Has Anyone "Bought" Winrar

[Morbus]

* WinRAR doesn't have the bug with opening images on Windows 7 and newer (the problem is caused by 7zip deleting the image when it detects that the spawned process has ended, but since the default Windows image viewer is implemented as COM and not a traditional process, 7zip detects termination incorrectly... it's a REALLY annoying bug that means that viewing images in an archive requires me decompressing the entire thing)

Can't you simply use something better than Windows' default image viewer? You should.

 

[code65536]

Can't you simply use something better than Windows' default image viewer? You should.

I actually like the default image viewer. For an image viewer, speed, footprint, and simplicity is what matters most for me. If I wanted more features like touching up an image, that's a job for the full-blown image editor that I have.

And as I noted, there are other use cases in which I prefer WinRAR.

 

[Virgorising]

I actually like the default image viewer. For an image viewer, speed, footprint, and simplicity is what matters most for me. If I wanted more features like touching up an image, that's a job for the full-blown image editor that I have.

And as I noted, there are other use cases in which I prefer WinRAR.

I don't hate it either. Default image viewer. If I need to, I just right click on a file and use something else. Not all Windows apps are Less Than.

But I would rather eat worms than use Media Center for anything.

Again, I will never use anything but Winrar. It is so perfeclty written, I look forward to zipping and unzipping.

 

[Miramonti]

I bought winrar 5 because I used it to make some customized self extracting installers, and because software developers need to pay bills too.

 

[TSDible]

I don't use proprietary software when there's good libre choices. Been using 7Zip forever. rars are antisocial.

Well said.

Another happy 7Zip user...

 

[Mark R]

True, but if recovery records are really important, MultiPar will read appended PAR files to 7-zip archives nicely. I feed 7-zip files and PAR's through a script. MultiPar is as free as 7-zip too. Alternate data streams... why would you need to store the fact that a file was "downloaded by IE?" Pardon the ignorance but isn't the data what is important?

I once used a couple of specialist apps to process some data. It turns out that they would put some data in alternate streams. I don't know exactly what they put in the streams, but they were all corrupted when I restored them from a zip backup.

Yes. It was questionable design on the part of the software designer and he was probably experimenting with one of Windows' new features. The point of "alternate streams" is to allow a file to look more like a folder to an app which understands them - effectively, a single file can contain multiple sub-files which are accessible by name. To the OS in general, the file appears as a single entity which can be copied and moved, granted permissions, etc. as a single object. The problem people have had, and why they have generally fallen out of favor, is that lots of older backup/archive software doesn't recognise them and doesn't preserve the alternate streams

Yes, these days, it's mostly only used to store download location information. But, I didn't know I needed this feature, and ended up boned because of it.

You're right about multipar/quickpar/etc. However, it's another piece of software, which if you're distributing data to someone else, they need to have a copy, and they need to know how to use. Plus several versions of quickpar are known to be buggy and produce "defective" parity data (i.e. the parity data does not provide the expected redundancy; it often provides none at all).

It really simplifies distributing data, if you can make a self-extracting .exe with a recovery record. It almost always works on the other end, and it saves the occasional delay if the CD or whatever media is slightly corrupted.

 

[PliotronX]

I once used a couple of specialist apps to process some data. It turns out that they would put some data in alternate streams. I don't know exactly what they put in the streams, but they were all corrupted when I restored them from a zip backup.

Yes. It was questionable design on the part of the software designer and he was probably experimenting with one of Windows' new features. The point of "alternate streams" is to allow a file to look more like a folder to an app which understands them - effectively, a single file can contain multiple sub-files which are accessible by name. To the OS in general, the file appears as a single entity which can be copied and moved, granted permissions, etc. as a single object. The problem people have had, and why they have generally fallen out of favor, is that lots of older backup/archive software doesn't recognise them and doesn't preserve the alternate streams

Yes, these days, it's mostly only used to store download location information. But, I didn't know I needed this feature, and ended up boned because of it.

You're right about multipar/quickpar/etc. However, it's another piece of software, which if you're distributing data to someone else, they need to have a copy, and they need to know how to use. Plus several versions of quickpar are known to be buggy and produce "defective" parity data (i.e. the parity data does not provide the expected redundancy; it often provides none at all).

It really simplifies distributing data, if you can make a self-extracting .exe with a recovery record. It almost always works on the other end, and it saves the occasional delay if the CD or whatever media is slightly corrupted.

