While it is possible to use software like 7-zip, Winrar or Winzip to extract all archives of a folder, it is still a manual operation. You have to open the folder in Windows Explorer or in the software to extract all archives that it contains. Some program support extracting archives in subfolders, while others do not.

When you first start AutoWinRarZip you are asked to add at least one folder to the program. Each folder that you add will be monitored actively whenever the program is running in the background.

You can then specify a destination directory where the archives will be unpacked to, if you want to delete the archives after a successful extraction and whether you want to create a folder for each archive in the destination directory.

AutoWinRarZip supports several archive formats, including rar and zip, but also lesser used formats such as tar or gzip. The software will auto detect zip and rar extensions in the specified directories and automatically extract the archive contents to the destination folder.

A progress bar and file listing is displayed whenever archives are extracted by the software.

The automatic nature of the program is the one feature that could make this program interesting for some Windows users. Features like automatic extraction of all archives in a selected root folder are also supported by other programs for Windows, like the excellent Extract Now.

AutoWinRarZip is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating system. The program needs the Microsoft .NET Framework, the developer unfortunately forgot to mention which version of it.

Interested users can download the application from the official program website. (via)

A relatively new program like HaoZip needs to at least match the functionality of those programs, or provide users with a unique feature that the other compression programs do not offer to stand a chance.

When you look at the application for the first time you may notice the similarities to the WinRar interface. You have the icon bar at the top, the path and navigational elements, a sidebar with a folder browser and the main area that displays the contents of the active folder.

Even the icons in the button bar are in nearly the same order. But similarities do not have to be a bad thing, as it could mean that users can start working right away without having to get to know the interface first.

But what about the program itself? HaoZip supports 49 different compression formats, from popular formats such as ZIP, RAR or 7z to lesser known formats like LZH, SPLIT or JAR. All or some of those formats can be associated with the program during setup, or under preferences after installation.

Additional customizations are available during installation. It is for instance possible to configure the program’s shell integration or log / history feature in detail. You can add a lot of items to the context menu. This includes standard extraction and archive creation options.

Only zip, 7z and tar archives can be created by Haozip, the remaining formats can only be unpacked. All standard compression features are supported. It is possible to password protect archives, encrypt file names, add comments or switch algorithms.

Additional features include:

• Repair, split, join, convert archives
• Create self-extracting archives
• Theme engine to install new interface themes
• Creation of different compression profiles
• Extraction of multiple archives each to their own distinct folder
• A 32-bit and 64-bit version is offered
• Built-in Tools, including image and text viewer, mp3 joiner, batch rename, md5 checksum calculator

The developer homepage is only available in Chinese which includes the online help. The program itself is offered as a multi-lingual version (Chinese / English).

Is there a reason to switch to Haozip if you are already using a program like 7-Zip, WinRar or Winzip? That depends. It boils down to the individual functionality. Maybe you do not want to pay each year to upgrade Winzip or WinRar, or you are missing support for jar or taz compression formats under 7-Zip. If you are currently missing a feature in your compression software, you may want to take Haozip for a test drive to see if it offers that feature. HaoZip is regardless of that a solid alternative for WinRar,Winzip and 7-Zip.

Haozip is offered on the developer website. It is best to use Google Translate to load the website unless you understand Chinese, that is. Your best bet is to download the multi-language version that is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows. The green version of good press (what a translation) could be portable versions of the compression software, but that has not been tested. (via Caschy)

Update: English version of the developer page is available, have added link above. No need anymore to translate the page’s contents first.

The download and page are accessible for everyone and it is possible to use the registration file to register an English version of WinRar 3.80. It is likely that other languages can be installed and registered as well.

Here is a walkthrough for users who do not speak German:

• Download WinRar 3.80 from the official Winrar website. Install the software program afterwards.
• Navigate to the registration page and fill out the form on that page. The fields from top to bottom are first name, second name, email address, email address again. A click on the Abschicken button will submit the information. An email will be send to the email address entered in the registration form that contains instructions to download the registration file.

