WinRAR 7.00 changelog
WinRAR 7.00 brings the following changes:
1. Compression dictionary sizes larger than 1 GB are supportedfor RAR archive format. Depending on the amount of physicallyavailable memory, dictionary up to 64 GB can be selected.Not power of 2 dictionary sizes can be specified for dictionariesexceeding 4 GB. So we are not limited to 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 seriesand can use values like 5 GB or 22 GB.Archives with dictionaries exceeding 4 GB can be unpacked onlyby WinRAR 7.0 or newer. 64-bit WinRAR version is needed to unpackarchives with dictionaries exceeding 1 GB.Increasing the dictionary size can improve the compression ratiofor large files with distant repeated blocks, like virtual machinedisk images. It also can be efficient for sets of large similar filesin a solid archive, such as a collection of software ISO imagesdiffering by version or localization.2. WinRAR issues a prompt allowing to cancel or continue if dictionarysize in extracted RAR archive exceeds "Maximum dictionary sizeallowed to extract" parameter in "Settings/Compression".It is done to prevent the unexpected excessive memory allocation.In the command line mode by default WinRAR refuses to unpack archiveswith dictionary exceeding 4 GB. Use -md or -mdx to allowunpacking dictionaries up to and including the specified size.Unlike -md, -mdx is applied to extraction only and can beadded to RAR environment variable, not affecting archiving commands.3. "Define dictionary sizes" dialog in "Settings/Compression" can be usedto customize dictionary sizes proposed in the drop down list associatedwith "Dictionary size" field in "Archive name and parameters" dialog.4. Alternate search algorithm, optimized to locate longer and more distantrepeated data blocks, can be used when creating RAR archives.It helps to improve the compression ratio and sometimes speedfor redundant data like big text files.It increases memory usage and might reduce the compression speedfor some types of data. It can be turned on or off with"Long range search" options in "Advanced compression parameters" dialogor with -mcl[+|-] switch. If "Auto" option is selected, WinRAR appliesthe long range search depending on the compression method, dictionarysize and other parameters.This algorithm is required for dictionaries exceeding 4 GBand turning it off is ignored for such dictionaries.5. Much slower and more exhaustive repeated data search and compressionalgorithm can be enabled with "Exhaustive search" optionin "Advanced compression parameters" dialog or with -mcx switch.It might provide the additional compression gain for some types ofredundant data, but at much lower compression speed.Long range search is needed to implement this mode efficiently,so the exhaustive search option activates it automatically.Both long range and exhaustive search option do not affectthe compatibility of created archives. So if dictionary sizeis in 128 KB - 4 GB range, archives created with these search optionscan be unpacked by all WinRAR versions beginning from 5.0.6. Maximum path length limit is increased from 2047 to 65535 characters.7. Creating archives in RAR 4.x format isn't supported anymore.Options and switches specific for this format are removed.It doesn't affect RAR 4.x archives decompression, which is includedinto WinRAR.8. "Propagate Mark of the Web" option in "Settings/Security" dialogcontrols assigning the archive Mark of the Web to extracted files.It is possible to prohibit propagating, allow it for severalpredefined file groups, for all files or for files matching userdefined file masks.Mark of the Web is the security zone information added by Internetbrowsers to downloaded files. It can be used by various softwarefor security purposes.It is supported only by GUI WinRAR. Console RAR doesn't propagateMark of the Web regardless of this option.9. "Attributes" column can be enabled in "Settings/File list/Columns".It displays file attribute abbreviations, such as 'A' for "Archive"and 'D' for directory.If file attribute isn't among those recognized by WinRAR,the numeric value of file attributes is also displayed.This value uses hexadecimal format for Windows attributesor octal format for Unix attributes.10. "Benchmark" command allows to specify the exact number of threadsand copy results to clipboard. Information about WinRAR and Windowsversions, CPU and memory is added to benchmark window.11. "Remove redundant folders from extraction path" optionin "Settings/Paths" is now applicable also to extraction commandsinvoked