WinRAR - Latest free software download

Compression/Decompression/Archive .ZIP and .RAR files 

Have you seen a file with the extension .rar, .zip, .7zip, .gzip and wondered what it was? Have you ever wondered what compressing or decompressing computer files actually does? Well here's a little explanation. Compression of computer files is no secret and it's been around for many years. It's a way to gather many files together, convert them all into the one single file and squeeze out any unnecessary space. Depending on what file type you're trying to compress, your overall file size can reduce dramatically. When you require files contained within a single compressed file, you simply use a program such as WinRAR to extract all files. The extracted files remain unharmed and ready to use as normal.

File archivers and compressors were orginally designed to overcome storage space limitations, but with technology signficantly advancing in larger storage capacity PC’s as well as hard drive space becoming cheaper, compression software has had to diversify somewhat. Such software is now commonly used purely for archiving reasons, however the compression and decompresson functions are definitely still very convenient if your PC storage is limited or even sending reduced sized emails. What’s more, it’s often simpler to operate with a lone archived entity rather than with hundreds or even thousands of individual files. This can also help with data recovery should you run into problems with your PC.

So why would you want to compress files? File compression has many uses. Sending emails with large attachments can result in the sender or the receiver not being able to download or even read the email. Often, email servers have a file size limit too. Using a file compressing program such as WinRAR can help this problem. A series of files equating to 10Mb, could even be reduced to as little as 4Mb, depending on the file format.

Faster computers can also result from using programs such as WinRAR. There's many factors that contribute to the speed of your PC. One of the little known facts is that the storage capacity of your computer also has an impact on how fast it processes. In other words, the more space you have, the better. Compressing large quantities of unused files is a great way to save space and store your files. What's more, you can also compress large quantities of non-frequently used files and store them on an external hard drive or DVD for later use.

Posted in SOFTWARES