One of the most popular file formats for decades is RAR. Its name is an acronym for Roshal Archive, because it was created 30 years ago by a Russian engineer named Eugene Roshal. He also created the popular WinRAR archiver two years later in 1995.
Since then the application has been continuously updated.
Using WinRAR or similar programs was the only way to open RAR files on Windows, as Microsoft had never added native support for this file format. But this will change very soon.
As part of Microsoft's Build 2023 event, the company said Windows 11 will add support for opening more archive file formats. RAR is also included in the list. Microsoft said it is adding this support because Windows 11 now uses the libarchive open source project.
Support for RAR files won't be the only one as Windows 11 will also be able to open other archive formats such as 7-zip and gz.
The company even said it will start supporting these file formats in an upcoming preview version of Windows 11 that will be released later this week.
While adding a way to open RAR files in Windows 11 is extremely handy, there doesn't seem to be a way for Microsoft's operating system to compress RAR files on its own. This means that programs like WinRAR will probably still be needed for a while.
