You can easily open zip files on most Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu systems without needing any additional software. However, to open .rar files, you’ll need some specific software, which is readily available on the internet, to assist you in accessing these files on your computer.
The 7-zip is an open-source program, of course, it’s totally no fee for using. The 7-zip is the best software for opening the .rar files on Windows as well as Ubuntu, but you can’t use this program for macOS.
What is a .rar file?
RAR is the original format of WinRAR archiver which similar to other archives. They store one or a variety of files in the compressed form. When you downloaded the RAR file from the Web, you have to extract its files if you want to use it.
Some RAR files can be parts of multi-volume sequences. In WinRAR, you can split a big archive to a several smaller sized files, which are referred to as volumes. They can have extensions .rar (the first volume) .part1.rar, .part2.rar, etc.
Whenever you need to join the split parts back together again, just move all the files that have an extension (.part1.rar, .part2.rar, …, etc.) on the same folder. Then, just right-click on the first file (.part1.rar) and select Extract from the drop-down menu.
How to open the .rar files on Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu
Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10
The first, you need to download and install 7-zip software via this link. You can see more detail for installing this software from here.
To extract any the .rar file, you can right-click on it and just select the Extract files from the menu.
You also can view all contents of the .rar file by clicking on the .rar file that you want. Or right-click on it and select Open option.
MacOS
On macOS, there are not as many free apps as on Windows, but you still some application that you can use the Unarchiver which has supported more archive files (.rar, .zip, 7z, gz,…).
When you have installed it on your Mac, you can easily extract the .rar files. Just click on the file and select the Extract button. There also are some other apps that you can use for compressing and uncompressing the .rar files like B1 Free Archiver, Keka,…
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Ubuntu
The 7-zip is also one of best compress and uncompress applications for Ubuntu. Click here to see the guide for installing the 7-zip app on Ubuntu.
That’s all. If you know any other methods to open the .rar files on Windows, macOS and Ubuntu. Let us know about in the comment below.