  

• The email contains lots of text. Every user who registered the copy is offered an upgrade to WinRar 3.91 for 33% off if the purchase is made in the first 48 hours after registration. This is reduced to 20% and 10% after that time. The first link leads to the offer page where the discounted version of WinRar can be purchased.

  The second link, containing a download.php part, leads to the registration file for WinRar 3.80.

  

  The second link leads to a basic page that contains the download link to the WinRar registration key. A click on Download des Lizensschlüssels will start the download of rarkey.rar.

  

• A double-click on the rarkey.rar file that has been downloaded will load that file into Winrar where it will automatically register the software.

And that’s how you download and register WinRar 3.80. Please let us know if the process works for you or if you are encountering troubles.

WinRAR offers an option to integrate tightly into the Windows operating system during installation. This includes a very handy Windows Explorer entry which can be used to unpack or pack files directly in Windows Explorer.

The WinRAR interface has been streamlined for ease of use. The professionally looking theme can be changed easily to one of the other themes that are offered on the WinRAR website.

The interface itself can be divided into an header that contains the menu and program icons that lead to the most important functions of the file compression software and the file browser which displays files and contents of archives.

A right-click on any file in the file browser opens a context menu with several options ranging from viewing, renaming or deleting files to repairing archives or setting passwords.

Some of the functions are also available directly in the header like the ability to test the archive or view a specific file in an archive. The Wizard comes in handy for first time users as it directs the user through the process of creating or unpacking archives in the program.

Other direct options include performing a virus scan of the files contained in an archive or folder. WinRAR tries to discover installed virus scanners automatically which can then be selected from a pulldown menu. The user does have the option to browse the computer for a specific virus scanner and use that to scan the files which is handy for portable virus scanners or those that are not recognized by the automatic scan.

It is furthermore possible to add comments to archives and make them self extracting. The latter option can be handy in situations if no file compression software is installed on the target system or if the user of the target system wants (or requires) the easiest way of unpacking archived files (which self extracting archives are as they can be extracted with a simple double-click).

The Tools menu contains several advanced options like the tool to convert archives into rar or zip format. This is actually a very handy solution to convert multiple archives (that might have been compressed with different file compression algorithms) into a standard format like rar or zip. An option to add all archives of a specific format to that menu would be very handy. As of now it is only possible to add archives manually to the list.

Advanced users will like the amount of options that are provided during archive creation. The six-tabbed interface comes with so many options that it might look intimidating to some users although it is possible to simply click on the OK button to create the archive. Those users who look at the options provided on the other hand will find handy ones including the ability to change the compression level, splitting the files into several archives, adding a recovery record to the archive, setting passwords (that use the 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm), wiping files after archive creation, storing full or relative paths or sending the archive by email.

WinRAR features

• WinRAR provides complete support for RAR and ZIP archives and is able to unpack CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, ACE, UUE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, 7Z, Z archives.
• WinRAR offers a graphic interactive interface utilizing mouse and menus as well as the command line interface.
• WinRAR is easier to use than many other archivers with the inclusion of a special “Wizard” mode which allows instant access to the basic archiving functions through a simple question and answer procedure. This avoids confusion in the early stages of use.
• WinRAR offers you the benefit of industry strength archive encryption using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with a key of 128 bits.
• WinRAR supports files and archives up to 8,589 billion gigabytes in size. The number of archived files is, for all practical purposes, unlimited.
• WinRAR offers the ability to create selfextracting and multivolume archives.
• Recovery record and recovery volumes allow to reconstruct even physically damaged archives.

Verdict:

WinRAR is a powerful file compression program for the Windows operating system that is suited for both inexperienced and advanced users. Especially advanced options like batch converting archives, adding recovery information to archives or the command line options make WinRAR a prime choice for all archiving needs. Interested users can download a trial version at the WinRAR download page.

