End of an Era: Microsoft's Integration Spells Trouble for WinRAR
Via TechCrunch
The Story
Microsoft announced in May 2023 that Windows 11 will natively open RAR files along with tar, gz, and 7z archives by integrating the open source libarchive project, ending a 28 year wait since the RAR format arrived as a DOS program in 1995.
The change, disclosed in a May 23 blog post under a section titled Reducing toil, lets users open and extract RAR archives directly in File Explorer without installing any third party software.
The move was widely read as a blow to WinRAR, the long dominant commercial compression utility generations of users installed specifically for RAR handling.
WinRAR's team responded graciously, saying it felt honoured by Microsoft's decision and hoped the change would make RAR compression even more popular and accessible to users unfamiliar with WinRAR.
The company also acknowledged the competitive pressure, saying it needs to keep developing WinRAR to make it even more attractive, pointing to the new WinRAR 6.22 beta and a major upgrade planned for the end of 2023.
The takeaway for everyday users is simple: one of the most stubborn reasons to download third party software on a fresh Windows install has finally disappeared.
The change, disclosed in a May 23 blog post under a section titled Reducing toil, lets users open and extract RAR archives directly in File Explorer without installing any third party software.
The move was widely read as a blow to WinRAR, the long dominant commercial compression utility generations of users installed specifically for RAR handling.
WinRAR's team responded graciously, saying it felt honoured by Microsoft's decision and hoped the change would make RAR compression even more popular and accessible to users unfamiliar with WinRAR.
The company also acknowledged the competitive pressure, saying it needs to keep developing WinRAR to make it even more attractive, pointing to the new WinRAR 6.22 beta and a major upgrade planned for the end of 2023.
The takeaway for everyday users is simple: one of the most stubborn reasons to download third party software on a fresh Windows install has finally disappeared.
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