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This Page Last Updated October 03rd, 2008.
WinRAR - What's new in the latest version release?
October 02, 2008 - WinRAR 3.80 released!
Version 3.80
1. Added support for ZIP archives containing Unicode file names
in UTF-8 format. When creating ZIP archive, WinRAR stores
names in Unicode only if they cannot be stored correctly using
the current single byte character set.
2. Added decompression support for WinZip AES encrypted ZIP archives.
3. Improved Unicode support for RAR and ZIP archive names.
4. "Ask before overwrite" and "Skip existing files" update modes
are now available in archiving dialog. They allow to specify
WinRAR behavior when updating already existing files in archive.
Unlike already available "Fresh existing files only" and
"Add and update files", these new modes ignore file date
and compare only file names.
Command line equivalents of these modes are:
a) switch -o enables "Ask before overwrite" archiving mode;
b) switch -o- enables "Skip existing files" archiving mode;
c) switch -o+ enables "Overwrite all" mode (default for archiving).
5. New "Add to context menu" option in "Profile parameters" dialog.
If this option is on, the profile name will be displayed in Explorer
context menus allowing to activate a profile from context menu.
6. New -cp switch allows to select a compression profile
in command line mode. It is supported only by GUI WinRAR.exe,
not by rar.exe.
7. New "Options" page of archiving dialog contains the group of
settings modifying the behavior of "Delete files after archiving"
option from "General" page:
a) Delete files. Delete files normally like in previous WinRAR
versions.
b) Move files to Recycle Bin. Deleted files are placed to
Recycle Bin.
Command line equivalent of this option is -dr switch.
c) Wipe files. Before deleting file data are overwritten by
zero bytes to prevent recovery of deleted files.
Command line equivalent of this option is -dw switch.
All these options have an effect only if "Delete files
after archiving" is on. You can enable any of these options
in the default compression profile to change the default
behavior of "Delete files after archiving".
8. WinRAR "Extraction path and options" dialog is now resizable.
You can use the mouse to drag its border to the desired size
and provide more space for folder tree pane. WinRAR will store
new dimensions of this dialog.
9. New "Update" SFX script command and "Update mode" group
of options in "Update" page of "Advanced SFX options" dialog.
These command and options allow to check time and implement
file time based updating;
10. SFX script "Shortcut" command and "Add shortcut..." command
in "Advanced SFX options" dialog now allow to specify
an icon file containing an icon associated with shortcut.
11. New "Wipe temporary files" option in "Settings/Security" dialog
provides more secure, though slower, way to delete temporary
WinRAR files.
12. WinRAR and RAR display the total progress bar when unpacking
a multivolume RAR archive if all volumes are present
in the same folder.
13. WinRAR and RAR automatically expand names of environment
variables in list files. For example, a list file can contain
lines like:
\*.exe
\Desktop
This feature is available only in Windows RAR version.
14. Added support of TAR archives with non-zero "extra field" data.
15. Added support of TAR archives, which does not contain
the end of archive entry consisting of 512 zero bytes.
16. Improved Unicode support when dragging files from WinRAR window.
17. Shift+Tab key combination can be used in main WinRAR window to
switch the input focus between interface elements (files, comment,
tree, address) in reverse order. In previous versions Shift+Tab
used the same order as Tab.
18. Corrected a possible WinRAR crash when opening truncated
UDF ISO files.
WinRAR 3.71 released!
Version 3.71
1. Archive names in rar.log error log file always include
the full path.
2. WinRAR tray icon is compatible with high DPI display modes.
3. If you modified a file in archive with encrypted names using
an external editor, WinRAR will not ask for archive password again
when prompting to update a file. It will use a password which
you entered when opening an archive,
4. Bugs fixed:
a) switch -tl and "Set archive time to latest file time" option
could fail in previous version. Sometimes they set archive time
to current system time instead of latest file time;
b) if -ag switch mask contained archive number, month and minute
characters, WinRAR placed 'I' character instead of minute value
into generated archive name for archive numbers exceeding 1;
c) high ASCII names in ISO files using ISO 9660 format without
Joliet format extension were displayed incorrectly;
d) WinRAR could crash when decompressing some of corrupt RAR archives;
e) if "Turn PC off when done" option was set in "Convert archives"
command, WinRAR turned PC off after converting the first archive
in selected group instead of after converting the entire group;
f) if user specified a non-existent destination path in SFX archive
in Vista, SFX could enter into infinite "create new SFX window"
loop;
g) WinRAR could fail to unpack an individual file from subfolder
of ACE archive using the drag and drop.
