Windows 11 is about to support the ability to open RAR files natively

RAR files were first introduced 30 years ago by a Russian computer engineer named Eugene Roshal. Roshal also created the hugely popular WinRAR file archiver program two years later (in 1995). Since then, the application has been continuously updated and has become an integral part of the Windows ecosystem.

Using WinRAR or similar file decompression programs is the only way to open RAR files in Windows, as Microsoft never added native support for this format. However, that will soon change in the near future.

Within the framework of the Build 2023 event, Microsoft suddenly mentioned that Windows 11 will soon add the ability to support opening more compressed archive file formats, including RAR. This is possible and should have been added a long time ago because Windows 11 now uses the open source project libarchive.

Microsoft's mention of the ability to support opening RAR, as well as other file archive formats such as 7-zip and gz natively on Windows, immediately received a lot of interest and positive feedback from the community. user.

Windows 11 is about to support the ability to open RAR files natively Picture 1

According to a report from The Verge, it is likely that Microsoft will start adding support for the above compressed file formats right in the Windows 11 preview build released later this week.

However, while Microsoft's addition of a way to open RAR files natively in Windows 11 is great, there still doesn't seem to be a way for Windows to compress files with RAR itself. That means programs like WinRAR will likely remain needed for a long time to come. Let's wait and see!

Lesley Montoya

Update 01 June 2023