Integration settings dialog


To activate this dialog in WinRAR select "Settings…" command in Options menu and click on "Integration" tab. The same set of options also is available when installing WinRAR, so it is possible to change the described below options both during installation and later, in WinRAR settings.

Associate WinRAR with (RAR, ZIP, etc.)

Associate WinRAR as default viewer for selected formats. It is reasonable to leave these options selected, so you can open archives in WinRAR by double clicking on archive name or icon in Explorer or Desktop. "Toggle all" button selects all formats at once or deselects them if all they are already selected.

Beginning from Windows 10, Windows treats these association options as recommendation only. Generally they are applied in case no other user application is associated with a file type. Otherwise they are utilized to build "Open with" list with multiple entries. So it may be necessary to resort to Windows own settings to change an already existing file association, such as "Choose another app" with "Always use this app to open files" option in "Open with" Explorer menu or "Choose default apps by file type" in Windows settings.

User defined archive extensions

Here you can specify additional file name extensions for archive formats supported by WinRAR. For example, if you have files with ".dat" extension, which are in RAR format, you can enter "dat" in this field to associate WinRAR with such files and add extraction commands to context menus displayed for "dat" files in Windows shell. If you need to enter several extensions, separate them by spaces.

This option is available only in WinRAR settings, but not in WinRAR installer.

Interface/Add WinRAR to Desktop

Add WinRAR icon to the Desktop.

Interface/Add WinRAR to Start Menu

Add WinRAR icon to the Start Menu.

This option adds WinRAR icon to top level of classic style Start Menu in Windows XP. Starting from Windows Vista, programs cannot add themselves to the top of the Start menu, so this option adds WinRAR icon to "All Programs" list. You can use "Pin to Start Menu" Windows command if you need to add an application icon to top of Start Menu in Windows Vista and newer.

Interface/Create WinRAR program group

Create a WinRAR program group in Start Menu/Programs.

Shell integration/Integrate WinRAR into shell

Allows the use of context menus and drag and drop for handling WinRAR archives.

Shell integration/Cascaded context menus

Place all items added by WinRAR to file and archive context menus into submenu.

Shell integration/Icons in context menus

Add small icons to items added by WinRAR to file and archive context menus.

Shell integration/Context menu items

Choose items to display in Explorer context menus.