Version 3.70
1. Numerous Windows Vista compatibility changes:
a) help format changed from old HLP to newer HTML based CHM;
b) GUI self-extracting modules attempt to request for
administrator permissions if they cannot create destination
folder under current user account;
c) Log file rar.log and WinRAR theme files are stored
in \WinRAR folder instead of WinRAR program files folder.
Exported settings file settings.reg is also stored
in \WinRAR folder by default, but it is possible to
select another folder in "Save WinRAR settings" and "Load WinRAR
settings" dialogs.
WinRAR searches for registration key and settings.reg
both in its program files folder and in \WinRAR;
It is possible to set the string value "AppData" in Registry key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinRAR\Paths to override the default
\WinRAR path for WinRAR settings.
For example, if you wish to store theme files in WinRAR folder,
set this value to "c:\Program Files\WinRAR".
d) Vista compatibility changes in WinRAR shell integration;
e) New "Request administrative access" option in "Advanced" page
of "Advanced SFX options" allows to create SFX archive,
which will request the administrative access when started
in Windows Vista.
Command line equivalent of this option is -iadm switch.
2. Added support for ISO 13346 (UDF) file format. This format
is frequently used in ISO images of DVD disks.
3. Added Unicode support for ISO 9660 files, so WinRAR should
handle non-English file names in .iso files better.
4. Design changes in window displaying archiving and extraction
progress:
a) it provides more space for file names, allowing lengthy names;
b) it displays the current archive name in separate line,
allowing much longer archive names than before;
c) when archiving, it displays the current compression ratio
in separate line;
d) it can use both standard Windows and classic WinRAR progress bars.
Turn on "Windows progress bars" option in WinRAR "Settings/General"
dialog to use standard progress bars. By default this option is
on if some Windows visual style is active and off if Windows Classic
theme is selected.
Windows progress bars are two color only, so they do not indicate
the current compression ratio. But now the ratio is displayed
in separate line;
e) "Mode..." button moved to bottom of window.
5. GUI self-extracting modules support following command line
switches:
-d set the destination path
-p specify a password
-s silent mode, hide all
-s1 same as -s
-s2 silent mode, hide start dialog
-sp specify parameters for setup program
6. GUI self-extracting modules do not pass the entire command line
to setup program like they did in previous versions.
If you need to get access to entire command line of SFX archive,
parse sfxcmd environment variable which contains this command line.
7. New switch -sc[objects] allowing to select character
sets for archive comments and list files. It replaces -fcu switch
introduced in RAR 3.60, which was removed from list of supported
switches. Now you need to specify -scuc instead of -fcu to use
Unicode comments. Unlike -fcu, -sc also supports OEM and ANSI charset.
8. New "Save archive copy as..." command in "File" menu.
This command may be useful if you opened an archive from Internet
directly in WinRAR and then decided to save it on local disk.
9. "Word wrap" command added to "View" menu of WinRAR internal viewer,
so you can change the wrapping mode of already opened viewer window.
State of this option is not stored between viewing sessions.
If you need to change the default word wrap mode, use WinRAR
"Settings/Viewer" dialog.
10. Buttons "Up" and "Down" added to "Organize profiles" dialog.
Using these buttons you can change position of selected profile
in the list.
11. Operation progress is displayed when adding the recovery record.
12. If WinRAR is minimized to tray and mouse is over its icon,
WinRAR diplays a message about the current operation progress.
In previous versions it included only percent done, now it also
contains the time left information.
13. Console RAR displays "Calculating the control sum" message
when calculating CRC32 control sum for newly created RAR volume.
Previous versions also calculated the volume control sum,
but did it silently.
14. Archives history list in "File" menu allows Unicode names,
providing more reliable support for non-English archive names.
15. Stack overflow vulnerability has been corrected in password
processing module of console RAR and UnRAR. GUI WinRAR is not
affected. We are thankful to the iDEFENSE LABS for reporting this bug.
