Airstream_Bill Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Hi, Could someone tell me why this WinRar seems to be the standard for compressing files. Is it because the program is small?? Everything one downloads is in the *.rar compression. I started out with WinZip 20 plus years ago when one had to do everything from the DOS prompt. I still use WinZip. What is the reason for the popularity of WinRar?? Just curious. Thanks :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs18 Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Like you, I started out using WinZip for better part of my life and it was my default archiver - however, I always had a home-cooked version of WinRAR residing in all my systems.Now, things have changed. WinRAR is my default archiver - everybody may have their own valid reasons, mine are:-WinRAR compresses to a more reduced size than WinZipWinRAR is lighter in footprint and quicker to load - of late, WinZip has gotten bloatedWinZip had the edge in it's advanced file format extension .zipx - however, WinRAR is now at par with it's new .rar5 file format.Have got some other reasons, too - the above 3 reason though, makes one understand why the Scene has always preferred WinRAR over WinZip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airstream_Bill Posted April 30, 2013 Author Share Posted April 30, 2013 Like you, I started out using WinZip for better part of my life and it was my default archiver - however, I always had a home-cooked version of WinRAR residing in all my systems.Now, things have changed. WinRAR is my default archiver - everybody may have their own valid reasons, mine are:-WinRAR compresses to a more reduced size than WinZipWinRAR is lighter in footprint and quicker to load - of late, WinZip has gotten bloatedWinZip had the edge in it's advanced file format extension .zipx - however, WinRAR is now at par with it's new .rar5 file format.Have got some other reasons, too - the above 3 reason though, makes one understand why the Scene has always preferred WinRAR over WinZip.Good Day to you and thanks for the info. I think I will give WinRar a spin again. I was hoping that you personally would answer my inquary into its popularity. Thanks Again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs18 Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Many more will add valuable inputs - they are a bit shy. :PBTW, those who like to jazz up their WinRAR with sexy themes can check at the following link:-http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/160478-can-windows-8-be-made-more-beautiful-than-windows-7/page-12#entry571081This is another of WinRAR capabilities - easier to theme, so as to complement the rest of the OS skin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exodius Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Hi, i want to ask, how to make .rar5 archive file ???I have selected .rar5 format file, but after archieving, format file always .rar ??? whats wrong with my winrar 5 ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christantoan Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Hi, i want to ask, how to make .rar5 archive file ???I have selected .rar5 format file, but after archieving, format file always .rar ??? whats wrong with my winrar 5 ???the extension is the same for rar and rar5 files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnakeMasteR Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Hi, Could someone tell me why this WinRar seems to be the standard for compressing files. Is it because the program is small?? Everything one downloads is in the *.rar compression. I started out with WinZip 20 plus years ago when one had to do everything from the DOS prompt. I still use WinZip. What is the reason for the popularity of WinRar?? Just curious. Thanks :rolleyes:There are a bunch of other archive formats and containers, that can give the same or even better compression depending on the compression method and are used very often, i think it really depends on what you wanna compress and how much time you will spend for this.7z, Arc, CAB, as example. Many of them have GUIs but with a bunch of commandline switches, those give the possibility to get massive compression ratios, if the system resources allow it (you have time, a good CPU and much RAM).WinRAR, 7-Zip and WinZip are popular and there are a bunch of others (IZArc, UHARC, PeaZip etc.). WinRAR is very easy to use, fast and popular because of this, easier and faster than with commandline compression options but it's not the best compression software depending on the compression rate.I personally have and use 7-zip, FreeArc and WinRAR for different needs, only one of them doesn't fit. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jalaffa Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 It has much to do with what the scene has chosen to use also. On a side note: I recall using lzh and DMS (iso like) on Amiga :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted April 30, 2013 Administrator Share Posted April 30, 2013 Agree with WinRAR being faster and offering better compression.However, on my quad core processor, 7-Zip's 7z compresses 4 times the speed and atleast 20% better compression 9 out of 10 times than WinRAR. WinRAR says it offers multicore compression, which I have enabled too, but somehow it doesn't come even near 7-zip's speed here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs18 Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Hi, i want to ask, how to make .rar5 archive file ???I have selected .rar5 format file, but after archieving, format file always .rar ??? whats wrong with my winrar 5 ???Since Christantoan has already answered your query, I'll just add something else to it - please do not use .rar5 as your default unless you are damn sure that every Recipient / User of that file archived by the new file format extension .rar5 is running the latest WinRAR V5 (from the compatibility point-of-view.) ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs18 Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Going strictly by Bill's pre-requirement - I limited my posts (very consciously) to just WinZip and WinRAR.Now that his need is fulfilled, I hope everyone can break free by chiming in valuable tid-bits about other compression tools, as well :)Off-topic:-One of the best compressions I noticed was afforded by UHARC - the very best compressor though, remains yet unmentioned on this page (I'm not describing it, either - for security reasons.) :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vregu Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 Another one option is Bandizip.... really nice GUI..., some themes, fast compression & decompression, ligtht size(4 mb) and its totally FREE :)Check it here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Compression-tools/Bandizip.shtml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whoopenstein Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 I think originally, the reason WinRAR took off is because it was the 1st one to make a single archive spanning multiple files. This was very usefull on usenet (newsgroups). It is very common for some postings to be incomplete in the newsgroups and instead of re-posting the whole archive, you would just repost one part of the RAR set.I used to use PKZip for Windows, but when RAR files started showing up on newgroups I switched over and never looked back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs18 Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 WinZip has got one good reason going in it's favor (when there's not a single Compression Tool installed in one's system.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs18 Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 BTW, those who like to jazz up their WinRAR with sexy themes can check at the following link:-http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/160478-can-windows-8-be-made-more-beautiful-than-windows-7/page-12#entry571081This is another of WinRAR capabilities - easier to theme, so as to complement the rest of the OS skin.Added 2 more premium themes at the above mentioned link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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