The final version of the archiving software WinRAR 7.0 is now available. The developer released four beta versions prior to the release.
WinRAR 7.0 is a major new release that introduces new functionality and changes. One of the main changes improves the use of dictionary sizes.
Support for creating RAR 4.x archives is no longer available. This does not affect the extraction of these formats, as this continues to be supported.
You can download the new version of WinRAR from the developer website. Note that many localized versions are not updated yet to version 7.0.
Follow this link to find out why you should use third-party archive software and not the Windows built-in archive extraction options.
WinRAR 7.0
The official changelog lists all improvements and changes in the new release. The main new feature improves the handling of compression dictionaries. These dictionaries may improve the compression ratio of archives.
Compression dictionary sizes larger than 1 gigabyte may now be set in the application up to a total of 64 gigabytes. The maximum size depends on the available memory of the computer WinRAR runs on.
Note: WinRAR 7.0 archives created with dictionaries larger than 4 gigabytes can only be extracted using the new version of the archiving software. It also needs to be the 64-bit version of WinRAR in this case.
The maximum dictionary size to extract is set to 4 gigabytes by default. The application shows a prompt to the user if an archive exceeds the size. It is then possible to continue with the extraction or cancel it.
This is done to prevent “unexpected excessive memory allocation” according to the changelog.
WinRAR users who want to make use of new custom dictionary sizes may create presets in the options. Here is how this is done:
- Open the Settings and switch to the Compression tab.
- Click on “Define dictionary sizes”.
- Check or uncheck the available sizes.
The selected sizes are shown in the archive name and parameters dialog then for quick selections.
Other changes
The new WinRAR releases includes two new search options. Alternate search algorithm can be enabled when creating archives. The feature may improve the compression ratio and “sometimes” speed for “redundant data”. Downside is that it does increase memory usage and may reduce the compression speed for some types of data. The algorithm is required for dictionaries larger than 4 gigabytes.
There is also a new Exhaustive search option. This option is “much slower” according to the changelog. It is turned off by default and may improve the compression ratio further at the expense of a “much lower compression speed”.
WinRAR 7.0 comes with additional improvements. The new version supports a maximum path length of 65535 characters now. Previous versions have a path limit of 2047 characters.
There is also a new propagate mark of the web option in Settings > Security. Propagating may be prevented or enabled for certain file types only. It is interesting to note that this option is only available in the graphical user interface version. The command line version of WinRAR never propagates mark of the web.
In case you are wondering, mark of the web may prevent the opening of certain files on the system by default.
Here is a quick list of other changes:
- New option to show an Attributes column. Enable it under Settings > File List > Columns.
- The benchmark command supports specifying the number of threads now.
- New option “remove redundant folders from extraction path” under Settings > Paths. This may remove folders, e.g., a pictures folder when the extraction path is a Pictures folder already.
- New Word Wrap option for comments.
- Dictionary size now also available for .bz2, .lz, .tar.bz2, .tar.gz, .tar.lz, .tar.zst archives.
- Search results support keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl-A to select all files.
Closing Words
WinRAR 7.0 improves the popular archive software further. Power users benefit from new dictionary sizes, which may improve the compression ratio of archives.
Now You: do you use WinRAR or another archive software?
Is there an easier way to determine if a current archive that was created with WinRar was created using the RAR4 format then opening it and trying to add a file to it?
I’ve been using it for years. I have a lot of archives. At some point RAR4 became the default setting.
Not aware of a program that can do that, sorry. Maybe someone else?