In a previous article, I talked about file extensions. Now I want to detail the specific addition .rar, symbolizing the archive. This article will show you what an archive format is and how to open a .rar file.
What are archives? How are they created?
When you see the file extension, then set its belonging to a certain data type. If you have .rar extensions in front of you, this indicates the presence of an archive. The archive is a backup copy of the data, which is compressed to save space on the media. That is, the size of this copy on average 30-40% may be smaller than the original. And before you open the rar file, it is extracted to its original size. To extract such a file without data loss, you need a special archiver program. It is she who is engaged in packaging the original data in the archive and their subsequent unpacking.
How to open rar file? Archiver
First you need to install a program for archiving data on your PC hard drive. This can be done in two conflict-free ways:
- Download and install some free file packer to disk;
- purchase a paid archiver and also install it on a computer.
More often, runet users use winrar and 7-zip programs. I would even recommend installing them together to get an extended set of all archiving capabilities.
During the installation, follow the prompts of the wizard. After installation, run the main executable file of the application. Usually it is indicated by a special desktop shortcut.
Now you can see the window manager like windows explorer. How to open rar file in it? You need to click on the archive file icon twice, and you will see the internal contents of the archive. In this case, the compressed data is extracted to a temporary folder and available for viewing.
To unzip an archive copy to a specific directory in the winrar or 7-zip manager, right-click on it and select "extract files" in the drop-down list . The program for archiving prompts you to select a directory for unpacking the archive and, if necessary, some additional extraction parameters.
In the archive manager interface, select the section and folder where you want to unzip the selected files. If you need to create a new empty directory, simply write its name in the extraction path, and the program will create it automatically.
Click "apply" or "ok" (depends on the interface of the working archiver). The process of extracting the archive will begin, which will be the answer to the question of how to open the rar file. The time spent is proportional to the size of the retrieved content.
Performance recommendation
I noticed more than once that it very quickly extracts large files and .iso images are exactly 7-zip. Therefore, if opening by other archivers takes a long time, try using this application, perhaps the process will go with great speed.
How to open the rar file through the menu of the program "My Computer"?
It is not always convenient to use the built-in archiver interface. In this case, right from the windows explorer, right-click the command submenu and find in it something like “extract to the specified directory”. Thus, the installed archiver registers the list of its commands in the windows shell. Well, then the process is similar to the steps to extract archives described above.
Additional backup commands
How to open rar file with helper commands? In the same explorer, we call the context submenu and, as a rule, we find the following archiving tasks:
- Extract to the folder with the archive name - a working subfolder is created with the name of the archive in the current folder, and the contents are unpacked there.
- Extract to current folder - the archive data is extracted to the directory in which you are currently located. No additional subfolders are created.
- Add to archive - a window interface opens where you can add selected data to an existing backup.
- Add to ... (archive name) - adds the selected data to a new backup, the name of which the user invents.