Today in this post I am going to guide you on “how to open RAR files on different operating systems”. Before starting I would like to brief you on RAR and its features. RAR is the most common compression archive format. Many times when you download files from internet then you may find, them compressed into rar packages. RAR format is so popular because its compression ratio and stability are better than its opponent ZIP format. Although RAR is such a common format but most of the operating systems don’t have any inbuilt tool to read these files.
What are RAR Files ?
RAR files are the files that have an extension “.rar”. RAR is a compression archive format invented by a Russian programmer Eugene Roshal (hence the name, Roshal Archive.) RAR format is so popular because its compression ratio and reliability is higher than its competitor zip format.
RAR format uses the advanced compression algorithm that can create very small sized archives typically 8 to 30 per cent smaller than Zip archives. RAR files are decompressed exactly equal to their original sizes. This means they don’t cause any data loss and its called “Lossless Compression” which is another feature of RAR format.
How to open RAR files on Windows:
If you are on Windows OS be it Windows XP, windows Vista or Windows 7 then there is a wide variety of thirds party softwares that support RAR decompression. But as many people would agree with me that the best things in the world come for free so here I will be suggesting a free tool that can help you to open a RAR file.
- 7 zip: This a very light tool and it supports RAR decompression. Apart from RAR format it supports other formats like ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR and Z. You can download the tool from here .
- Pea Zip: This a free and open source tool that can help you to unpack rar files. Apart from RAR format it supports ACE, ARJ, CAB, DMG, ISO, LHA, RAR, UDF and ZIPX. You can download this tool from here .
- RAR File Open Knife: RAR File Open Knife is a fast and easy-to-use tool that opens RAR files. The tool is specifically designed to open rar files. You can open RAR files by drag ‘n’ drop mechanism or shell integrated context menu. You can download it here .
Open RAR Files on MAC:
If you are using Mac then you can use the below mentioned tools to open RAR files.
- UnRarX: UnRarX is a Mac OS X Cocoa application that allows you to extract rar archives. It also supports the functionality to restore corrupted or missing archives files. You can download this tool here .
- RAR Expander: RAR Expander is another tool that you can use to decompress rar files on mac. This tool supports both single and multi part archive extraction. Actually it internally uses an official WINRAR library that makes it fully compatible with all the winrar formats. You can download it here .
- StuffIt Expander: StuffIt Expander is a free mac software that helps you to unpack rar files. This tool can open files created with other compression utilities like WinZip, 7zX, iShrink, SimplyRAR, Rarify, BetterZip, RarMachine, GUI Tar, CleanArchiver, Springy, TarPit, RAR. You can download it here .
How To open RAR Files on Linux or Unix:
The command that you can use to unpack rar files on Linux or Unix is called “unrar” but unrar command is not installed on Linux or Unix so you need to install unrar command with the help of apt-get or yum command.
- HOW to install Unrar command on Linux or Unix
- If you have Debian or Ubuntu on your system then you can use the apt-get command as follows to install unrar program:
# apt-get install unrar
- If you are using Fedora then you can use yum command as specified below to install unrar command:
# yum install unrar
- If you are running FreeBSD then you can do as follows:
# pkg_add -v -r unrar
- If the above commands didn’t work for you then download a binary pakage from official winrar site: http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://www.rarlab.com/rar/rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz
Now you need to untar the file
$ tar -zxvf rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz
Now copy the rar and unrar commands extracted in the above step to /bin directory with this command:
# cp rar unrar /bin
- How to Run Unrar command on Linux and Unix:
- To extract rar file into the current directory, enter this command:
$ unrar e somefilename.rar
Where “somefilename.rar” is the name of the rar file to be extracted.
Opening RAR Files on Android:
As we all know that Android by default does not support compressed files formats like rar files so in order to open rar files on your android device you can use third party file managers mentioned below:
AndroZip File Manager: AndroZip File Manager is a free tool that has capabilities of both creating and unpacking compressed files like rar files. So to extract rar files on your device simply browse the rar file location and select the option that says extract the file and your file will be extracted. You can download this tool from android market for free.
How to open RAR Files on iPhone:
If you want to open RAR files on your iPhone then you can use the below mentioned applications.
iUnarchive : iUnarchive is a cloud based file archive manager. Apart from the zip format it also suppots zip, rar, 7-zip, tar, gzip, bz2/BZip2, LhA and StuffIt.
USB Disk : USB Disk is a free application that allows you to open rar files on your iPhone or iPod. It has a wonderful integral document viewer and is very user-friendly, with a straightforward and intuitive interface, yet it contains many powerful features. You can download from here .
How to open RAR Files online:
If you don’t want to install any software to read or open your rar files then you can use some online tools to open rar archives.
Wobzip : This site is the one stop shop for opening rar files online. All you have to do is simply browse the RAR file, enter the file password if there is any and then click the uncompress button, when you click the uncompress button it will start uploading the files after upload is complete it will show you a list of all files present in the archive and you can also download the files as shown below.
So this was all about how to open RAR files.
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Article by Ankit
Ankit is the founder of Geek Revealed. He is tech Geek who loves to sit in front of his square headed girlfriend all day long. :D You can find Ankit on FaceBook or Google Plus
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