Denise Report post Posted January 7, 2009 We have just been e-mailed a file with the .rar extension. My computer won't open it and tells me to "create an association in the Folders Options control panel". What type of file is this and how do I, or can I, create that association? Do I need another program to do this? Please use small words and short sentances in the answer as computese is anything but my native tongue. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CodeJockey Report post Posted January 7, 2009 You can download a program called WinRar that will open that file. It's an archive file similar to a .zip file. Download here. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tashabear Report post Posted January 7, 2009 We have just been e-mailed a file with the .rar extension. My computer won't open it and tells me to "create an association in the Folders Options control panel". What type of file is this and how do I, or can I, create that association? Do I need another program to do this? Please use small words and short sentances in the answer as computese is anything but my native tongue. It's a really annoying method of compressing files, similar to a .zip file. It's proprietary, though, so you need a program called WinRAR to open it. You can get it as a 40-day free trial here, or you can write back to whomever emailed you the file and see if they can resend it using winzip, which you can open by doubleclicking on it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Report post Posted January 7, 2009 We have just been e-mailed a file with the .rar extension. My computer won't open it and tells me to "create an association in the Folders Options control panel". What type of file is this and how do I, or can I, create that association? Do I need another program to do this? Please use small words and short sentances in the answer as computese is anything but my native tongue. Denise, that is a compression file, (like zip), windows doesn't have a program within it to deal with that one. Search the internet for a free program that can unbundle the files within it. I think Mac users use that compression program. Here's a link where you can get the program to unload it. http://www.pctools.com/partners/software/?...CFQ6jagodwTRJtg Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Johanna Report post Posted January 7, 2009 If you're ready to bite the mouse in half, send it to me and I'll shoot it back to you in a regualar zip file, if it even needs to be in one. Was that sentence too long? Johanna Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Denise Report post Posted January 7, 2009 Thank you all for your suggestions. E-mail coming, Johanna. That is probalby the easiest way for me to handle it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Johanna Report post Posted January 8, 2009 Yep. I know you have the tech skills to download the right software, install it and associate it with the correct file types, but on your dial up account the download would take several hours. My email back might take a few minutes to download, too. Glad it's not my job to interperet the contents. I'm still having nightmares over that ridiculously long muscle that I can't pronounce over top of all those bones. ~J Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Denise Report post Posted January 8, 2009 Thanks for the help, Johanna. And to the others too. Maybe high speed is somewhere in the future, but it's still over the horizon out here... (Long... you got the first syllable right...) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gtwister09 Report post Posted January 8, 2009 Rar files are another form of compressed archive file but they are extremely effective at multipart archives. They have been used for a VERY long time to transfer rather large files in parts (you would see extension names like r01, r02 and so on). In fact they were one of the first to allow this feature. WinZip didn't support this archival method for quite some time. WinRar was also one of the first to support all the archive formats including UNIX flavors. WinZip once again followed suite after it was a WinRar standard. Likewise the spanning feature followed as well. These are great when you have a specific size limit then you could break them into parts and put them back together. For example lets say that you have a 1 GB file and you want to send it but you are limited to 100 MB size limit. Rar would allow you to break that into 10 parts that you could now send. Early on WinZip files could not handle anything but a single zip file. In response to this feature WinZip added a split feature. RAR also allows more native support for more formats now. You have to have external programs now for ARJ, ARC and LHA because they no longer support them. WinRar supports all of these formats. Another program that is freeware that supports these formats is 7Zip. Another great feature of WinRar is the addition of a buit-in repair feature within the archive file for when corruption may occur. You can set the percentage of repair information within each archive. A very handy feature. As far as double-clicking to access any program in Windows that is generally as simple as installation of a package such as WinZip, 7Zip, WinRar or any other. You can also do an association (if you have the correct program) in Windows Explorer as well. Windows does have some limited form of zip format built into the operating systems so you can open a zip file without WinZip being installed. If you wanted just one archival program that would support more formats then WinRar and 7Zip are better choices than WinZip. When you have to support any and all formats it certainly makes it easier to have a program that supports more formats. Regards, Ben Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leatheroo Report post Posted January 9, 2009 This is the best FREE program i have found for uncompression nearly every type of file that is available..here is the link http://www.izarc.org/ and their info IZArc is the ultimate freeware archive utility supporting many archive formats like: 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BIN, BZ2, BZA, C2D, CAB, CDI, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA, HA, IMG, ISO, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MDF, MBF, MIM, NRG, PAK, PDI, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO. With a modern easy-to-use interface, IZArc provides support for most compressed and encoded files, as well as access to many powerful features and tools. It allows you to drag and drop files from and to Windows Explorer, create and extract archives directly in Windows Explorer, create multiple archives spanning disks, creating self-extracting archives, repair damaged zip archives, converting from one archive type to another, view and write comments and many more. IZArc has also build-in multilanguage support. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dickf Report post Posted January 14, 2009 (edited) As someone who deals with many large compressed filetypes, I can attest that 7zip is probably the most powerful and lightweight of all. Plus, it's totally open source (free). http://www.7-zip.org/ It can unpack: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z. And can pack up: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR (<= the latter is greatly useful if you run a Linux box) Edited January 14, 2009 by dickf Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