Thank you for this info! It sounds as if to appear as a folder it is basically acting as an archive for which an implementation of zlib would be better I would think because then a ZIP could be read natively and opened/recovered/etc.. I digress though, QuickPar I've never used and last I checked didn't support PAR version 3 whereas MultiPar does, it's pretty sweet. Now the enduser having the necessary software goes the same for WinRAR, in order for recovery to happen they will need WinRAR. SFX modules are a sorespot for 7-zip but SFX Builder is pretty handy as it customizes and compresses the exe module with UPX and integrates with a GUI and again is freeware.

 

[imagoon]

Can't you simply use something better than Windows' default image viewer? You should.

It displays the image on my screen. I need more than that?

 

[imagoon]

Thank you for this info! It sounds as if to appear as a folder it is basically acting as an archive for which an implementation of zlib would be better I would think because then a ZIP could be read natively and opened/recovered/etc..

Not close at all actually. Alternate data streams are meant to be used to store.... alternate data. Calling it an archive solution is like calling that Word doc on your desktop an archive solution. It is closer to the MKV container in that one file can contain say, the video stream, English audio stream, French audio stream, Japanese audio stream, all the subtitles etc etc.

They idea is supposed to be that main data is stored under the file name and then metadata and alternate data is stored in ADS. It was an OS/2 thing that has been supported in NTFS since then and I think is considered legacy at this point. Since nothing else really supports it now, it is really easy to "lose" the ADS as Windows doesn't even warn you it is about to strip all the ADS off.

You can reference them via a colon on the command line. IE

"echo "Pants!" > notepad.exe:doihavetowearpants.txt"

then

"type notepad.exe:doihavetowearpants.txt"

 

[Morbus]

It displays the image on my screen. I need more than that?

It also deletes your images when compressed. Apparently you DON'T need that.

 

[DigDog]

7zip has the most horribadgly folder. winrar sexy blue folders.

nag windows or not, i use winrar.

 

[code65536]

It also deletes your images when compressed. Apparently you DON'T need that.

Huh? What are you talking about?

Perhaps you misunderstood the 7zip bug that I was talking about?

I double-click on an image (or some other file with an association) in an archive. 7zip/WinRAR unzips that file into a temporary folder. 7zip/WinRAR then invokes the program associated with that file type. Program runs. Program exits. 7zip/WinRAR detects that the program has exited (and is thus presumably done with the file), and deletes the temporary file in the temporary folder. At least, that's the way it should work. WinRAR does it right. 7zip gets confused because the default image viewer is COM and doesn't properly detect that the image viewer has exited, and thus 7zip prematurely (as in, immediately) deletes the temporary file, thus giving the image viewer nothing to open.

This 7zip bug would affect anything that runs via COM, not just the default image viewer, though that's by far the most common case since most programs are standalone executables.

 

[PliotronX]

Not close at all actually. Alternate data streams are meant to be used to store.... alternate data. Calling it an archive solution is like calling that Word doc on your desktop an archive solution. It is closer to the MKV container in that one file can contain say, the video stream, English audio stream, French audio stream, Japanese audio stream, all the subtitles etc etc.

They idea is supposed to be that main data is stored under the file name and then metadata and alternate data is stored in ADS. It was an OS/2 thing that has been supported in NTFS since then and I think is considered legacy at this point. Since nothing else really supports it now, it is really easy to "lose" the ADS as Windows doesn't even warn you it is about to strip all the ADS off.

You can reference them via a colon on the command line. IE

"echo "Pants!" > notepad."

then

"type notepad.

Thanks for elaborating, well when he was saying it was using a file as if it was a folder, it had me thinking of it as an archive. At least with MKV's the streams are easily visible and very relevant to the containers contents. I just can't wrap my head around any use for ADS.

Was the idea kind of ripped off in using joints within Windows?

7zip has the most horribadgly folder. winrar sexy blue folders.

nag windows or not, i use winrar.

Prepare to have your

 

[imagoon]

It also deletes your images when compressed. Apparently you DON'T need that.

It does? Not here it doesn't.

 

[imagoon]

Was the idea kind of ripped off in using joints within Windows?

Do you mean junctions or NTFS symbolic links?

Like I said earlier I think it was something they acquired from IBM OS/2 when they joint developed it. They pulled it in to NTFS "1.0" and now they keep around for legacy (I think.)

Also, how do you define easily viewable? I mean all the ADS stuff is there in the NTFS file system and you can read it. A few apps do like streams.exe. It isn't really exposed in explorer really though so yeah I do agree that it is a bit hidden.

Also for the people mentioning extended attributes, ADS isn't the same thing. I don't think Linux even has something like ADS so that should show you how much it is "needed."

--edit-- guess it had a few uses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_(filesystem)

 

[PliotronX]

Do you mean junctions or NTFS symbolic links?

Like I said earlier I think it was something they acquired from IBM OS/2 when they joint developed it. They pulled it in to NTFS "1.0" and now they keep around for legacy (I think.)

