables
    in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinRAR\Policy" Registry key.
    If these variables are smaller than corresponding values defined
    in WinRAR interface, they override interface values.

    26. Console RAR filters out character 27 from screen output. It is done
    for security reasons, because this character can be used to declare
    ANSI escape control sequences in some terminal applications.

    We are thankful to Siddharth Dushantha for bringing this issue
    to our attention.

    27. Bugs fixed:

    a) it was possible to overwrite Mark of the Web, propagated from
    archive to extracted files, and modify its security zone information
    utilizing a specially crafted .rar archive.

    We are thankful to Orange Tsai and NiNi from DEVCORE Research Team
    working with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative for letting us know
    about this security issue.

    Unlike WinRAR, unrar.dll library doesn't propagate the archive
    Mark of the Web and leaves it to a caller application to assign it
    to extracted files. So unrar.dll isn't affected by this issue;

    b) "User defined archive extensions" field in "Settings/Integration"
    was not saved if winrar.ini was used to store settings
    and WinRAR was started under non-administrator user account.



    ===
    As usual, please see the complete list of changes in the file "What's new in the latest version" in the archive.

    --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6
    * Origin: <<Prism bbs (1:261/38)