In a move that can be best described as "better late than never," Microsoft has finally incorporated native support for RAR archives into its operating system, a full three decades after the RAR format was officially introduced in 1993. This development is part of the ongoing evolution of Windows 11, which is now rapidly advancing with the addition of support for a plethora of other archive formats, some of which could be considered relics of the digital past. With this update, Windows 11 users can now handle RAR archives directly within the operating system, eliminating the need for third-party software or dubious archive "unpackers."
The last major release of the operating system in the past year, Windows 11 22H2, which was distributed on September 20, 2022, is set to become even more adept at managing a diverse range of archive files and formats. This leap forward was made possible by the recent release of KB5031455, an optional, feature-packed preview cumulative update for Windows 11. This update has refreshed the roster of archive formats that are natively supported by the operating system.
As a result, Windows 11 22H2 and subsequent versions can now handle files compressed in the following archive types: .rar, .7z, .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.zst, .tar.xz, .tgz, .tbz2, .tzst, .txz. However, support for password-encrypted archives is yet to be added. The credit for the addition of support for these archive files goes to the programmers at Redmond who utilized the libarchive library, an open-source project aimed at creating a portable, efficient C library that can "read and write streaming archives" in a variety of formats.
The libarchive library also supports additional archive types (Lzh, Xar) that could potentially be integrated into Windows 11 in the future. As an optional update, the KB5031455 patch is not automatically installed and requires manual installation. This can be done by navigating to the Windows Update settings page on Windows 11 and searching for newly released updates. If the update proves successful with "early testers," the contents of the update should eventually be rolled out to the majority of Windows users through the next batch of cumulative patches, which are scheduled for November's 2023 Patch Tuesday. The inclusion of additional archive types, beyond RAR and Zip, was hinted at by Panos Panay, who discussed the upcoming feature in one of his Build blog posts before he left Microsoft.
According to Panay, Windows 11 users can now enjoy improved performance of archive functionality during compression, a statement he made in May 2023. This extended file type support is part of the Moment 4 package, a new feature update for Windows 11 that brings 72 new features and improvements to the cloud/AI-centric operating system. The features of KB5031455 include the "centralized AI assistance" for Windows known as Copilot, a revamped File Explorer "experience," a new Microsoft Backup app, a built-in Passkey Manager, and much more. In the meantime, Windows 10 users can continue to rely on trusted third-party archive managers like WinRAR for the foreseeable future.
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