WinRAR Updates

[harlan4096]

WinRAR 7.00 (Stable Version)​

Version 7.00

1. Compression dictionary sizes larger than 1 GB are supported
for RAR archive format. Depending on the amount of physically
available memory, dictionary up to 64 GB can be selected.

Not power of 2 dictionary sizes can be specified for dictionaries
exceeding 4 GB. So we are not limited to 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 series
and can use values like 5 GB or 22 GB.

Archives with dictionaries exceeding 4 GB can be unpacked only
by WinRAR 7.0 or newer. 64-bit WinRAR version is needed to unpack
archives with dictionaries exceeding 1 GB.

Increasing the dictionary size can improve the compression ratio
for large files with distant repeated blocks, like virtual machine
disk images. It also can be efficient for sets of large similar files
in a solid archive, such as a collection of software ISO images
differing by version or localization.

2. WinRAR issues a prompt allowing to cancel or continue if dictionary
size in extracted RAR archive exceeds "Maximum dictionary size
allowed to extract" parameter in "Settings/Compression".
It is done to prevent the unexpected excessive memory allocation.

In the command line mode by default WinRAR refuses to unpack archives
with dictionary exceeding 4 GB. Use -md or -mdx to allow
unpacking dictionaries up to and including the specified size.
Unlike -md, -mdx is applied to extraction only and can be
added to RAR environment variable, not affecting archiving commands.

3. "Define dictionary sizes" dialog in "Settings/Compression" can be used
to customize dictionary sizes proposed in the drop down list associated
with "Dictionary size" field in "Archive name and parameters" dialog.

4. Alternate search algorithm, optimized to locate longer and more distant
repeated data blocks, can be used when creating RAR archives.
It helps to improve the compression ratio and sometimes speed
for redundant data like big text files.

It increases memory usage and might reduce the compression speed
for some types of data. It can be turned on or off with
"Long range search" options in "Advanced compression parameters" dialog
or with -mcl[+|-] switch. If "Auto" option is selected, WinRAR applies
the long range search depending on the compression method, dictionary
size and other parameters.

This algorithm is required for dictionaries exceeding 4 GB
and turning it off is ignored for such dictionaries.

5. Much slower and more exhaustive repeated data search and compression
algorithm can be enabled with "Exhaustive search" option
in "Advanced compression parameters" dialog or with -mcx switch.
It might provide the additional compression gain for some types of
redundant data, but at much lower compression speed.

Long range search is needed to implement this mode efficiently,
so the exhaustive search option activates it automatically.

Both long range and exhaustive search option do not affect
the compatibility of created archives. So if dictionary size
is in 128 KB - 4 GB range, archives created with these search options
can be unpacked by all WinRAR versions beginning from 5.0.

6. Maximum path length limit is increased from 2047 to 65535 characters.

7. Creating archives in RAR 4.x format isn't supported anymore.
Options and switches specific for this format are removed.
It doesn't affect RAR 4.x archives decompression, which is included
into WinRAR.

8. "Propagate Mark of the Web" option in "Settings/Security" dialog
controls assigning the archive Mark of the Web to extracted files.
It is possible to prohibit propagating, allow it for several
predefined file groups, for all files or for files matching user
defined file masks.

Mark of the Web is the security zone information added by Internet
browsers to downloaded files. It can be used by various software
for security purposes.

It is supported only by GUI WinRAR. Console RAR doesn't propagate
Mark of the Web regardless of this option.

9. "Attributes" column can be enabled in "Settings/File list/Columns".
It displays file attribute abbreviations, such as 'A' for "Archive"
and 'D' for directory.

If file attribute isn't among those recognized by WinRAR,
the numeric value of file attributes is also displayed.
This value uses hexadecimal format for Windows attributes
or octal format for Unix attributes.

10. "Benchmark" command allows to specify the exact number of threads
and copy results to clipboard. Information about WinRAR and Windows
versions, CPU and memory is added to benchmark window.

