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Windows Software

Windows 11 Adds Native Support For RAR, 7-Zip, Tar Archive File Formats (techspot.com) 85

Posted by BeauHD from the better-late-than-never dept.
"Windows 11's last major update, 22H2 introduced native support for managing RAR archives, eliminating the need for third-party software," writes Slashdot reader jjslash. "This enhancement is part of the OS's broader capability improvements for handling various archive file formats." TechSpot reports: Microsoft finally introduced native support for RAR archives earlier this year, just three decades after the format's official introduction in 1993. Windows 11 development is now progressing at an accelerated pace, therefore support for a whole lot of new (ancient) archive formats is coming soon.

Microsoft recently released KB5031455, an optional, feature-rich preview cumulative update for Windows 11, refreshing the list of archive formats natively supported in the OS. Windows 11 22H2 and later versions can now manage files compressed in the following archive types: .rar, .7z, .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.zst, .tar.xz, .tgz, .tbz2, .tzst, .txz. Support for password-encrypted archives is not available yet.

Redmond programmers added support for the aforementioned archive files thanks to the libarchive library, an open source project designed to develop a portable, efficient C library that can "read and write streaming archives" in a variety of formats. Libarchive supports additional archive types (Lzh, Xar) that could eventually come to Windows 11 as well.
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Windows 11 Adds Native Support For RAR, 7-Zip, Tar Archive File Formats More

Windows 11 Adds Native Support For RAR, 7-Zip, Tar Archive File Formats

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  • The Innovation Never Stops! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @08:49PM (#63967490) Journal

    "At Microsoft, The Innovation Never Stops!*"

    FFS, every linux distro in the world has had this for how long?

      * For very small values of "innovation"

    • tbh, I want to agree with you and also congratulate MS for finally f'ing doing it

      • Re:The Innovation Never Stops! (Score:4, Insightful)

        by bloodhawk ( 813939 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @09:03PM (#63967516)
        its a damned if you do and damned if you don't thing. Everyone screams at MS for pushing 3rd parties out of the market when they do something like this and everyone else screams at them for not doing it if they don't.

      • Re:The Innovation Never Stops! (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Errol backfiring ( 1280012 ) on Tuesday October 31, 2023 @04:14AM (#63968126) Journal

        and also congratulate MS for finally f'ing doing it

        Yeah, they must be pretty desperate at Microsoft if they finally adopt things that are standard for decades now.

        • Not really. They have deliberately removed the encryption support that is in the libraries.

          • To be fair, most of the passwords actually being used are extremely short. Start with "12345" and you'll unlock a fair number. (If you forget, just chck your luggage)
            A dictionary attack with common variants would be quite doable for perhaps 80% of the archives.

        • and also congratulate MS for finally f'ing doing it

          Yeah, they must be pretty desperate at Microsoft if they finally adopt things that are standard for decades now.

          RAR and 7-Zip aren't "standards". Vanilla zip is a standard. RAR/7-Zip have small user bases and seem mainly to be used in warez, pirated media content, and abandonware sites.TAR is a standard, but only on 'Nix. No one is distributing warez on TAR files.

          Bottom line, it's a nice capability for Windows to have. Microsoft didn't have to add it, but did anyway. And Slashdot still bitches and whines about it, anyway.

    • True. However... (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      ...Microsoft is the first one that does it right.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jhoegl ( 638955 )
      Linux distros mostly have tar gz by default, but zip/rar/7z they do not. You still have to download them.

      That being said, I mostly work on server distros, which makes sense as they typically have little attached to them by default.

      I will still download 7zip, which handles rar/zip as well. Dont need MSes terrible versions. Even their native zip is bad in options and abilities.

      • Re:The Innovation Never Stops! (Score:4, Informative)

        by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @09:45PM (#63967618)

        Actually downloading from the distro-archive is basically just configuring what you want to have installed. That is a bit different. On MS you had to download 3rd-party apps to get this to work.

