winrar-keygen

WinRAR Keygen

Principle of WinRAR key generation

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## 1. What is WinRAR? WinRAR is a trialware file archiver utility for Windows, developed by Eugene Roshal of win.rar GmbH. It can create and view archives in RAR or ZIP file formats and unpack numerous archive file formats. WinRAR is not a free software. If you want to use it, you should pay to [**RARLAB**](https://www.rarlab.com/) and then you will get a license file named `rarreg.key`. This repository will tell you how WinRAR license file `"rarreg.key"` is generated. ## 2. How is "rarreg.key" generated? See [here](README.HOW_DOES_IT_WORK.md). ## 3. How to use? There are several ways to use it. + [Use Github Actions](#4-Use-Github-Actions) + [Use Github Actions with secrets](#5-Use-Github-Actions-with-secrets) + [Build in Visual Studio](#6-Build-in-Visual-Studio) + [Build in Github Actions](#7-Build-in-Github-Actions) + [Build with CMake](#8-Build-with-CMake) + [Use GUI for Windows](#9-Use-GUI-for-Windows) ### 3.1 Encoding WinRAR Keygen supports `ASCII`, `ANSI` and `UTF8NoBOM` encoding types, the corresponding supported characters are listed in the table below. > [!NOTE] > The default is `utf8`, but you can specify the encoding as `ascii` or `ansi`. | Encoding | Supported Characters | Character Examples | | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | [ascii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII) | Only full ASCII characters are supported. | | | ansi | There is no one fixed ANSI code, usually [Windows-1252](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows-1252), but other local codes are also possible. | | | [utf8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8) | Supports UTF-8 without BOM. | ASCII characters, English, 简体中文, 繁體中文, Deutsch, Français, Русский, Italiano, 日本語, 한국어, Lengua española, Ελληνική γλώσσα, et al. | ### 3.2 License type There are two types of WinRAR licenses, `rarreg.key` and `rarkey.rar`, which differ only in their import. | rarreg.key | rarkey.rar | | :--------------------------------------------: | :----------------------------------------------: | | | | | Drag to import or place in a location | Double-click to run automatic import | You can try to put the `rarreg.key` in the following directory. ```shell %APPDATA%\WinRAR\rarreg.key ``` You can also compress `rarreg.key` into `rarkey.rar` and double-click it to run it, and the license import will take place automatically. ## 4. Use Github Actions Click to expand The new workflow can easily help you generate a license, you just need to follow these steps. > Your `` and `` will appear in the Actions log, if you don't want to give out this information, see [5. Using Github Actions with secrets](#5-Use-Github-Actions-with-secrets). ### 4.1 Fork **Fork** this repo. ### 4.2 Allow fork repo to run workflows Go back to the repo you just forked and click **Actions** to allow Workflows to run in your forked repo. ### 4.3 Run workflow After allowing the workflow, go to **Actions > WinRAR Keygen > Run workflow** and fill in the information to start generating. > For the difference of license encoding, please refer to [3.1 Encoding](#31-Encoding). After running successfully, open the corresponding task and select **rarreg_file** to download. > File retention 90 days. Extract rarreg_file.zip to get `rarreg.key` and drag to import into WinRAR. You can also compress `rarreg.key` into `rarkey.rar`, then double-click it to run it, and the license import will be done automatically. ## 5. Use Github Actions with secrets Click to expand Using [secrets](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/security-guides/encrypted-secrets) can help you hide license information. ### 5.1 Fork **Fork** this repo. ### 5.2 Allow fork repo to run workflows Go back to the repo you just forked and click **Actions** to allow Workflows to run in your forked repo. ### 5.3 Create secrets After allowing the workflow, go to **Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions > New repository secret** to create a secret. Create three secrets with the names `TEXT1`, `TEXT2` and `PWD` and fill in the relevant values. > The value filled in should be consistent with the type of code you have chosen. | Secrets Name | Explanation | | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------ | | TEXT1 | Your Name | | TEXT2 | Your License Name | | PWD | 7-Zip Password | Once created, you will see it. ### 5.4 Run workflow Go to **Actions** and select **WinRAR Keygen with secrets** to run workflow manually. For the difference of license encoding, please refer to [3.1 Encoding](#31-Encoding). After running successfully, open the corresponding task and select **rarreg_file** to download. > File retained for **1 day** only. Extract `rarreg_file.zip` to get `rarreg.7z`, unzip it with the password to get `rarreg.key`, then drag and drop to import into WinRAR. You can also compress `rarreg.key` into `rarkey.rar`, then double-click it to run it, and the license import will be done automatically. ## 6. Build in Visual Studio Click to expand If you don't want to compile it yourself, you can compile it using [Actions](#7-Build-in-Github-Actions) or visit the [Release](https://github.com/bitcookies/winrar-keygen/releases/) to download the corresponding version. ### 6.1 Prerequisites 1. Please make sure you have **Visual Studio 2026**, as this is a VS2026 project. If you are still using Visual Studio 2022 or 2019, you can find the corresponding projects in the [vs2022](https://github.com/bitcookies/winrar-keygen/tree/vs2022) and [vs2019](https://github.com/bitcookies/winrar-keygen/tree/vs2019) branches. However, these branches are no longer maintained. 