TUTORIAL - Automated Custom WinRAR setup with Legacy Context Menus Enabled

RickyMoose · Apr 13, 2024

Hi All,

This is partially in response to the thread:

Can't get Winrar in Context menu despite shell integration & reinstallation

Open WinRAR as administrator . Options---->Settings---->Integration---->Shell Intergration--->enable 'Legacy context menus' . Cheers

www.elevenforum.com

However I also wanted to more fully solve the issue for myself than what I had before so here is my solution...
I the zip file is ~6k which appears to be too large for me to post so you can grab a copy at:
Winrar_Setup_Files_2024-04-13_16.20.28-Public.zip
and

Winrar_Setup_Files_2024-04-13_16.20.28-Public.md5

drive.google.com

for the md5 if needed.

MD5: 83FD09A270D6A4FC8C33402222E3CD10
SHA-1: 93D451D6087FE1883536B4F14E3DE565F2BB26D4
SHA-256: 820FB774E8025AD28DA64AD20D5A89E131CA352F4299EBE9B6D4A00664E620E7

I created an animation for this to illustrate the process as well, you can also view it at:
Winrar_setup_Usage_Animation.gif

Here is the READ ME.rtf included in the download:

WinRAR Silent install with custom settings

By Ricky Moose (STM)

This READ ME will illustrate the process of performing a WinRAR silent install with the custom settings that I use. Under Windows 11 we have the new and LESS improved “

show more options” context menu. This automation will install WinRAR using the LEGACY context menus option along with some custom entries like RAR with DATE.

EG:

In the WinRAR GUI you would set these manually via these 2 options:

There are 2 main bat files you can run. Because my normal use case is running this install from within a VM via shared folders. and because of a VMware security limitation there is the file staging bat file called: “!Winrar_HighestVersion_stage_then_install.bat” which is used to stage the files to %temp% folder on my VM and then will run the primary file “Winrar_Silent_Install-HighestVersionVariant.bat” which one you run to kick off the process is up to you as they essentially have the same end result but the stager is required as a VM workaround. Under the VM, if I had instead just copied the payload to the desktop for example I could have skipped using the stager bat file.

The primary file requires elevation to import registry keys and will attempt to self-elevate, you will need to allow the UAC warning if your UAC is enabled.

Once the process starts, it will scan the current directory for the most current build of WinRAR, you will see in the example I have 3 versions with 7.0 being the most current. If for some reason I had these files and wanted a different version like 6.24 I could simply rename any of the higher builds to exclude them from winrar-x64-*.exe.

You will then be given a 10 second warning on what build the script will install, then the custom settings that I use will get imported via the files:

Winrar_Settings.reg and Winrar_Settings_Enable_Legacy_ContextMenus.reg

The Legacy reg file is meant for Windows 11, so if you are not using win11 just rename the file to skip importing it.

Moving on, WinRAR will get ran one time to allow it to do any 1st time run setup and will then be closed after a few seconds. Afterwards the custom registry files will be imported a 2nd time to re-apply any changes that WinRAR may have modified on 1st run such as the context menu settings.

Because I used the stager, it will then open %temp% so that you can manually delete the staged files if you so choose to do.

NOTE: If after the install you notice that the “show more options” context menu is still enabled for example when you right click on your desktop but not in the temp folder that opens at the end of the process, to fix this you will need to reboot OR you can run the file “RestartExplorerShell_And_CD.cmd” to apply the settings everywhere without rebooting.

IMPORTANT: You will need to download your own WinRAR binary files from WinRAR archiver, a powerful tool to process RAR and ZIP files like in the above example. The script only knows to look for x64 so you will have to modify if using 32bit builds but then you are not using Win 11 at that point.

EG: winrar-x32-700.exe VS winrar-x64-700.exe

Enjoy!!!

https://imgur.com/a/P0Lh4up

antspants · Apr 13, 2024

Ghot said:
There's no way I'm gonna read all that. But I gave you ten cookies anyway.

View attachment 93416

I use 7zip.