        • Only if what you want is there and you know the packet name. If not, happy searching, and if you aren't lucky, happy downloading the source, compiling, fixing the errors because the make scripts have too many assumptions about the system and the gcc version, compiling, fixing more errors, compiling...

          • Oh noes, I have to open the graphic package manager and type "rar" or "archiver".

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Tarlus ( 1000874 )

            If you can't search for "rar" in your distro's repos, you probably shouldn't be using that distro.

          • Only if what you want is there and you know the packet name. If not, happy searching

            Yeah it's super hard, mega-super hard to install anything on linux. It's nearly nearly impossible, frankly. I don't know why I keep using it year after year after year when it's just so damn hard to install anything. I mean, just adding a font can take hours and hours and that's if you know all the tricks, so yeah, I get it. Installing stuff = hard

            and if you aren't lucky, happy downloading the source, compiling, fixing the errors because the make scripts have too many assumptions about the system and the gcc version, compiling, fixing more errors, compiling...

            Or you could just click on the App Store, err I mean the Package Manager and just install anything you need. Also, with the stampede to put everything into flatpa

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by jonadab ( 583620 )
        > Linux distros mostly have tar gz by default, but zip/rar/7z they do not.
        > You still have to download them.

        In my experience there's base-install support for whatever format the package manager uses,
        and packages in the repo for every archive format that anyone might possibly care about. Though I've never personally used RAR for anything. (I don't have a lot of connections to the Russian warez community.)

        It's not clear what you mean by "You still have to download them." Technically we (or the instal

      • Mint has zip support if you're willing to tick a checkbox during the install.

        And yes, 7zip is very good; it's what I use at work and occasionally at home.

    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by gillbates ( 106458 )

      The social cost of Windows past inability to open tar files is that millions of Fox viewers don't believe in global climate change, even though the temperature data is freely available, because it is provided as tar archives.

      Prior to the 2000's, Republicans routinely courted the environmental movement. I remember when GH Bush said he wanted to be the environmental President. But with the widespread adoption of Windows on PCs, the majority of upper-middle class people were no longer logging into UNIX te

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      That is MS: Doing crappy design, crappy execution and being decades late on basic stuff. That is if they even get ot to work at all.

    • It is about 100 years late, but think of all the brand new innovative and exciting bugs that these tools will bring.

    • FFS, every linux distro in the world has had this for how long?

      Technically never and still not. They bundled third party programs to perform this action. Linux as an OS can't do anything without tools written by someone else. If you want to get technical Windows had the ability to extract RAR archives longer than Linux has because the third party tools for RAR and GZip came out on Windows / Dos respectively first, though the Unix world has them beaten in TAR.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        As usual, you have no insight. What is "Linux as an OS"? It is kernel plus user space tools. By your "argument" Linux as OS would not even have a boot-loader because grub (and others) do not come bundled with the kernel. Incidentally, /sbin/init (and alternatives) do not come with the kernel either, so by your "argument" Linux as an OS is lacking the OS. That is obvious nonsense.

      • Linux as an OS can't do anything without tools written by someone else.

        I think that's true of every OS, isn't it?

  • Why so late? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @08:52PM (#63967496)

    Even if they had provided native support for these formats a full decade ago they would still have been hopelessly late to the party. Why has it taken so long? It's hard to believe there was any significant cost saving or profit motive in not providing them.

    It seems like forever since I've used Windows more than casually, (and that on other people's computers), so I'm definitely biased. That said, it really does seem sometimes that Microsoft goes out of its way to inconvenience Windows users for no good reason at all.

    • For sure. But the reason could be more financial efficiency at MSFT. Could it be perhaps that MS choose the least expensive features that compel people to upgrade? Like with office, PowerPoint is the buggy sibling that sometimes got attention.

    • Why has it taken so long?

      Why not? What have you been unable to compress / decompress for free in Windows? Why should the OS replicate functionality from freely available software?

