RAR 3.80 / 3.90 Beta 4

Major Features:

1. RAR introduces an original compression algorithm. It allows higher compression ratios than other PC archiving tools, especially on executable files, object libraries, large text files, etc.
2. RAR offers an optional compression algorithm highly optimized for multimedia data.
3. RAR provides functionality for creating a solid archive, which can raise the compression ratio by 10% 50% over more common methods, particularly when packing large numbers of small files.
4. RAR offers the ability to create and change SFX archives using default and external SFX modules.
5. RAR offers the ability to create a multi-volume archive as SFX.
6. RAR offers a number of service functions, such as setting a password, adding archive and file comments. Even physically damaged archives may be repaired and an archive may be locked to prevent further changes. Authenticity information may be added for additional security and RAR will store information on the last update and name of the archive.

Enhancements:

• WinRAR version for Windows x64 is available. If you use Windows x64, it is strongly recommended to install 64 bit WinRAR version. It provides a higher performance and better shell integration than 32 bit version.
• RAR compression speed is improved for multi-core and multi-CPU systems. This improvement is most noticeable in Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.
• "Remove duplicate folders from extraction path" option in "Settings/Compression" dialog is replaced by more universal "Remove redundant folders from extraction path" option. This option will eliminate redundant archive name based folders from extraction path if you unpack an archive with "Extract to DestName" context menu command and if archive root folder contains only one folder and no files.
• Changes in "Extraction path and options" dialog:
• • "New folder" button creates a new subfolder in currently selected folder;
  • F2 key renames a selected folder in the folders tree;
  • F5 key updated the tree pane contents;
  • Del key removes a selected folder in the folders tree.
  • You can enable "Show seconds" option in "Settings/File list" dialog if you wish to see seconds in file dates in file list in WinRAR shell.
  • "Where to check for SFX archives" options group in "Settings/Integration/Context menus items" dialog lets you to control processing of SFX archives in context menus. For example, if you frequently right click ".exe" files on slow network disks, you can turn off "Network disks" options to minimize the delay before displaying the context menu.
  • If you sort files by name in the file list in WinRAR shell, WinRAR will use the new logical file name sorting, same as in Windows Explorer, considering digits in file names by their numerical value. So files will be sorted as 1.txt, 2.txt, 10.txt instead of previous 1.txt, 10.txt, 2.txt. This new sort behavior is available in Windows XP Service Pack 2 and newer.
  • Ctrl+W key combination can be used to close the main WinRAR window also as WinRAR viewer windows. "View as Windows text" shortcut in WinRAR viewer changed from Ctrl+W to Ctrl+I.
  • New command line switch -rdisables recursion completely. So rar a -rarc dirname command will add only the empty dirname folder and ignore its contents. By default, if dirname does not include wildcards, RAR adds its contents even if -r switch is not specified.
  • If used when extracting, the new command line switch -ai forces RAR to ignore file attributes. When using this switch, extracted files will always have attributes assigned by operating system to a newly created file by default.
  • If output file name is not specified in "cw" command, console RAR will send comment data to stdout.
  • When compressing stdin data with -si[name] switch, RAR sets modification time of archived entry to current system time. Previous RAR versions did not fill this field, resulting in meaningless modification time for stdin.
  • Message displayed when you place the mouse cursor on WinRAR tray icon includes the archive name now. Previously only time left and total percent were displayed for archiving operations.
• Bugs fixed:
• • WinRAR could fail to open tar or tar.gz archive if such archive contained a file larger than 8 GB;
  • WinRAR context menu did not work properly in Windows 7 beta if icons in context menus were enabled and user clicked a file inside of Windows 7 Library folder;
  • previous WinRAR versions failed to rename files having 5 or more continuous spaces in the name. WinRAR shell does not display such spaces for safety reasons, because they can hide an actual file extension. But this security measure prevented the rename command to work properly.