Introduction to WinRAR interface

This topic briefly describes main elements of WinRAR interface.

WinRAR includes following menus: File, Commands, Tools, Favorites, Options and Help. Select the appropriate topic to read about commands of a particular menu.

The next interface item is the toolbar. It is placed below menus, but above the file list. Toolbar buttons provide the quick access to items of Commands menu. If some archive management functions are not applicable to archive opened in WinRAR, corresponding toolbar buttons can be inaccessible. It is possible to choose buttons to display, remove buttons text or reduce buttons size with Interface settings dialog or in the toolbar right click popup menu.

"Up" button and drop down address bar with disks and other important file system locations are resided below the toolbar. "Up" button opens the parent folder. Drop down list associated with the address bar can be activated with mouse or F4 key. Press Ctrl+D or click the small "Disk" icon on the status bar to access another more condensed disks menu. Unless "Lock toolbars" option in "Interface settings" is on, toolbar, "Up" button and address bar are draggable.

File list is located below the toolbar. It can show either the original contents of the current folder or, if WinRAR is opened an archive, archived files. These are so called file management and archive management modes. Following file parameters are shown: name, size, type and file time. Archived files also have two additional parameters: packed size and checksum. Checksum is a value calculated for file data and allowing to detect if archived file was damaged. WinRAR can use either CRC32 or BLAKE2 algorithms to calculate checksums in RAR archives.

File list parameters are organized into columns. Click on the column title changes the file sort order and repeated click on the same title changes the sort direction, which is displayed with arrow in the title. Column widths are adjustable by dragging column title separators with a mouse. Several additional list options are available in File list dialog.

If archived file is encrypted, its name is followed by the asterisk. If file is continued in the next volume, its name is followed by "-->". If file is continued from the previous volume, its name is followed by "<--". And if file is continued both in next and from previous volumes, its name is followed by "<->".

Before processing files you need to select them in the list. Additionally to standard Windows selection methods WinRAR provides several more keys for this purpose: Space, Ins, "Numpad +", "Numpad -". More details are provided in Selecting files topic.

Following keys can be used to navigate in the file list. Backspace, Ctrl+PgUp or double-click on the folder with ".." name open a parent disk or archive folder. Same action in the root archive folder closes an archive. Press Enter, Ctrl+PgDn or double-click on any other folder to open its contents. Same action applied to an archive name opens this archive. Ctrl+\ sets the root disk folder or folder containing an archive as the current.

Ctrl+PgDn can be used to try opening a file with a non-archive extension as archive. For example, if you wish to check if exe file is self-extracting archive and do not want run this file, you can press Ctrl+PgDn on its name. WinRAR will display the archive contents in case of SFX.

Right clicking the file list displays the menu with file management and interface related commands. These commands are also accessible through the main menu, toolbar and keyboard, so you can select whichever activation method is convenient for you.

Left pane of WinRAR window can contain the folder tree panel if it is enabled in "Folder tree" submenu of Options menu. Folder tree helps to navigate in disk or archive folders quickly. Folder tree width is adjustable by dragging the right border with the mouse.

Depending upon "Show archive comment" option in Interface settings dialog and comment presence in the opened archive, the right part of the file list can be overlapped by the archive comment window. Comment window width can be adjusted dragging its left border with the mouse.

Status bar is placed below the file list, at the bottom of WinRAR window. Left part of the status bar contains two small icons: "Drive" and "Key". Click on the "Drive" icon to change the current disk. Click on the "Key" icon to set the current global password. Both of these commands are also present in the File menu. By default the "Key" icon is grey, but if a global password is entered, the icon becomes yellow. Middle part of the status bar shows either the total size of selected files or information about the current operation. The right part of the status bar displays the number and size of files in the current folder.