      If anything really they should have taken the Linux approach, which is one of bundling diverse tools written and maintained by diverse people. I.e. the Windows install script should just execute 'winget install -e --id RARLab.WinRAR' and call it a day.

      Not everything needs to be re-written by Microsoft ... poorly (I say poorly not in that it doesn't work, b

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      You have to understand how large corporations work. There isn't anyone looking at Windows as a whole and seeing what features would really be nice quality of life things. And most of the people asking for 7zip/tar support probably aren't going to use this anyway, they will still install 7zip.

      So you have to wait for someone at Microsoft to scratch that itch, and convince the managers to adopt it as a feature. There is a whole process to make sure that any open source code, in this case libarchive, is properl

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        You have to understand how large corporations work. There isn't anyone looking at Windows as a whole and seeing what features would really be nice quality of life things.

        And that is the core problem. As a result, small things pile up, technological debt rises and at some time the whole thing cannot really be fixed anymore. My take is Windows and MS Office has passed that threshold some years ago and various problems cannot be fixed anymore. At the same time, I think a reimplementation is not possible anymore either.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      That said, it really does seem sometimes that Microsoft goes out of its way to inconvenience Windows users for no good reason at all.

      Well, there definitely is some reason, just not a good one. Microsoft inconveniences everybody that uses their crap. Office is only getting worse. The Windows user-experience is getting worse. Outlook is getting worse. Instead of fixing problems, they throw in new features and make the thing overall worse. It really is corporate dysfunctionality all the way down and with probably no way to fix it. As soon as an enterprise has a quasi-monopoly, its products become crap.

  • Packing too or just unpacking? (Score:3)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @08:58PM (#63967506)

    Because as far as I know, so far it only supports UNzipping but not zipping stuff.

    Just saying that if it doesn't allow us to compress as well, it does by no means remove the need for third party tools.

    • Even if it supports compression it would not eliminate the need for third party tools. Third party tools provide a whole lot more functionality including choices of algorithms, encryption, archive splitting, etc.

      Just like with ZIP, I extract them using Windows, but compress them using a 3rd party tool which does a better job.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Tx ( 96709 )

      I can't believe you actually got upvoted for such an obviously factually incorrect comment. FYI the "Send To->Compressed (Zipped) Folder" Windows Explorer context menu function, which has been in Windows since forever (pretty sure it was introduced in Windows XP), allows "zipping stuff" natively.

      • The reason this was upvoted is probably the same reason I posted it: The functionality is SO well hidden that nobody had the idea to LOOK there for it.

        "Send to" to comparess... well, what do you expect from a company that has you press "start" to power down the system...

        • The reason this was upvoted is probably the same reason I posted it: The functionality is SO well hidden that nobody had the idea to LOOK there for it.

          You've been able to create a zip file ("compressed folder" in Windows parlance, ugh) since Windows 98 with Plus! Pack, the same way you create any new file in Windows, open it and drag files into it. Sometimes it didn't even crash SHELL32.DLL like it just did in my VM :D

        • It's like the "Xbox" program, which is actually a PC game app store / gamepass / messenger. From the name, you would just assume it's some sort of companion app for the console, and never try it if you don't own one.

      • Predates even XP...

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] (around the 8 minute mark)

  • As if there were many who paid for a winrar license, now Microsoft removes the possibility of someone paying for it.
    • Me ! I purchased 50 licenses at work! We used (or maybe it's still used) to exchange technical documents over "packages" produced and ingested by a commercial EDMS software.

    • You can't create RAR archives using Windows. You can't even add a password to a ZIP file. There's definitely still a need for these 3rd party tools.

    • My IT dept support guy made me install Winrar, unzip the files that I required, then uninstall Winrar. No, buying it was "not in the budget." Nothing was ever in the budget. I work with large 3D models/assemblies/drawings that get shared all of the U.S. & the world. Some folks like Winrar. I use 7-zip because I can without buying it.

      I could go on with a massive essay about my dealings with the IT dept from hell.

