WinRAR

WinRAR is an application that allows for compression and decompression of all formats of data – music, images, movies, or executable files. The archives created by this program, apart from the standard functions, offer some additional options. For example, with this software we are allowed to split an archive file, which makes it easier to upload bigger archives on the FTP servers that have limited transfer, or to send them part by part as e-mail attachments in the case of slow Internet connection or limited space of mail boxes. The archives created with WinRAR can be reconstructed if some errors were to occur, which allows us to restore even heavily damaged files. Additionally, each archive can be secured with a password, the knowledge of which is necessary if we want to unpack the archive.

If we choose an appropriately complex password, WinRAR will secure the file with the use of AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) technology, which is based on the 128-bit encrypting key, which guarantees that the password cannot be broken by most of decrypting applications. The possibilities of this application, when it comes to the upper size limit of files that can be handled by this program, are tremendous. It is estimated that the upper limit oscillates somewhere around 8.5 billion gigabytes. It is strictly connected with the possibility of adding to one archive practically unlimited numbers of files. WinRAR can handle such extensions as CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, ACE, UUE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, 7Z, or Z. Additionally, it allows for creating self-extracting archives, which can be unpacked n itself, without the need to use this program, so there has to be no such application on the computer that we are sending the self-extracting archive to. We can also create multi-part files.

The compression algorithm is very efficient and brings marvelous results compared to some other technologies. WinRAR offers also a dual mode of the interface – the command line and the graphic mode. The less experienced users will be happy with the built-in creator, which allows for quick and easy unpacking and creating of new archives. During compression, WinRAR uses quite considerable amounts of the system resources; however, it is very flexible and can easily adjust itself to the hardware capabilities of the individual computer, which makes it possible to run this application also on older and not so powerful computers.