How to Open RAR Documents in Windows

When downloading files from the Internet, you may encounter a document with the "RAR" extension. RAR documents are compressed archives, and RAR is a compression algorithm used to reduce the size of a file so it can be downloaded more quickly. To open the file in a RAR archive, you must use a utility to decompress the archive and reclaim the original file. WinRAR is the Windows version of the RAR compression utility, and it is a shareware program that you can download for free.

Difficulty: Moderately EasyInstructions1

Browse to the WinRAR official website using the Resource link. Click the "Downloads" link on the left side of the page.

2

Click the "WinRAR x86" link at the top of the window if you use a 32-bit version of Windows, or the "WinRAR x64" link if you use a 64-bit version of Windows. Save the downloaded file to the desktop.

3

Double-click the WinRAR installation file when the download is complete. For example, if you downloaded the 32-bit version of the program, the file name might be "wrar393.exe" depending on the version of the program.

4

Click the "Install" button. Click "OK" when the WinRAR installation process is complete, and then click "Done" to return to the desktop.

5

Right-click the RAR document that you wish to extract, and select "Extract Here" to extract the files in the archive to the current folder.

References LiUtilities.com: How to Use WinRAR ResourcesRARLab: WinRAR Official Website