WinRAR 5.60 released with new look and features

[ADN]

WinRAR 5.60 is a new version of the popular cross-platform compression tool that has been released to the public earlier today. WinRAR 5.60 is the first big release since WinRAR version 5.50 was released back in 2017. It is available as a 32-bit and 64-bit version for Windows and other supported operating systems.

 

The new version of WinRAR comes with a new look and feature improvements. Interface modifications of popular programs are highly controversial usually; think of Mozilla's launch of Firefox Australis or Microsoft's introduction of the Ribbon interface in Office.

WinRAR 5.60 new look

WinRAR users don't have to worry about the new look of the compression tool on the other hand; the refresh gives the toolbar just a new theme without changing anything functionality-wise.

 

 

The new WinRAR 5.60 features new icons and new colors for the most part; the functionality is still there and existing WinRAR users will feel right at home. Those who do not like the new looks can download the classic theme with a click on this link to install it and make it the default theme of WinRAR again.

 

All that is required for that is to download the theme to the local system and select it under Options > Themes > Organize Themes > Add to install it. What's left then is to switch to the new theme under Options > Themes > WinRAR Classic to restore the classic look.

 

 

WinRAR's info view window has bit of a new look as well. The window comes with a refreshed compression ratio graph and "Names and Data" is displayed now under Encryption if the archive uses encrypted file names.

 

What about new or improved features?

 

The developers have improved the RAR5 format repair efficiency. The new algorithm is capable of detecting "deletions and insertions of unlimited site" as well as "shuffled data". The latter is interesting as it introduces repair functionality that uses several archives with recovery records to merge them "into a single file in arbitrary order".

 

You can run repair operations for any RAR archive right from the main interface with a click on the repair button in WinRAR's toolbar.

 

WinRAR 5.60 supports different encodings including ANSI, OEM, UTF-8 and UTF-16 and can display them correct in comment files.

 

If you work with password protected archives regularly, you may benefit from another improvement that went into WinRAR 5.60. When you enter an incorrect password for a password protected RAR archive with encrypted file names, WinRAR displays the password prompt again instead of just aborting the extraction process as it has done previously. The feature is also available for encrypted files in ZIP archives and improves the existing feature that worked on encrypted file data.

 

You can password protect RAR archives that you create in WinRAR and select the "encrypt file names" option to scramble file names in the archive as well.

 

Last but not least, you may place the mouse cursor over archives in the progress window to display the full archive name.

 

The full changelog on the WinRAR website highlights additional improvements (just a selection below):

• Turn PC off when done option changed to When Done. It lists turn off, hibernate, and sleep as options.
• Additional encoding improvements, e.g. auto detection of encoding used in ZIP archive comments.
• Recognizes GZIP archives with "arbitrary data preceding" as actual GZIP archives.
• Update and Fresh commands don't create temporary files anymore if no files need updating.
• Safety prompt after creating 500 volumes from the WinRAR GUI shell so that users can abort if done in error.
• WinRAR uses megabytes instead of bytes in the archiving dialog.

 

Ghacks.net

[knowledge-Spammer]

for me is not new as have been useing for sometime but i think it look much better

[SPECTRUM]

yes, it looks better now.

[Archanus]

I really like the new look of WinRAR  

[BTJB]

Good except Repair Icon! It should be with old repair icon!

[I4rg£8all8ag]

Did a in place update so I didn't know it had a new default theme... Doh ???

[948bennett]

Personally i have waited to update as i prefer the old look.

[hullboy]

3 minutes ago, 948bennett said:

Personally i have waited to update as i prefer the old look.

 

You have no problem at all, you can easily download the old theme as quoted from 5.60 changelog

Quote

Version 5.60

   1. We updated WinRAR graphics.

      We are grateful to http://weirdsgn.com and http://icondesignlab.com
      designers participated in this endeavor and proud to announce that
      WinRAR uses the new icon set prepared by Aditya Nugraha Putra
      from http://weirdsgn.com.

      Previous WinRAR icons are available as interface theme here:
      https://rarlab.com/themes/WinRAR_Classic_48x36.theme.rar
 

 

[halvgris]

never really looked at the interface i just do my stuff.

[luisam]

I've been using previous 5.60beta versions and never encuntered with any of the reported bugs and issues. Of course, I don't demand too much from WinRar! Maybe an interesting point to highlight is that WinRar 5.60 still keeps it's installaton file at 3 Mb, quite a feature compared with some other "compressor" apps, i.e. WinZip 22 takes 52 Mb! Years ago I used to update to latest Winzip versions too but I've been finding it rather useless, between Winrar and Windows 7's inbuilt RAR enabled. The "better" compression rate from Winzip in best cases represents only some insignicant bytes and some other compressed file are actually bigger  than those with RAR. Of course, again we are talking about just some bytes!

The looks of my installed version haven't changed, I have the same original icons. Presume that it's because I'm ugrading the existing installation. Really I'm not interested to get the new set of icons or a new look for the menu. I feel it's intrascendent. Same with license: I had no need to get a new license; 5.60 works perfectly with the old one, as all the previous beta had been.

On 7/1/2018 at 4:29 PM, BTJB said:

Good except Repair Icon! It should be with old repair icon!

