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In Winrar, it is possible to save a collection of specific archiving settings into a "profile" for reuse.

like in the picture.

The problem:

  1. It is not possible to edit the profile settings, only its name, as shown here: "You can not change compression options stored in a profile, but it is possible to change profile parameters, for example, its name or default status".
  2. I want to transfer to another computer / send someone the profile I created. Seemingly there is no way to do that.

Does anyone know a way to export and import a profile to WinRar? These settings are saved somewhere, and there must be a way to do it.

From the software interface, and from their documentation, I assume the functionality does not exist. I therefore ask, is it possible to extract this data in order to export it in another way. For example maybe they are kept in a Registry. Or other internal files.

2 Answers 2

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1. Editing an existing WinRAR profile

There can be modified all properties of a WinRAR profile by using the following steps:

  1. Start WinRAR.
  2. Press Alt+A or click on first item Add on the toolbar or click in second menu Commands on first menu item Add files to archive.
  3. Click on first tab General on the button Profiles and click next in the opened menu on the menu item Organize profiles...
  4. Select the profile to edit on left side of the dialog window Organize profiles and click on button Edit.
  5. There can be edited some profile properties in the dialog window Profile parameters, but not the compression properties. That does not matter. Just make sure that the parameter Immediate execution is not checked in this dialog window. Then close the dialog window Profile parameters with button OK on having edited something or with button Cancel on not having changed anything in that window.
  6. Click on button Close of dialog window Organize profiles and there is again displayed the dialog window Archive name and parameters.
  7. Click once again on first tab General on button Profiles and this time click in opened menu on the profile of which compression properties should be modified.
  8. The compression properties of the profile are loaded now and can be modified with clicking through the tabs of the dialog window Archive name and parameters and using the buttons on the tabs to open additional dialog windows with even more options.
  9. When finished with the configuration of the compression options to use, select again the tab General, click once more on button Profile and click this time in the opened pop-up menu on first item Save current settings to a new profile...
  10. Instead of entering a new profile name, select the profile which was loaded before from the profiles list. Then configure the other profile parameters below the Profile name list item as wanted and click on button OK.

The existing profile is overwritten with the compression options and profile parameters defined now which means the existing profile is edited.

2. Exporting and importing the WinRAR profiles

The WinRAR settings and profiles are nearly all stored in Windows registry under key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinRAR

There are three methods to export just the WinRAR profiles on one Windows PC and import them on another Windows computer.

2.1 Exporting just the WinRAR profiles with Windows command reg.exe

There can be executed in a Windows command prompt window:

%SystemRoot%\System32\reg.exe EXPORT HKCU\Software\WinRAR\Profiles "%UserProfile%\WinRAR_Profiles.reg"

That command line exports just the Profiles key with all the subkeys and values to the Windows registry file WinRAR_Profiles.reg in the user's profile directory.

2.2 Using the settings export feature of WinRAR

There can be opened in started WinRAR in last but one menu Options via second item Import and export the submenu with second item Export settings to file. A click on this menu item opens a dialog window to export the Windows registry keys and values of WinRAR into a Windows registry file of the user's choice.

It is advisable to first replace suggested Settings.reg by %UserProfile% and hit key ENTER or RETURN to change the directory to the user's profile directory.

There is by default suggested the file name Settings.reg which should be modified to WinRAR_Settings.reg.

A click on button Save finishes the export.

2.3 Exporting the user's WinRAR settings with Windows command reg.exe

Another method to export most of the WinRAR settings is executing in a Windows command prompt window:

%SystemRoot%\System32\reg.exe EXPORT HKCU\Software\WinRAR "%UserProfile%\WinRAR_Settings.reg"

There is a difference between the registry file created by WinRAR on using Export settings to file and the file WinRAR_Settings.reg created with the command line above in the user's profile directory. The registry file created by WinRAR contains additionally the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WinRAR with all its subkeys and values.

2.4 Removing settings data not to import on other PC

The Unicode encoded (UTF-16 LE with BOM) Windows registry file created by WinRAR or using the command line above with key HKCU\Software\WinRAR can be opened for editing with Windows Notepad by right clicking on file %UserProfile%\WinRAR_Settings.reg and clicking in opened context menu on menu item Edit.

The first line Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 must be kept as is. But the other lines can be deleted or modified to whatever should be imported later on the other computer.

It is necessary to delete all lines from the third line to the empty line above the line with [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinRAR\Profiles] and all lines from [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinRAR\Setup] to end of the file for copying just the WinRAR profiles to another computer and not the other settings. So the Windows registry file contains finally only the first line Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00, an empty line as second line and the lines of the key [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinRAR\Profiles] with all the subkeys 0 to n depending on number of defined WinRAR profiles.

The modified registry file should be saved using the command Save as to %UserProfile%\WinRAR_Profiles.reg.

2.5 Importing the WinRAR profiles on another Windows machine

The Windows registry file %UserProfile%\WinRAR_Profiles.reg created with one of the three methods described above and containing only the data of the key Profiles must be copied next to the other machine to directory %UserProfile%.

Then the import of the WinRAR profiles can be done by running following two commands in a command prompt window:

%SystemRoot%\System32\reg.exe DELETE HKCU\Software\WinRAR\Profiles /f
%SystemRoot%\System32\reg.exe IMPORT "%UserProfile%\WinRAR_Profiles.reg"

The first command line deletes the existing key HKCU\Software\WinRAR\Profiles with all subkeys and values.

The second command line imports the WinRAR profiles as stored in the registry file.

The deletion of the existing key HKCU\Software\WinRAR\Profiles is important as otherwise the result would be a mixture of WinRAR profiles as stored already in Windows registry for current user on the other PC and the profiles as stored in the imported Windows registry file.

The used registry files can be deleted finally from both computers.

It is of course also possible to export and import just one of the defined profiles. There must be find out in this case only the profile number by looking on the lines in the Windows registry file containing the profile to export and import to another computer. Then only the lines of this profile should be kept in the Windows registry file. On the other PC must be first checked how many profiles are stored on this machine in the Windows registry of the current user and the profile number must be adapted accordingly in the Windows registry file before importing it.

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For those looking to transfer, export, or backup passwords, the specific reg key is Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinRAR\Passwords - The one problem I still have is finding a way to combine multiple entries into one.

For example, I have an old drive where I saved passwords in WinRAR, and I formatted the drive since I didn't know about these methods here. I was able to use software to recover the NTUSER.DAT and I could then it, by Loading Hive to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

So now I have multiple *\Passwords registry entries, but I can't find a way to combine them. I've tried exporting both, copying and pasting them together, and then importing, but it loses all the passwords.

Any suggestions on how to achieve this? It would be even better if there were a way to extract the data from the key. -- I wrote to support and received the following information about the encryption, but it is above my head.

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