It’s not so serious for Rarlab that Microsoft chose to include rar support in Windows 11, along with 7zip and Nanazip.
The major Windows 11 update will be released later this year
The 23H2 update, which is currently in beta testing, will launch later this year with just this and:
- Windows copilot AI
- RGB color control
- Upgrade File Explorer
- Taskbar grouping
- New and improved Windows Spotlight
- Built-in support for .rar, etc.
- Development Engine and Windows Dev Home
But for those who were hoping to get rid of RarLab, in contexts where amounts of data are large, this would be a completely bad idea. Neowin has already tested Microsoft’s implementation by packing a 24GB Windows 11 virtual machine from Microsoft into three different file formats, rar and 7zip, with a compression rate of 50 percent – then comparing it to Windows 11 integration in File Explorer.
The same tests were run multiple times on a desktop computer with a Ryzen 5 2600 processor, 32GB of RAM, a 500GB Samsung 980 SSD, and a laptop.
File support:
- .tar.gz
- .tar. bz2
- .Takes
- .takes. zst
- tar. xz
- .tgz
- .tbz2
- .tzst
- .txz
- .strange
- .7z
You don’t need to be afraid of this
First, the test showed that the OS had no problems keeping up with the .tar: it all took about 80 seconds, but then the problems started. Rar is 3 times slower than Winrar and 2 times slower than Nanazip. Microsoft did even worse with 7zip. Winrar and Nanazip took about a minute, while File Explorer took nearly a minute. Nine minutes.
There are also other issues with File Explorer not showing how much time is left and not being able to open password protected files.
Windows users at least have an option if software can’t be downloaded for some reason, which is also good for Rarlabs and other companies that make a living off of better performance and features.
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