WinRAR by WinRAR

What is WinRAR?

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Overview

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How do I clean WinRAR?

WinRAR may store excess, temporary data on your computer that can take up valuable space. It may also store private data such as passwords or browsing history in the registry or on the file system. The easiest way to erase this data is by downloading AppCleaner, it is 100% free and about 1MB in size. A portable version is also available.

Clean WinRAR
with AppCleaner

If you want to clean WinRAR manually, you can follow the steps outlined below. There are two locations in the file system where WinRAR stores data that can be cleaned. Additionally, WinRAR stores private data in three registry keys.

Registry

To clean the registry from data stored by WinRAR, you can use the Microsoft Registry Editor (regedit.exe) which is installed by default on all Windows operating systems. First of all, open regedit.exe by carrying out these steps:

• Hit the Windows key , usually located in the lower left of your keyboard between the Ctrl and Alt keys.
• Windows XP/Vista/7: Click Run...
• Type regedit.exe
• Hit Enter

Now use regedit.exe to delete the registry keys:

1. • Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER from the root of the tree in the left pane.
   • Expand Software.
   • Right-click WinRAR SFX.
   • Choose Delete from the context menu.
   • Click Yes.
2. • Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER from the root of the tree in the left pane.
   • Expand Software.
   • Expand WinRAR.
   • Right-click DialogEditHistory.
   • Choose Delete from the context menu.
   • Click Yes.
3. • Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER from the root of the tree in the left pane.
   • Expand Software.
   • Expand WinRAR.
   • Expand General.
   • Click Info.
   • Right-click CommentFile in the right pane.
   • Choose Delete from the context menu.
   • Click Yes.

Files

To clean your file system from files stored by WinRAR and to gain free disk space, examine the following file system locations. First of all, open a command prompt window:

• Hit the Windows key , usually located in the lower left of your keyboard between the Ctrl and Alt keys.
• Windows XP/Vista/7: Click Run...
• Type cmd
• Hit Enter

Now list all the files stored by WinRAR that can be cleaned:

1. Type dir /s %ProgramFiles%\WinRAR\*.tmp
   • On 64-Bit also: Type dir /s %ProgramFiles(x86)%\WinRAR\*.tmp
2. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore\Program Files*
   • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\VirtualStore\Program Files*
3. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
   Type dir /s {folder}\WinRAR\*.tmp where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.

Once you have identified the files stored by WinRAR that you want to clean, delete them using the del command or Windows Explorer.

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