Also, how do you define easily viewable? I mean all the ADS stuff is there in the NTFS file system and you can read it. A few apps do like streams.exe. It isn't really exposed in explorer really though so yeah I do agree that it is a bit hidden.

Also for the people mentioning extended attributes, ADS isn't the same thing. I don't think Linux even has something like ADS so that should show you how much it is "needed."

--edit-- guess it had a few uses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_(filesystem)

Ahhh both either/or, brain fried since it's such a little talked about feature.

That Wiki page:

Another alternative is a container file, which stores additional data within a given file format, or an archive file, which allows storing several files and metadata within a file (within a single fork). This requires that programs process the container file or archive file, rather than the file system handling forks. These alternatives require additional work by programs using the data, but benefit from portability to file systems that do not support forks.

 

[Morbus]

7zip has the most horribadgly folder. winrar sexy blue folders.

This is 7-zip:


How exactly is it horribadgly? It's way prettier than winrar, and it's easily configurable to be like that. Sure, you need to download a tweaker, but in winrar you also have to download additional files, and it's harder to do it, way harder.

In fact, one of the reasons I use 7-zip is because it's prettier.

 

[PliotronX]

This is 7-zip:


How exactly is it horribadgly? It's way prettier than winrar, and it's easily configurable to be like that. Sure, you need to download a tweaker, but in winrar you also have to download additional files, and it's harder to do it, way harder.

In fact, one of the reasons I use 7-zip is because it's prettier.

I use the 7-zip Theme Manager m'self but it is definitely a more involved process than double-clicking RAR's theme files. First, the Theme Manager relies on .NET 3.5 framework which, if you're running Windows 8.1, requires the installation media or an unofficial download to install (Microsoft's fault). Then you have to make sure the TM hotfix overwrites the 2.1 executable. You need to have admin rights for TM and make sure the useless localization files were installed otherwise it errors out.

Nothin' beats 7-Zip Futurama Edition!

 

[GeekNick]

I see no point in editing an interface of 7Zip, especially if you'll need to indulge into some tweeking, modding, theme managing etc. Most users want their programs simple, easy and functional right after they've installed it.

7Zip was a problem for me and some of my friend exactly because of its ambiguous look. No, it works great ... as long as you use it from the context menu and don't open the program. While functional, it's too cluttered.

Recently I've found an alternative. Just look at it:

This is B1 Free Archiver. Just like 7Zip it is free, but the interface is sleek and intuitive. Even though it creates only zip files and it's native b1 archive format, I had no problem with extracting any file which I've received. Not even RAR5.

BTW, I have this program on both Windows and Ubuntu. Its always better to have the same tools on different machines, especially with different OS.

 

[taq8ojh]

Judging by just briefly looking at that picture, I'd say the interface is everything BUT intuitive But hey, if it works for you, fine.

 

[Virgorising]

This is 7-zip:


How exactly is it horribadgly? It's way prettier than winrar, and it's easily configurable to be like that. Sure, you need to download a tweaker, but in winrar you also have to download additional files, and it's harder to do it, way harder.

In fact, one of the reasons I use 7-zip is because it's prettier.

Additional files? I've been using only Winrar forever, and never had to download anything beyond it, for it.

 

[GeekNick]

Judging by just briefly looking at that picture, I'd say the interface is everything BUT intuitive But hey, if it works for you, fine.

OK, to make the point, here's what I meant:

The programs interface looks like explorer. So, whether you want to create an archive or extract it, you only have to click it and the appropriate button on top (Create, Open, Extract). Of course the same thing can be made by right-clicking.

And here's WinZip:

I don't even know where to start from when I simply want to pack some photos! All this functions that I never need to use make WinZip so confusing that it fast became my least favorite zipper. Come to think of it, I expect something better from a program that you have to pay for.

7-Zip is a little bit better. But still... Here's the zipping process in 7-Zip:

And here's B1 Free Archiver:

While having mostly the same functionality, somebody going to argue that the second option at least looks better? That's what I call "intuitive".

 

[biostud]

Changed to 7zip. Normally I just select the files I want to add, right click select create archive. Done.

 

[AbRASiON]

I've emailed them multiple times to drop the price or do a sale on WinRAR - I'd gladly drop $15 on the program but they never discount it. I think $29 is too pricey.
FWIW I pay for a lot of little apps if I think they are worth it and WinRAR is good but I dunno, $29 is over my limit (especially since if I were to follow the rules "to the letter" I can't use it on multiple workstations I use, only 1)

 

[corkyg]

I just bought it. No big deal. It is a good program - I believe German. OTOH, I don't think it is worth resurrecting a necro thread.