11. "Remove redundant folders from extraction path" option
in "Settings/Paths" is now applicable also to extraction commands
invoked from WinRAR user interface and to multiple archives
unpacked to separate folders. It removes a destination path
component, only if its name matches both the archive name and root
archived folder name, provided that there are no other folders
or files in archive root.

For example, it will remove one of "Pictures" in the destination path
if we unpack Pictures.rar containing the root "Pictures" folder
to "Pictures\" destination.

Previously it worked only for a single archive extracted from
context menu and didn't check if archived folder name matches
the last destination path component.

12. "Word wrap in comment" option in "Interface" options group
in "Settings/General" toggles the word wrap mode in archive comment
window.

13. Dictionary size data in archive information dialog is now available
for .bz2, .lz, .tar.bz2, .tar.gz, .tar.lz, .tar.zst archives.

14. Switch -ol- prohibits archiving and extracting symbolic links.

15. Switches -sl and -sm recognize [k|K|m|M|g|G|t|T]
size units for kilobytes, thousands of bytes, megabytes, millions
of bytes, gigabytes, billions of bytes, terabytes, trillions of bytes.
If unit character is 'b', 'B' or not present, bytes are assumed.

Previously these switches accepted bytes only.

16. SFX TempMode command accepts the optional @set:user parameter
allowing to modify temporary folder permissions, so only the current
user can access it. It prohibits a local user to replace files
in a temporary folder if SFX is started under another account.

It also can be enabled with "Restrict folder access" option
in "Advanced SFX options/Modes" dialog.

Some installers might fail to start in a folder created with
@set:user parameter.

17. File permissions and NTFS alternate streams are not saved for
hard link entries. They are saved only for the source file these
entries refer to. It allows to reduce the archive size, because
such file properties are automatically propagated to hard links
copies when extracting.

18. Keyboard shortcuts, such as Ctrl+A to select all files or Alt+E to
unpack found archives, are now functional in "Search results" window
also while search is still in progress. Previously they were available
only after completing search.

19. Switch -v[unit] recognizes 't' and 'T' as terabytes and
trillions of bytes for volume size units.

20. Warning is issued if leading '-' character is missing in a parameter
specified in "Additional switches" field of WinRAR archiving
and extraction dialogs. Also it is issued for parameters lacking '-'
in RAR environment variable and rar.ini file.

Previously such malformed parameters were ignored silently.

21. "Convert archives" command displays the smooth total operation progress.
Previously the total progress was updated abruptly after converting
an archive and was visible only when processing multiple archives.

22. Proper progress is displayed when compressing symbolic link targets.

23. "Integrate WinRAR into shell" option in WinRAR "Settings/Integration"
is grayed out if "Global\Integration=0" is present in winrar.ini file.

24. 64-bit WinRAR version uses 64-bit SFX modules by default.
64-bit SFX modules are needed to unpack archives with dictionaries
exceeding 1 GB.

32-bit modules are renamed to Default32.SFX, Zip32.SFX, WinCon32.SFX.

25. Maximum allowed dictionary size for archiving and extraction
can be specified in gigabytes in MaxDictA and MaxDictE variables
in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinRAR\Policy" Registry key.
If these variables are smaller than corresponding values defined
in WinRAR interface, they override interface values.

26. Console RAR filters out character 27 from screen output. It is done
for security reasons, because this character can be used to declare
ANSI escape control sequences in some terminal applications.

We are thankful to Siddharth Dushantha for bringing this issue
to our attention.

27. Bugs fixed:

a) it was possible to overwrite Mark of the Web, propagated from
archive to extracted files, and modify its security zone information
utilizing a specially crafted .rar archive.

We are thankful to Orange Tsai and NiNi from DEVCORE Research Team
working with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative for letting us know
about this security issue.

Unlike WinRAR, unrar.dll library doesn't propagate the archive
Mark of the Web and leaves it to a caller application to assign it
to extracted files. So unrar.dll isn't affected by this issue;

b) "User defined archive extensions" field in "Settings/Integration"
was not saved if winrar.ini was used to store settings
and WinRAR was started under non-administrator user account.

Source: WinRAR archiver, a powerful tool to process RAR and ZIP files
Download: WinRAR and RAR archiver downloads