Compress Files With WinRAR

• File Compression
• WinRAR

26 Jan

This guide shows users how to compress files with Winrar in a few quick steps. There's one little thing you musreally need to know that they don't tell you anywhere else

This is a guest post from the publisher, WinRAR.

There are many reasons to compress computer files to a smaller size, whether it is to fit files onto a small USB drive, to adhere to limits on the size of e-mail attachments, to save space on a hard drive, or to provide faster downloads of a file, or a collection of files, from a Web site.

With the popular WinRAR compression software, there are three ways to easily create a compressed, or archive, file from within Windows. This article serves as a guide to how to compress files with winrar.

File Compression Option 1

Use the WinRAR user interface to access the complete application and all its advanced features. Start the WinRAR program, either from a Desktop icon, or from the menu path Start -> All Programs -> WinRAR -> WinRAR. In the WinRAR application, click on the "View" button to display your computer's files. Select one or more directories or files, then click on the "Add" button, which brings up a dialog box. The name of the archive file to be created is defaulted in the "Archive Name" field; if the archive name already exists, you will simply be adding files to the existing archive. Choose the archive format and the compression format. You can also choose to enable the "SFX archive" option, which creates an executable archive file, meaning that the receiver does not need to have WinRAR installed to extract Win RAR files. Additional advanced options are available on other tabs in the dialog box, such as archive timestamps. Click "OK" to create the archive file.

File Compression Option 2

Use the WinRAR wizard, which walks you through several steps to create the archive file. After starting the WinRAR program, click on the "Wizard" button. To create a new archive file, select the "Create a new archive" option. Select the directories or files you want to compress. Next, accept the default, or enter a name for the archive file. Make sure you click on the "Browse" button to select the location in which you want to store the archive, otherwise, the location defaults to the Windows "Documents and Settings" directory. Finally, several more commonly used options are presented, so you can choose, for example, to set a password for the file, or to create a self-executable file.

File Compression Option 3

Access WinRAR directly from the Windows Explorer, eliminating the need to start the WinRAR program separately. From within the Explorer, select the files or directories that you want to compress. Next, use the right-click on your mouse, to see four WinRAR menu items. The options "Add to archive" and "Compress and email" bring up the same dialog box accessed in option 1, to allow you to set compression options. The options "Add to . . ." and "Compress . . .and email" default the name of the compressed file, and use WinRAR program defaults for a one-step compression.

In each option, you can select more than one file for compression in one archive file by using the Shift and Control keys. It is not possible to select files in different directories. If this is required, create the compressed file with your initial selection of files located in one directory, then choose additional files in other directories and add them to the previously archived file. With these three methods, compressing a file can be as simple as a right mouse-click, or more complex if specific compression options are required.

These options make WinRAR an excellent solution for both novice and advanced users.

Related Topics

• Extract files with winrar
• Winrar file backup

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