This command allows to recompress archives from one format to another. It is accessible both in file management and in archive management modes. In the file management mode you may select several files and folders to process, WinRAR will scan them and convert found archives. In the archive management mode only the current archive is converted by default. "Convert archives" dialog contains several items controlling command execution. They are described below.
List of archives, which will be converted by WinRAR. You may add or remove items of this list using "Add" and "Remove" buttons. "Remove" button does not delete files on the disk, it just removes them from the list to convert.
Contents of archive list depends on the next dialog parameter, list of formats.
Here you may choose which archive formats you are going to convert. Note that "rar" denotes all rar archives, when "rar2" means only archives created by rar versions older than 3.0. So if you wish to convert only RAR 1.x and 2.x archives, check "rar2" and keep "rar" blank.
Archive formats in this list may be followed by the number enclosed in parentheses. It shows how many archives of this type are found and ready to be converted. For example, "zip(12)" means that WinRAR found 12 zip archives. If this number is missing, no archives of this type were found.
This option allows to specify the lowest <new packed size>/<old packed size> percent acceptable for converted archives. For example, if you set it to 100, WinRAR will preserve already existing archives, when a new archive is larger than old one. If it is disabled, WinRAR ignores archive sizes.
"Compression" button activates a dialog, where you may choose different parameters for converted archives. For example, you may select either they will be rar or zip.
Here you may enter a folder to place converted archives. If this option is not used, new archives will be placed in the same folder as old converted files.
Chooses either to delete successfully converted archives.
If original and new archives have the same format and "Folder for converted archives" field is blank, original archives will be deleted regardless of this option.
This button stores the state of all dialog controls except "Archives to convert" list, so it will be restored when activating the dialog next time. You may use it to save your favorite conversion settings.