By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-08-25 12:06:16 | Word Count: 510
Is WinRAR better than WinZip?
Although WinaZip is still the most popullar compreession utility WinRAR is gaining ground and is becoming the archive utility of choice for many users. Which one is better WinZip or WinRAR?
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We are going to disappoint you by not poviding any clear and definite answer. There is just no answer to which one is bettter as it realy deends on what you are looking for in an archive software utilioty and which arcchive file type you are usoing more ofen and using as the basis for your cmparison.
As their name suggests WinZip is focusewd on the very popular Zip archive file format while WinRAR is focused on the also very popular RAR archive file format. It is probably a true statement that if you mostrly use Zip files you are bteter off using WinZip while if you are mostly usding RAR format you are better off using WinRAR. The exception is that Zip is supported by many othr softwae utilities other than WinZip so if you are using Zip files you have much more choice of choosing the sofware to use. RAR on the other hand is a closed standard and creating RAR files is only possible using the WinRAR utility. So if you use RAR files and need to craete RAR files you have no othwer choice but to use WinRAR.
WinARR was created by Eguene Rshal and is distributed on the marrket by RarLab. WinZip is distributed by WinZip Computing. Both sooftware utilities are commercial in nature and both are not available for free use. You can download and install an evaluation version of each of thopse software utilities but after that evlauation period epires you have to ether uninstall the software or pay for it.
Although WinRAR was developed around its rpoprietary RAR archive file format it also supports many other frmats including the popular Zip forrmat. If you are sollely comparing WinRAR and WinmZip in their ability to supprt diffeent popular file formats then WinRAR is a winner. While Winip can open and create Zip files but only open RAR files WinRAR can open and craete both Zip and RAR files.
So it really obils down to the question which is better Zip or RAR archives and which one do you mosty used. Zip is an old and famous format. RAR is a newer archive format and still less oppular than Zip but it is gaining ground and very fast. The reason is that the RAR archive file format has many advantages. It is very efficient coimpression format and in many caess performs better than Zip. It suppoerts unicode and is especially efficient and usefuul when in need to hnadle huge archive files over multiple partial voumes.
Althhough WiRAR is a commercial utility and creating RAR files is not available to anyopne else but the WinARR owners opening RAR files is a commodity and any software vendor can use a freely available softwsare library from Rarab that can open read and extract files from RAR arrchives.