Christmas Giveaway

Readers who leave a comment get the chance to win a WinRAR licenses. We have ten licenses for WinRAR 3.90 in this giveaway. Please tell us why you use WinRAR, if you use it, or why you don’t use WinRAR, if you don’t use it. We will select the best 10 insightful comments as our winners, regardless whether they use WinRAR or not.

Raju is giving away licenses for Speedbit Video Accerlerator today, be sure to check out his giveaway as well.

Possible scenarios are that you forgot the password of a previously created rar archive or that a former employee protected files with a rar password. Whatever it is the rar password cracker will aid the user. The tool utilizes password lists, also called dictionary files, to test against the rar password.

Rar Pass Finder is a portable lightweight tool. The interface is only available in German language but since it consists of only two buttons it does not really make a different. The user should start loading a rar password list using the Passwortliste button.

Rar archives can then be loaded using the Rar-Archiv button or drag and drop. The rar password cracker supports multiple volumes and can also be run from the command line to load an archive automatically into the application. The last loaded password list will automatically be used to find the rar password.

Interested users can also use the offer to update to the newest version of Winrar at a discount. If you are interested in the offer visit the promotional Winrar website. The website is written in German, all you need to to is fill out the form and the license key will be send to your email. Here is the translation of the fields: Vorname (First Name), Nachname (Last Name), E-Mail-Adresse (E-Mail), E-Mail bestätigen: (E-Mail again) and Land (Country).

Select Anderes Land in the pulldown menu if you are not living in one of the mentioned countries. A click on Abschicken (send) completes the process and you should receive a link to the key in your email. The link to the key is the second link in the email that contains download.php while the first link would lead to the special offer page that would offer a discount for the latest Winrar version.

A click on “Download des Lizenzschlüssels” downloads the key to your computer. Download Winrar 3.62, for example from Download Junction and install it on your system. Now unpack the contents of the archive that you have downloaded into the Winrar folder. The key will be automatically recognized by Winrar and you got a licensed version.

Drag and Drop Robot can be described as a program that interacts with command line tools to add batch processing and drag and drop functionality to them. This might sound complex at first but in reality it is not. Several configuration files are already installed when you download the program, you can use them to zip and unrar data, hide and unhide data in pictures and encrypt or decrypt data.

If you would for instance like to unrar ten rar independent rar files you would simply choose the unrar configuration and drag and drop the ten rar files into the queue of Drag and Drop Robot.

The most interesting aspect of this software is probably that it is possible to add configuration files. This is excellent for users who work with audio or video encoders for instance. If you want to encode 1000 mp3 files you could simply use lame, add the command line options that you want to use and drag and drop the folder(s) that contain the mp3 files into the window.

Mouser created a demonstration video on the site which is helpful to understand the concept behind Drag+Drop Robot

What I really like about IZArc is that it opens really quickly and seems to unpack files at least as fast as WinRar. I did not benchmark anything here so this is just my opinion. IZArc offers all the usual features that archive programs offer these days such as shell integration, drag and drop support, self-extracting archives and multi-volume archives.

IZArc can also be downloaded as a mobile version called IZArc2Go and a command line add-on for the main program that supports batch processing is also available at the official website. I don’t think the users that already use 7-zip will make the switch because of their program offering basically the same features.

Update: IZArc has been in development for quite some time. After four years, it is still being actively developed. When you look at the program’s feature list you notice that it supports a wide variety of them. This includes common features like creating, deleting and adding archives, but also less common features like converting an archive into a different format, repairing broken archives or merging multi-volume sets.

IZArc supports a few dozen archive file types plus several CD and VD image formats, which makes the archiving software a versatile tool.

The program integrates well, even on 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. It integrates nicely into Windows Explorer so that it becomes possible to access the most common functions directly with a right-click and the selection of the right option from the context menu.