from WinRAR user interface and to multiple archivesunpacked to separate folders. It removes a destination pathcomponent, only if its name matches both the archive name and rootarchived folder name, provided that there are no other foldersor files in archive root.For example, it will remove one of "Pictures" in the destination pathif we unpack Pictures.rar containing the root "Pictures" folderto "Pictures\" destination.Previously it worked only for a single archive extracted fromcontext menu and didn't check if archived folder name matchesthe last destination path component.12. "Word wrap in comment" option in "Interface" options groupin "Settings/General" toggles the word wrap mode in archive commentwindow.13. Dictionary size data in archive information dialog is now availablefor .bz2, .lz, .tar.bz2, .tar.gz, .tar.lz, .tar.zst archives.14. Switch -ol- prohibits archiving and extracting symbolic links.15. Switches -sl[u] and -sm[u] recognize [k|K|m|M|g|G|t|T]size units for kilobytes, thousands of bytes, megabytes, millionsof bytes, gigabytes, billions of bytes, terabytes, trillions of bytes.If unit character is 'b', 'B' or not present, bytes are assumed.Previously these switches accepted bytes only.16. SFX TempMode command accepts the optional @set:user parameterallowing to modify temporary folder permissions, so only the currentuser can access it. It prohibits a local user to replace filesin a temporary folder if SFX is started under another account.It also can be enabled with "Restrict folder access" optionin "Advanced SFX options/Modes" dialog.Some installers might fail to start in a folder created with@set:user parameter.17. File permissions and NTFS alternate streams are not saved forhard link entries. They are saved only for the source file theseentries refer to. It allows to reduce the archive size, becausesuch file properties are automatically propagated to hard linkscopies when extracting.18. Keyboard shortcuts, such as Ctrl+A to select all files or Alt+E tounpack found archives, are now functional in "Search results" windowalso while search is still in progress. Previously they were availableonly after completing search.19. Switch -v[unit] recognizes 't' and 'T' as terabytes andtrillions of bytes for volume size units.20. Warning is issued if leading '-' character is missing in a parameterspecified in "Additional switches" field of WinRAR archivingand extraction dialogs. Also it is issued for parameters lacking '-'in RAR environment variable and rar.ini file.Previously such malformed parameters were ignored silently.21. "Convert archives" command displays the smooth total operation progress.Previously the total progress was updated abruptly after convertingan archive and was visible only when processing multiple archives.22. Proper progress is displayed when compressing symbolic link targets.23. "Integrate WinRAR into shell" option in WinRAR "Settings/Integration"is grayed out if "Global\Integration=0" is present in winrar.ini file.24. 64-bit WinRAR version uses 64-bit SFX modules by default.64-bit SFX modules are needed to unpack archives with dictionariesexceeding 1 GB.32-bit modules are renamed to Default32.SFX, Zip32.SFX, WinCon32.SFX.25. Maximum allowed dictionary size for archiving and extractioncan be specified in gigabytes in MaxDictA and MaxDictE variablesin "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinRAR\Policy" Registry key.If these variables are smaller than corresponding values definedin WinRAR interface, they override interface values.26. Console RAR filters out character 27 from screen output. It is donefor security reasons, because this character can be used to declareANSI escape control sequences in some terminal applications.We are thankful to Siddharth Dushantha for bringing this issueto our attention.27. Bugs fixed:a) it was possible to overwrite Mark of the Web, propagated fromarchive to extracted files, and modify its security zone informationutilizing a specially crafted .rar archive.We are thankful to Orange Tsai and NiNi from DEVCORE Research Teamworking with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative for letting us knowabout this security issue.Unlike WinRAR, unrar.dll library doesn't propagate the archiveMark of the Web and leaves it to a caller application to assign itto extracted files. So unrar.dll isn't affected by this issue;b) "User defined archive extensions" field in "Settings/Integration"was not saved if winrar.ini was used to store settingsand WinRAR was started under non-administrator user account.