Version 3.62
1. Bugs fixed:
a) stack overflow vulnerability has been corrected in WinRAR module
processing 7-Zip archives;
a) WinRAR GZip module could set a wrong file date when unpacking
GZip archives.
Version 3.61
1. Corrected a bug in multithreaded text compression module,
which under some circumstances might result in corrupt archived data.
This bug was present only in multithreaded mode and only
in WinRAR 3.60. RAR versions for other platforms are not affected.
2. Resolved a compatibility issue preventing WinRAR 3.60 to run
in Windows 95.
Version 3.60
1. Multithreaded version of RAR compression algorithm improves
the compression speed on computers with several CPU,
dual core CPU and processors with hyperthreading technology.
Multithreading is enabled by default, but you can disable it
in "General" part of "Settings" dialog.
In the command line mode you can control multithreading with
-mt switch.
2. WinRAR can display the folder tree panel allowing to navigate
in disk and archive folders. Use "Options/Folder tree" submenu
to enable the folder tree. It can be configured separately
in file and archive management modes.
Folder tree replaces "Browse for folder" command previously
available in "File" menu and uses its Ctrl+T keyboard shortcut.
3. Now WinRAR "Rename" command also works with ZIP archives.
Previous versions could rename files only in RAR archives.
4. Added decompression of LZH archives created with "-lh7-" algorithm.
5. New "Remove duplicate folders from extraction path" option
in "Settings/Compression" dialog.
If this option is on and you unpack an archive which root folder
has no files and only one 'somename' folder and if destination
folder is new or empty and also ends with '/somename', WinRAR
will exclude one 'somename' from resulting 'somename/somename' path.
6. New "Define volume sizes..." button in "Settings/Compression".
This button activates "Define volume sizes" dialog. Here you
can customize the list of predefined volume sizes associated
with "Split to volumes, bytes" field in archiving dialog.
7. Speed of RAR general compression increased for some data types.
Depending on data type and size the gain may achieve 5 - 15%.
8. New "Rename automatically" option in the extraction dialog
and command line -or switch to rename extracted files automatically
if file with the same name already exists. You can also enable
the auto-renaming mode directly from the overwrite confirmation
prompt with "Rename All" button.
Renamed files will get names like 'filename(N).txt',
where 'filename.txt' is the original file name and 'N' is a number.
9. "Set modification time" option in "Advanced" part of extraction
dialog is accessible also for ZIP archives. Previously it could be
changed only for RAR archives.
10. "Multithreading" option added to "Benchmark and hardware test"
command, so you can compare performance of usual and multithreaded
versions of RAR compression algorithm.
11. New 'ch' (change archive parameters) command line mode command.
Its purpose is to apply switches like -av, -tl and -cl to archive.
12. New 'cv' command line mode command. It provides the command line
interface to WinRAR "Convert archives" command. It is supported
only by winrar.exe, not by rar.exe.
13. New command line -sl and -sm switches to set size
limits of processing files.
14. New command line -fcu[file] switch allows to read archive
comments from Unicode files. It also modifies behavior
of "cw" command, setting the comment output format to Unicode.
15. 7Z added to list of formats stored without compression
when using -ms switch without a parameter.
16. Switch -e[+] is now supported by most of command line
operations including extracting and deleting files. Previously
it was supported by only archiving command.
17. It is allowed to use environment variables in archive name
in archiving dialog, in destination path in extraction dialog,
in folder names on "Compression" and "Paths" pages in WinRAR
settings. For example, you can enter '%temp%' in "Folder for
temporary files" field.
Version 3.51
1. Bugs fixed:
a) fixed two vulnerabilities, which could be exploited with
specially crafted ACE and UUE/XXE archives;
b) previous version did not delete some of temporary files;
c) WinRAR could crash when processing very long (more than
1024 characters) archive name parameter in the command line.
Version 3.50
1. Now it is possible to change WinRAR's look by installing
interface themes. Theme files are available on
http://www.rarlab.com/themes.htm
Theme files are RAR archives, just open them in WinRAR to install.
You can manage installed themes using "Options/Themes" menu.
2. WinRAR supports decompression of ZIP archives created using
Zip64 format extension. Zip64 was introduced to remove
original ZIP format limitations on archived file size.
