Have you ever encountered any situation where you have to send multiple files through email, and you are sick of sending them one of one? This is exactly where the concept of zip and RAR files comes to the rescue.
They are specially developed for compressing files and storing them under one roof.
Additionally, you might have downloaded or received some large files from the internet that has been compressed as zip files or RAR files, and you naturally want to open them. If it is so, then how to open an RAR file? Or how to open a zip file? Becomes obvious question.
In this article, we will try to answer the question “how to open RAR files ?”. So, let’s get started:
What is the RAR file?
It is a file format, more precisely an archive file format that serves the purpose of data compression, error recovery and file spanning. Files with .rar extension are like data storage containers which store data in the compressed form.
It was developed by a Russian software engineer “Eugene Roshal” and the name RAR stands for Roshal Archive. It was first released in March 1993. It is licensed by the firm named as win.rar GmbH.
One interesting fact about RAR is that the decompression source code is available but it is not available as free software because the RAR compression algorithm must not be reverse engineered.
What is a Zip File?
The zip file is an archive file format made for the purpose of lossless data compression. A file with the extension “.zip” may have one or more than one file in compressed form. The DEFLATE compression algorithm is most common in the zip file format.
The zip file format was developed by P
hil Katz in 1989.
A zip file is archived to store multiple files.
Zip Vs RAR file format.
As compared to zip format, RAR file format provides way more features like more convenient multivolume archives, strong AES 128 encryption and much more.
How to open RAR files?
In order to open a RAR file, all that you need to do is to download WinRAR software from the internet and install it on your system. Once done, just double click on the RAR file and your RAR file will be opened.
How to Open Zip Files in Windows 7?
Unlike other operating systems, Windows 7 doesn’t need any exclusive software for extracting files from a zip file.
It has an inbuilt feature to do that. Additionally, if you have an exclusive software installed in your systems like WinRAR or 7zip, then you should go for it because it certainly has its own perks.
Step #1: Locate the file of which you want to extract the elements.
Step #2: Right click on the file which you want to extract. In the pop-up window, you will see many options regarding the extraction of the file. Let’s check them one by one.
The very first option related to the context seems to be “Extract Files.”
If you click on the “Extract Files” option, then a window will pop up which will look like the following. The window will ask you to enter the destination path where you want the zip file to be extracted. Once you have done the required and then click on the OK button.
This way your file will be extracted to your desired destination path.
The second option is “Extract Here”. Clicking on this option will extract the file in the same directory where the file is. In our case, the file is extracted to the desktop because our source file that is the zip file is in the same directory.
The third option is “Extract to Demo\” where Demo is the zip file name and is being used here for the sake of simplicity and illustration purposes.
Clicking on this link will extract the files to the folder named “Demo” if there is any else it will create a folder named as “Demo” and extract the files there.
Alternatively, if you have any kind of exclusive software installed on your system like WinRAR, then you can always go for it because it gives you a lot more options when you’re trying to learn the details of how to extract RAR files.
How to Extract Zip Files in Mac OSX
Unlike Windows 7, there are not as many options in terms of software’s available for Mac OSX but certainly, there are few with which one can surely extract files from a zip file.
The unarchiver is one of those. You have to install it on your system and once installed all that you have to do is to double click on your zip file in order to extract the files from there.
The unarchiver will then create a folder named exactly as the source zip file with all the extracted content in it.
[BONUS] How to Zip a File?
Now, since you are aware of the processes or steps needed in order to extract the elements from a zip file. We thought you might want to know how to zip a file? also. So, in this section, we will be telling you how to zip a file in Windows 7?
Step #1: Right-click anywhere on the desktop area.
Step #2: After completing step #1, select the option named as “new” and then in the subsequent pop-up window click on the option named as “WinRAR zip archive”. Clicking on this option will create a folder with the “.zip” extension.
Rename the extension whatever you want it to be.
Remember, for this to happen that is for creating a zip file you will have to install specialized software as “winRAR”, “7zip” or any other such kind of software.
Step #3: Now you have a zip folder, but it is empty. If you want to put some files into it then all that you have to do is to drag and drop the files into the folder and your zip folder is ready with your files within.
Does this mark the end of this article on how to open RAR files? .If you find it worthy, then do not forget to share it on your social media platforms as they might be wondering how to unzip files as well!
What software or tool do you use to extract files? Has how to extract files ever been something that you’ve lost sleep over? Do let us know through comments. We would love to hear from you.
Thank you for passing by and giving it a read.