Doesn't it just suck when you download software or some other package from the web only to find that Windows doesn't recognize the file format? RAR is a file format used to store compressed files. Files such as software installs are sometimes saved in .rar format for archiving and downloading from the Internet. The contents of a .rar file need to be uncompressed, or extracted before they can be used.
Windows has the ability to uncompress and extract .zip files, but does not have the capability to work with .rar files. Free Open Source solution to the rescue! 7-zip is one of my most beloved, but unsung pieces of geekery.
Watch the video or follow the instructions below:
Download and install 7zip. There are commercial applications such as Winzip that will extract and uncompress rar files, but 7-zip can open many compressed file formats such as .rar, .tar, .zip, and others. It can also be used to create compressed files in a variety of formats.
After installing 7-zip, browse to the location of you .rar file. Right-click on the file and select 7-zip from the dropdown list, and then click "Extract files..."
Choose a file location to extract the .rar file and click "OK."
7-zip will proceed to extract the contents into a folder with the same name as the file you are extracting.
Your .rar file is now uncompressed and ready to be used. That's the quick and dirty way. Go ahead and play with some options, you may find other great uses and processes for 7zip.
Resources
Download 7zip here.
7zip can extract (or unpack) the following file types: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS,RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z.
It can compress & extract (pack & unpack) these file types: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR.
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