3. Added support of multivolume (multipart) CAB archives.
4. New options in "Advanced" part of extraction dialog:
a) "Delete archive" options allow to delete extracted archives;
b) "Check authenticity information" option controls processing
of authenticity information in RAR archives.
5. "Wait if other WinRAR copies are active" option
in "Advanced" parts of archiving and extraction dialogs.
If enabled, it waits while other WinRAR copies are creating,
modifying or unpacking an archive and starts the operation
only when other WinRAR tasks are complete. If you are going
to perform several archiving or decompressing tasks, such queued
execution can help to reduce the amount of disk seeks and improve
overall performance.
6. WinRAR is able to integrate to Windows context menus also
on Windows x64 systems.
7. SFX modules:
a) SFX modules are not compressed by UPX anymore, so they are
larger now. UPX compression caused numerous false alerts
by antivirus software. If you wish to use compressed modules,
you can get UPX from http://upx.sourceforge.net and compress
*.sfx files in WinRAR folder;
b) The default SFX logo can be replaced by a custom bitmap file.
You can do it either with "Load SFX logo from the file" option
in "Text and icon" part of "Advanced SFX options" dialog
or using -iimg command line switch. Note that -iimg is not
supported by console RAR, only GUI WinRAR recognizes it.
This option is not supported in Windows 95, 98 and Me.
Also you cannot use it if you compressed SFX modules by UPX.
c) It is possible to specify user defined SFX icons larger than
32x32 and with any color depth. Like the previous item,
this improvement is valid only if SFX modules are not compressed
by UPX and your operating system is not Windows 9x/Me;
d) DOS.SFX module moved to RAR/DOS32 distributive. If you need
to create DOS SFX archives using WinRAR, just copy DOS.SFX
to WinRAR folder.
8. "Wizard" command allows to specify a password when creating
or updating an archive.
9. Previous WinRAR versions unpacked the complete archive contents
if the user pressed Enter or double clicked on *.exe, *.htm and
*.html files. Now it is possible to define file masks to unpack
everything for. Such masks can be entered on the "Viewer" page
of the "Settings" dialog. For example, if you wish to unpack only
a file under the cursor when you double click on archived HTML file,
remove "*.htm *.html" from this field.
10. Additional file name extensions for archive formats supported
by WinRAR can be specified in the "User defined archive extensions"
field on the "Integration" page of the "Settings" dialog. For example,
if you have files with ".001" extension, which are in RAR format,
you can enter "001" here to associate WinRAR with such files.
11. New "Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color" option
in "File list" page of "Settings" dialog.
12. New "Lock toolbars" option in "General" page of "Settings" dialog
and in the menu displayed after clicking the right mouse button
on the toolbar. "Lock toolbars" prevents accidental toolbar moving
or resizing.
13. "Repair" and "Extract" commands replace invalid characters
(colon, question mark, etc.) by underscore also in file names
in ZIP archives. Previously WinRAR did it only for RAR archives.
14. New -n and -n@ switches set additional include
filters, so only files matching the mask will be processed.
15. New -id[c,d,p,q] switch. Additionally to previously available
-idp switch (disable percentage indicator), switches -idc, -idd
and -idq instruct the console RAR to hide the copyright message,
"Done" message and all information messages.
16. Switch -e+ allows to specify file include attributes mask.
For example, you can use -e+h switch to compress only hidden files.
17. Switch -ver[n] supports the optional 'n' parameter also when
archiving. It limits the maximum number of file versions.
18. If the short name of an already existing file is equal to the long
name of an unpacking file, WinRAR changes the short name of the already
existing file before unpacking. In such situation previous versions
prompted to overwrite the existing file even though long file names
were not equal.
19. Security changes:
a) WinRAR shell does not allow to run *.pif files. Archived PIF
files is one of typical ways for computer viruses to distribute;
b) WinRAR shell does not allow to run files having 5 or more
continuous spaces in the name. For example, "calc.txt .exe".
Viruses frequently add such spaces to confuse users and hide
the real extension. WinRAR shell removes these continuous spaces
except first and last also when displaying names of such files
in the file list.
20. In Windows XP WinRAR highlights the sorted column in the file list
using the different color, like it is done in Windows Explorer.
Version 3.42
1. Fixed a buffer overflow bug in WinRAR GUI "Delete" command,
which could cause a crash when deleting a file in a corrupt
archive.
