Take you always downloaded a file merely to detect it has a foreign .rar file extension? RAR is a compressed file format—much like a Aught file—and in this article, we'll show you lot how to open RAR files on Windows or macOS X.

Open up a RAR File in Windows

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In that location are a variety of applications on Windows that can open up RAR files. The default pick is WinRAR, made by the developers of the RAR file format, but it's not a free app. If you want to create RAR files, WinRAR is your best bet. However, if you merely need to extract a RAR file, the costless and open up source 7-Nothing app is a better choice.

After you lot've downloaded and installed vii-Zip from their web site, yous're good to go. Yous can double-click whatever RAR file to open up it in 7-ZIP and view or excerpt the files.

If y'all know yous want to extract the files, you can do it without fifty-fifty opening 7-Zip. Right-click any RAR file, point to the "7-Nil" carte du jour, and then select i of the "Extract" options, depending on where y'all want to extract the files. Annotation that if you've got a multi-function set of .RAR files, you lot'll want to extract the first file in the prepare—vii-Zip will handle the other files in the prepare automatically.

There are other Windows apps that support extracting RAR files, but we recommend 7-Zip because information technology's open source, free, and reliable.

Open a RAR File in macOS

There are not as many choices for opening RAR files on macOSX equally on the more than popular Windows platform. At that place are still a few, nonetheless. We recommend the free app "The Unarchiver," which has swell support for multi-role archive files. After installation, you can launch The Unarchiver to associate file types with the app.

Afterwards associating file types, you can extract a RAR archive by simply double-clicking the file. The Unarchiver create a folder with the same proper noun as the archive, and and so extracts its contents to the new folder. Note that if you're working with a multi-part RAR annal, you lot'll need to open the first file in the set. The Unarchiver will handle the additional files in the set up automatically.

If you use prefer to deal with your athenaeum with a unlike tool, delight let us know virtually it in the comments.