As such, it’s still important to know how to handle RAR files. WinRAR for Mac OS X as well as the Linux version. WinRAR creators made sure the users of all the popular modern operating systems have their own version of the file archiver. The 7-Zip format is one popular option, but it’s far from the standard. Free Download (593.86 KB) Latest version: 6.21 File format: GZ.

That said, we’ve come a long way since the days of ZIP and RAR, and we now have better ways to compress, encrypt, and transfer files. The RAR format was created to address some flaws in the ZIP format and comes with several benefits: smaller file sizes, the ability to split a RAR into multiple chunks, and error recovery. RAR stands for Roshal ARchive, named after Eugene Roshal, the Russian software engineer who created the format. That way, you only have to put one file up for download (or attach one file to an email), and receivers only need to download one file, instead of many separate ones. WinRAR is a Windows data compression tool that focuses on the RAR and ZIP data compression formats for all Windows users.

Both are 'archive' file formats meant for compressing many individual files into one single file. If you already know this, or if you just don’t care, feel free to skip down to the next section for the actual instructions.Ī RAR file is similar to a ZIP file.

Win rar for mac