Version 3.41
1. Bugs corrected in this version:
a) when adding new files to an already existing RAR solid archive,
RAR 3.40 compression ratio was lower than in RAR 3.30;
b) WinRAR "Repair" command could crash when repairing
a corrupt ZIP archive.
2. If archived Unicode name is invalid, RAR 'l' and 'v' commands
display ASCII file name instead of corrupt Unicode.
Version 3.40
1. "Fastest" (-m1) RAR compression method has been modified
to provide much higher compression speed and lower ratio.
It may be useful for tasks requiring the high speed like
regular backups.
You may increase "Fastest" speed even more selecting 64KB
compression dictionary instead of default 4MB.
2. WinRAR is able to decompress archives created by Unix 'compress'
tool (.Z files). Like GZIP and BZIP2 archives, WinRAR opens
tar.Z and .taz files in one step, so users do not need to
unpack .tar manually.
3. WinRAR is able to decompress archives created by 7-Zip
(.7z files). "Find" command is not supported for this
archive type.
4. New "Security" dialog in WinRAR settings:
a) "File types to exclude from extracting" option to prevent
extracting of potentially dangerous files like .exe, .scr
and .pif;
b) "Propose to select virus scanner" option modifies behavior
of "Scan archive for viruses" command. You may turn it off
if you wish to skip the virus scanner selection dialog.
5. New command line switch -ep3 allows to save and restore
full file paths including the drive letter.
WinRAR shell equivalent of -ep3 switch are options
"Store full paths including drive letter" in "Files/File paths"
page of archiving dialog and "Extract absolute paths"
in "Advanced/File paths" page of extracting dialog.
6. You may select and compress disks directly in "My Computer"
view in WinRAR shell. Just choose "My Computer" in WinRAR
address bar, select disks to compress and press "Add".
If you selected more than one item, WinRAR will automatically
set "Store full paths including drive letter" archiving mode.
7. If you have selected several disks in Windows Explorer "My Computer"
view and started archiving from the context menu, WinRAR will
automatically set the "Store full paths including drive letter"
mode when compressing them.
8. New command line switch -oc to restore NTFS "Compressed" attribute
when extracting files. RAR always saves "Compressed" attribute
when creating an archive, but does not restore it unless -oc switch
has been specified.
WinRAR shell equivalent of -oc switch is "Set attribute Compressed"
option in "Advanced" part of extracting dialog.
9. Starting from this version RAR volumes contain the volume number
field.
If the archive was created by WinRAR 3.40 or newer, you may
view the volume number in the top line of "Info" dialog
and in the address bar.
In the command line mode the volume number is displayed
by 'L' and 'V' commands in the line with the total volume
information.
This feature may be useful if original volume names are lost
and you need to rename volumes to correct names.
10. Commands 'L' and 'V' display NTFS "Compressed" attribute
in archive listing.
11. Switch -ag may include an optional text enclosed in '{' and '}'
characters. This text is inserted into the archive name.
For example: -agHH{hours}MM{minutes}
Same feature is supported in the "Generate archive name by mask"
field of WinRAR archiving dialog.
12. If switch -ac is specified, RAR will not reset the "Archive"
attribute of those files, which size or modification time
was changed after starting the archiving operation.
So files modified after placing them to an archive and before
clearing "Archive" attribute, will be included in next incremental
backup. The same is true for WinRAR "Clear attribute "Archive"
after compressing" GUI option.
13. If you use the "Add to favorites" command inside of an archive
subfolder, WinRAR will save the subfolder and restore it
when accessing this favorite item. Previous versions were able to
restore only the root archive folder.
14. When editing archived files, WinRAR proposes to update them
immediately after detecting that file was changed. Previous
versions waited until an external editor terminates before
updating a changed file.
15. If you drop an archive to the WinRAR address bar or toolbar,
WinRAR will display its contents even if an other archive
is opened right now. Previous versions proposed to add a dropped
archive to browsing one.
You may still drop an archive to WinRAR file list if you
need to add it to browsing archive.
16. Corrected processing of corrupt LZH archives to exclude
a possible crash when reading corrupt LZH file headers.
17. RAR and WinRAR display the operation progress while
repairing an archive containing the recovery record.
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