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I just realized something. I recently purchased the WinRAR v.5.60 archive software:

enter image description here

But when I right-click some file that I want to RAR and then click Add to archive, the popup window offers me only the RAR4 format:

enter image description here

Why so?

c00000fd
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    Isn't "RAR", the default selection, the current RAR version, the RAR4 option being for the old format? –  Oct 26 '18 at 03:36
  • @GabrielaGarcia: Hmmm. Idk. The previous version had `RAR`, `RAR5` and `ZIP` selection there. – c00000fd Oct 26 '18 at 03:38
  • https://superuser.com/questions/770370/what-is-the-difference-between-rar-and-rar5-compression –  Oct 26 '18 at 03:42
  • @GabrielaGarcia: OK, so you just proved my point. Then why is it showing `RAR4` instead of `RAR5`? – c00000fd Oct 26 '18 at 03:43
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    No, I didn't. I'm assuming "RAR" means RAR5 because it's what makes sense as the new default. Something similar to what happened with Microsoft Office some time ago: The new default is .docx but users can still save in the old . doc format. The previous version probably hadn't RAR5 as the default yet but as an option. But you can check whether my assumption is correct or not: https://www.ghacks.net/2013/12/03/identify-open-rar5-archives/ –  Oct 26 '18 at 03:49
  • @GabrielaGarcia: Oh, OK. Thanks for that ghacks link. I just tried it and yes, I can confirm, now `RAR` in that first screenshot I showed stands for `RAR5`. (Although, note that your first link to another post was saying a different thing -- that `RAR` stands for v.2.9., which it used to do before this latest version, I guess. Which is somewhat confusing, who uses it a lot.) – c00000fd Oct 26 '18 at 03:54

1 Answers1

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After verifying the file properties using the method described here https://www.ghacks.net/2013/12/03/identify-open-rar5-archives/ we could conclude that:

  • The "RAR" option shown in the screenshot and selected by default is indeed the same as the "RAR5" option of previous versions.
  • The option explicitly mentioning "RAR4" refers to the old format that now is an option but not the default.
Kamil Maciorowski
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