 Just took a look at my Winrar screen - remember, it's the old screen, hasn't changed -  and it doesn't have any "Repair icon". Anyway, I believe menu icons has no weigtht while evaluateing the functionality of WonRar.

 

 

[SPECTRUM]

On 7/1/2018 at 4:29 PM, BTJB said:

Good except Repair Icon! It should be with old repair icon! 

 

no, because the old icon was representing a medicine and winrar's files are not related with medicine, winrar files are archiverers, and now the new icon is an archiver with patches, so is more accurate.

[Ryrynz]

You can change the default icons anyway and have been able to for a long long time, there are tons of themes..

[RejZoR]

I'm wondering who and why use WinRAR instead of lets say 7zip which is free and has a better compression. Plus, 7z is supported by everyone now. RAR, not so much. It used to be great in the past, before 7z format existed, but not anymore. Not for a long time.

[mkc21]

Is this the final version? 

[TheBig]

.

[DKT27]

On 7/5/2018 at 6:37 PM, RejZoR said:

I'm wondering who and why use WinRAR instead of lets say 7zip which is free and has a better compression. Plus, 7z is supported by everyone now. RAR, not so much. It used to be great in the past, before 7z format existed, but not anymore. Not for a long time.

 

I blame the scene for this.

 

Also, I would have switched long ago if it was offering this in the file properties with it.

[luisam]

 

On 7/5/2018 at 9:07 AM, RejZoR said:

I'm wondering who and why use WinRAR instead of lets say 7zip which is free and has a better compression. Plus, 7z is supported by everyone now. RAR, not so much. It used to be great in the past, before 7z format existed, but not anymore. Not for a long time.

 

You are right but... Yes, 7Z is free, but "somehow" Winrar is too.. hehehe. And it opens 7Z format, too.  Actually I don't care much about compression rate. Normally, the gain between different formats as ZIP, RAR or 7z is irrelevant. My real use of a "compressor" is to pack diffrent files in one file to send it by email. I don't worry if resultant file is somewhat bigger of smaller. My concern is that the person who will get that file might open it and recover those compressed files.

My experience is that most noob users are only are familiar with the easiest kind of ZIP, the one incorporated to Explorer so sometimes I simply use the ZIP option. I might ask if receptor has Winrar and if interested, I provide them a licensed copy. Infallibly those who get WinRar, are happy with it, so why complicate their life with equally efficient 7Z? Winrar is also great to SPLIT big files in chunks digerible by emails... if you don't want to use cloud upload. Remember, we are treating with noobs who might ask you "a dropwahat...?"

So, if Winrar issues a new version, I like to have it. I always start by getting all those betas even if for my effects, they work just the same. Eventual bugs are for some complicated cases, far over my user limit.

[DKT27]

I must mention, till this came, 7z's compression was far better but now it's worse than it.

[dcs18]

I've got both archivers on all my systems — 7z and WinRAR, as well. Have personally tested both programs for compression — 7z wins on compression (most of the time) whereas WinRAR wins every time, on ease of use (and other miscellany.)

 

The 7z offers 1-2% compression more than WinRAR — the WinRAR ease of use scores 10% plus more than 7z. In fact, I find myself (and also my Clients) using WinRAR much more than we ever use 7z.

 

While the cost factor is valid for certain folks — almost everything is free for members (like us) belonging to warez forums. Moreover, a genuine license is available free from the Publishers of WinRAR . . . . . since many years.

 

As far as cross-compatibility is concerned, WinRAR was the second to embrace the new-age RAR5 (right behind WinZip — with their ZIPX) — that was the time when 7z lost most of their Users to WinRAR (and some, even to WinZip) all due to the 7z incompatibility with the new algorithm. One of the many other reasons I don't blame members of the scene and other reverse-engineers for their loyalty to WinRAR — the latest RAR5 retains the same file format as the previous versions RAR (WinZip took a battering because their new ZIP file format changed to ZIPX.)

 

I stumbled upon quite a few new WinRAR features, upgrading from the V4 — (surprisingly) not all of which were enabled on the V5, by default.

 

Least, but not last — nothing . . . . . . nothing beats the visuals on the recent builds of WinRAR:—

 

[DKT27]

6 minutes ago, dcs18 said:

Moreover, a genuine license is available free from the Publishers of WinRAR . . . . . since many years.

1

 

Do not say that aloud, that's a secret there.

 

That secret was introduced to me not a long ago by jalaffa. Turns out, the developer / marketer is quite happy if the users do not pay for it.

[kawamase]

It is a step in the right direction visually.

[debebee]

Blame the scene for proliferating everything under a  RAR...

[vitorio]

18 hours ago, dcs18 said:

Have personally tested both programs for compression — 7z wins on compression (most of the time) whereas WinRAR wins

Great review.I myself prefer WinRAR.

[Wartas]

I prefer the previous version, but no matter what it looks like, it's still the best.

[truemate]

new looks not so good.... look like some kiddie tool icons

back to classic theme

 

 

On 7/10/2018 at 11:16 PM, DKT27 said:

 

Do not say that aloud, that's a secret there.

 

That secret was introduced to me not a long ago by jalaffa. Turns out, the developer / marketer is quite happy if the users do not pay for it.

 

how ? ?