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whats a rar.exe file used for?

By Snuffy09 ·
My AV software picked up on this file on my thumbdrive. I thought it was a virus from another PC so i removed it.

Now when i browse to my thumbdrive it says the rar.exe file cannot be found. I have to right-click and choose explore to open my thumbdrive.

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It uncompresses compressed files ...

by OldER Mycroft In reply to whats a rar.exe file used ...

If you run RAR.EXE on an uncompressed file - it compresses it.

If you run RAR.EXE on a compressed file - it uncompresses it.

It's a component file from the WinRAR system.

It also works for ZIP files (but only to uncompress obviously).


Edit for ZIP.

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indeed

by Snuffy09 In reply to It uncompresses compresse ...

i know about/and use WINRAR but why does my flash drive suddenly act like it cant live without it?

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I assume ...

by OldER Mycroft In reply to indeed

You have one or more critical compressed files onboard the flash drive.

Are you maybe running Portable Apps - there is a WinRAR app in there.

Perhaps a directory/file manager?

Without knowing the contents of your flash drive I really couldn't comment. But if you deleted it and now Explorer is complaining when you try to view the flash drive, I assume something in there is compressed.

On the other hand, viruses can and do rename their own files to resemble a commonly used file, so maybe you did have a virus - maybe you still have.

Depends what complaint you are getting from your system.

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