  • This gonna be like the native ZIP format in WIndows?

    You know the one tha fails on compression of files with various characters?

  • Instead of cosmetics changes like "integrating" stuff that was already available as add-on? No?

  • I see the list of supported formats does not contain .ARC [wikipedia.org]

    Good.

    Burn in hell System Enhancement Associates.

  • encryption support (Score:5, Interesting)

    by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @10:17PM (#63967684)

    I get asked on a regular basis why File Explorer won't open a particular zip file. I show them how to open the file in 7-Zip and get prompted for the password. Windows won't tell you that it can't help you with an encrypted zip file, no it just silently fails you. Now more of the same, way to catch up to the 1990's Microsoft.

  • everywhere. Literally, in the wild and being abused.

    I died a little more inside.

  • "eliminating the need for third-party software" (Score:3)

    by bhcompy ( 1877290 ) on Tuesday October 31, 2023 @12:44AM (#63967866)
    Unless it can do split archives, handle encryption well, and has more robust support for context menu options/interactions than Windows does with zip, I don't see how it eliminates the need for third-party software
  • Since day 1 I've been using Norton Commander (DOS 6.22) and later on its win version. For some reason it kept bugging years ago and I moved to Total Commander. I barely never use built-in Windows Explorer and so am not affected by the news. It's still a great news to flatten learning curve, that's the key selling point of Windows after all. No guru sticker's required to unpack an archive at the proper location keeping the intented parent folder.

    • I too have been using Total Commander for couple of decades and rarely use Windows Explorer. Can't work without TC !

    • I don't use any of the above. Ever since my days on the Amiga I've used Directory Opus [gpsoft.com.au]. Have it for Windows and got it running on Linux thanks to Wine. Dir Opus is hands down the best "file manager" replacement. On windows you can set it as the default file manager over Winblows Explorer.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      Honestly, I haven't used graphical file managers since I discovered tab completion. Though I don't know if that works on Windows yet. Unix shells didn't even implement it until the seventies, so given the usual rate at which MS implements support for things users of other systems take for granted, I guess it could be a while.
  • How are these third-party software sellers supposed to make a crust?

  • They bought it for you (Score:3)

    by Gabest ( 852807 ) on Tuesday October 31, 2023 @05:50AM (#63968262)

    For all of us! They payed for WinRAR. Finally.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ebunga ( 95613 )

      When the news broke, I bought another five licenses for WinRAR out of respect. Even got it on physical media.

  • Impressive, tar is such a new archive format (Score:3)

    by Locutus ( 9039 ) on Tuesday October 31, 2023 @08:55AM (#63968660)
    I wonder if they plan to make tape drives popular too. Kidding aside, the tar format dates back to the late '70s on UNIX systems from servers and workstations to desktops. It was as command as the ls command IMO. tar xvpzf and tar cvpzf roll off the fingers to this day.

    I wonder which vendor they are trying to limit developer interactions with in these moves so late in the game.

    LoB

  • i wish it had the ability for me to select a dozen zip (or rar or gzip or whatever) files and unzip them all at once

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      If you find yourself wanting features like that, you might be happier with a command-line interface, once you get past the first couple of months of learning curve. When you don't know what you're doing it seems clunky initially, but once you're familiar with things like wildcards and tab completion and xargs and backticks, you can never go back to a GUI. (And then the advantages of muscle memory start kicking in...)

      Wanting to indicate several files together and specify the same operation once to be carri

  • Whenever possible, avoid MS native way to do anything. It will always lack what you want, have a stupid UI, and break in opaque ways.

  • I know the history. I ran Linux boxes back in the late 90's/2000's and heard the cries back then why doesn't MS support all the open source formats. Just a guess but back then the overwhelming majority of Windows users just didn't need them and the small percentage of uber geeks who did were more than capable of installing 3rd party themselves. With Microsoft's more recent full embrace of all things Open Source it makes sense now. There's just more cross platform happening in the main stream now.

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