Looking for a free RAR installer

2011/04/01 09:01:40

Guitarhacker

I'm looking for a free rar file unzipper that works and doesn't take over my computer.

I DL'd one the other day to unzip an rar file and it unzipped the file just fine. I stored it in a folder for unloading to my DAW later. Next day, I turned on the computer and this RAR-unzipper had taken over the computer....changed my homepage, installed new tool bars, and the worse thing was.... it would not allow me to log on to this forum.

So I tried a viral scan, that wouldn't run.....I'm thinking Oh &^#*! anyway, I did a system restore before the DL and everything is back to normal..... BUT... the DLL file in the rar-unzip folder is gone..... SO... I need to unzip it again BUT I damn sure don't want to use that same unzipper.

Any recommendations ?

2011/04/01 09:38:13

codamedia

Sounds like you got a trojan with your rar unzipper. Yikes!

I've been using WinRar for years now.

It's suppose to be a 40 day evaluation, but it never stops working - it will just give you a nag screen on start up. I have a licensed copy because I use it for my business, but that call is up to you! The only reason I know it never stops is that I do have it on my laptop as an evaluation copy.

http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

Edit: My copy is really old (at least 6 - 7 yrs) so I'm not sure if the evaluation has changed on newer versions.

2011/04/01 09:43:10

mgh

jZip for me.

2011/04/01 09:57:00

Mesh

Hi Herb,
Usually, some of these free softwares gives you a choice of changing your homepage/adding toolbars etc...before you click "Install".

I have an older version of RAR (can't remember which version) that works without any issues and it's about 3 yrs old. The only thing it asks on Win XP is everytime you unzip a file, "Do you want to purchase"....I just hit cancel and it works as it should......it doesn't ask this in Vista:)). I'll re-post with the version# once I get to my DAW later this evening.

2011/04/01 10:21:37

tarsier

Which one had the problem, so we can avoid it?

I bought WinRAR years ago and haven't had to pay for an update since. It's very unobtrusive, but handy in that it installs the useful "extract" or "add to archive" items in the pop-up menu. It also handles lots of other file types like zip, 7z, iso, and so forth.

I've also used 7-Zip which is free and good, but I'm just very comfortable with WinRAR.