Maaaaaaaaaate, it took 1 min to read (If that)

antspants · Apr 13, 2024

Personally I wouldn’t run this without being able to read the source code first. You should put it on Github
But not for me, I wouldn’t use it. I don’t know anyone who uses WinRar so much that the context menue design would have any relevance. So it’s now in a neat heading of WinRar? I can’t see the drama.
But well done, I would assume.

I also gave you 10 cookies (in blind faith) 5 for the two

emojis & 5 for the effort.

EDIT: And I am assuming that this script installs WinRAR as unregistered and no fake keys are added to the Registry?

RickyMoose · Apr 14, 2024

antspants said:
Personally I wouldn’t run this without being able to read the source code first. You should put it on Github
But not for me, I wouldn’t use it. I don’t know anyone who uses WinRar so much that the context menue design would have any relevance. So it’s now in a neat heading of WinRar? I can’t see the drama.
But well done, I would assume.

I also gave you 10 cookies (in blind faith) 5 for the two emojis & 5 for the effort.

EDIT: And I am assuming that this script installs WinRAR as unregistered and no fake keys are added to the Registry?

All the source is bat and reg files so anyone can view it.

I just signed up for a Github account and hope I did it correctly since I guess that I am now a Git Noob

:

GitHub - RickeyMoose/CustomWinRarSetup-01

Contribute to RickeyMoose/CustomWinRarSetup-01 development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

I will leave the Google drive link in case anyone wants to grab the files from there instead.

EDIT: And I am assuming that this script installs WinRAR as unregistered and no fake keys are added to the Registry?

Nope, there are no keys included in the project. The animation mentions the file WinRarKeys.exe. This is what the bat script looks for which is just a WinRAR SFX file that contains my keys. The script will just skip that step if you do not own WinRAR and that file does not exist. The SFX that I use just extracts the key files to C:\Program Files\WinRAR\ with overwrite enabled so I don't have to manually stage them after deployment.

Batch:

REM Check if the file WinRarKeys.exe exists.
REM This file is a Winrar SFX which will expand into "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\" where the key files would go.
REM If you do not create this on your own you will have to manually copy over your own files or modify this script.

if exist "WinRarKeys.exe" (
    echo.
    echo File WinRarKeys.exe found. Executing...
    rem   start "" "WinRarKeys.exe" /s -O+
    rem REMINDER: The -O+ method does not work for me so you have to add  Overwrite=1 to the sfx comments
    "WinRarKeys.exe" /s
) else (
    echo.
    echo File WinRarKeys.exe not found you will have to supply your on registration files manually.
    timeout /t 3
)

Code:

;The comment below contains SFX script commands

Path=C:\Program Files\WinRAR
Title=My personal Winrar keys install
Text
{
This will install the keys to C:\Program Files\WinRAR
}

If anyone does not trust the reg keys that are included they can simply setup their own copy of WinRAR the way they like it and then re-export the settings and replace the file, they will of course have to manually capture the context menu keys as this is not part of the built in WinRAR settings export function.

I used Total Uninstall to capture the context menuy keys because it has an easy export command to only export added or changed keys and then I can just remove the unwanted bits, but to each his own.

Uninstall utility for Windows | Total Uninstall software with easy

Total Uninstall utility analyze installed programs or monitor new installations to uninstall software completely.

www.martau.com

Cheers..

antspants · Apr 14, 2024

RickyMoose said:
I just signed up for a Github account and hope I did it correctly since I guess that I am now a Git Noob :

Nice

Josey Wales · Apr 15, 2024

antspants said:
Personally I wouldn’t run this without being able to read the source code first. You should put it on Github
But not for me, I wouldn’t use it. I don’t know anyone who uses WinRar so much that the context menue design would have any relevance. So it’s now in a neat heading of WinRar? I can’t see the drama.
But well done, I would assume.

I also gave you 10 cookies (in blind faith) 5 for the two emojis & 5 for the effort.

EDIT: And I am assuming that this script installs WinRAR as unregistered and no fake keys are added to the Registry?

I have been using WinRar for years and had never needed anything extra to have it in the context menu.