I downloaded Microsoft's massive 24GB free Windows 11 virtual machine and packed its files into three previously unsupported formats: RAR, 7Z (50% compression rate), and TAR. To answer the question, I decided to test the updated File Explorer versus WinRAR, arguably the most popular app of its kind ( which is honored by the change), and NanaZIP, a great fork of 7Zip for Windows 11. Still, the change raises a question: Can the updated File Explorer replace WinRAR, 7Zip, NanaZIP, and other dedicated apps for those frequently working with archives? Even though there is no shortage of free and premium file compression apps, native support is always better for the average consumer-you do not need to look for a program to extract a single randomly downloaded archive.
Therefore, users had to opt for third-party apps to work with RAR, 7Z, etc. Although there are concerns about performance and bugs, in this article, I want to focus on the positive side and look closely at one of the best new features the redesigned File Explorer will introduce: native RAR, TAR, 7Z, and other file compression format support.īefore Windows 11 version 23H2, ZIP was the only natively supported archive format. Version 23H2 is expected to introduce many quality-of-life improvements and new capabilities, including a File Explorer redesign. rar, but are not able to create them).Microsoft plans to release a big feature update for Windows 11 later this year.
The RAR algorithm is a little bit more efficient, but it is "patented" so that you can't use it for free (the de-archiving algo is instead freely usable and known, so that you can find free software that can "read". it's easier to put it into a single archive rather than distribute single files (actually, many installer ".exe" contains indeed archives in microsoft format, often CAB or similar, which are automatically "expanded" by the installer procedure) let us suppose you want to distribute this "program".
program.exe, then readme.txt, manual.pdf and alibrary.dll. Several things are made of several separate files which are conceptually part of the same thing. When you put several files into a single file, you earn room, since filesystems in general use more room than they say you for a single file (so, if for each file the filesystem takes 512 bytes plus the real size of the "content", 100 files take 512000 bytes more than you believe if you put them altogether, the single file takes only 512 bytes, plus the sum of all the size of the "contents" of the "scattered" files) You can also use them to keep several files together, even without compressing them, or only slightly compressing them. You can use them also to compress single (big) files the algo used make them not suitable for some kind of data (like images and sounds). able to "collect" several file (organized in folders, as usual, if you want) into a single file which is then compressed to be smaller.
They are compression / archiver software, i.e.