2. Please make sure you have installed `vcpkg` and the following libraries: + `mpir:x86-windows-static` + `mpir:x64-windows-static` + `gmp:x64-windows` + `gmp:arm64-windows-static` is installed. You can install them by: ```shell $ vcpkg install mpir:x86-windows-static $ vcpkg install mpir:x64-windows-static $ vcpkg install gmp:x64-windows $ vcpkg install gmp:arm64-windows-static ``` 3. Your `vcpkg` has been integrated into your **Visual Studio**, which means you have run successfully. ```shell $ vcpkg integrate install ``` ### 6.2 Build 1. Open this project in **Visual Studio**. 2. Select **Release** configuration. 3. Select **Build > Build Solution**. You will see executable files in `bin/` directory. ### 6.3 How to use? Execute the following code in the terminal and configure two parameters to generate `rarreg.key`. ```shell Usage: winrar-keygen.exe [options] winrar-keygen.exe -v | --version winrar-keygen.exe -h | --help Options: -e, --encoding utf8 (default), ascii, ansi -o, --output Output file (default: rarreg.key) -a, --activate Write to %APPDATA%\WinRAR\rarreg.key -t, --text Print to console only, don't write file -u, --update Check for updates on GitHub -v, --version Show version -h, --help Show this help ``` #### Options | Flag | Description | | :--------------------- | :--------------------------------------- | | `-e, --encoding ` | `utf8` (default), `ascii`, `ansi` | | `-o, --output ` | Output file path (default: `rarreg.key`) | | `-a, --activate` | Write to `%APPDATA%\WinRAR\rarreg.key` | | `-t, --text` | Print to console only, don't write file | | `-u, --update` | Check for updates on GitHub | | `-v, --version` | Show version | | `-h, --help` | Show help | Here is an example of ASCII encoding for `Github` and `Single PC usage license`. ```shell ./winrar-keygen.exe "Github" "Single PC usage license" -t -e ascii ``` Now you can see the newly generated file. ```console RAR registration data Github Single PC usage license UID=3a3d02329a32b63da7d8 6412212250a7d8753c5e7037d83011171578c57042fa30c506caae 9954e4853d415ec594e46017cb3db740bc4b32e47aea25db62f350 9f22065a27da4f8216d2938e1050b6e3347501a3767d1fdd7ee130 dd4ab952600ba16a99236d910bfa995d5f60651ec451f462511507 95b3722d059f2d5303a231e396cf21f17098edeec0b6e3347501a3 767d1fdd7ee45388769767642338ee8a63178f3458b71de5609b18 5eede7ed46566b10bf033daa6384062b259194b1acbd0378116064 ``` ### 6.4 More examples Generate a UTF-8 encoded license and activate WinRAR directly. > The UTF-8 encoded license will automatically determine whether to add the `utf8:` prefix based on the characters. ```shell ./winrar-keygen.exe "Github" "Single PC usage license" -a ``` Generate an ANSI-encoded license and generate a license file. > ANSI encoding is region-dependent on Windows. While characters in the current region may display correctly, garbled characters may still occur. ```shell ./winrar-keygen.exe "Github" "Single PC usage license" -e ansi ``` Generate an ASCII-encoded license and output it only to the console. ```shell ./winrar-keygen.exe "Github" "Single PC usage license" -t -e asci ``` ## 7. Build in Github Actions Click to expand In Actions, you can build applications for six architectures: Linux x64, Linux ARM64, macOS ARM64, Windows x64, Windows Win32, and Windows ARM64. Click the **Fork** button in the upper-right corner of the project to fork the code to your GitHub. Then locate the forked repository, go to the Actions page, and run **"Build All Platforms" (build.yml)**. > Building on Windows takes about 25 minutes; we recommend building locally for faster results. Once the workflow has run successfully, you can download it from Artifacts. ## 8. Build with CMake Click to expand For Linux or macOS users, you can [build in Github Actions](#7-Build-in-Github-Actions), but you can also compile it yourself. ### 8.1 Linux (Ubuntu/Debian) ```shell # Install dependencies sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y build-essential cmake libgmp-dev # Compile mkdir build && cd build cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release cmake --build . --config Release # Build artifacts ./winrar-keygen --help ``` ### 8.2 macOS (Homebrew) ```shell # Install dependencies brew install cmake gmp # Compile mkdir build && cd build cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release cmake --build . --config Release # Build artifacts ./winrar-keygen --help ``` The output is always `build/winrar-keygen`, and the version number is controlled by `APP_VERSION` in `CMakeLists.txt`. ## 9. Use GUI for Windows Click to expand If you are using Windows 10 or 11, you can use the GUI application, which is built using .NET 8 WPF and Fluent Design (WPF UI) and supports both `x64` and