Problem opening a RAR File

[hanabowt]

Now call me stupid if you want but I recently downloaded a file from the internet and went to open it when I was told by a little pop-up box that ( Something like this ) windows cannot open the file as it needs to know what programe created it, I was given two choices 1 search the internet or 2 open with the list of programes.

So please what I would like to know is
1. What is a RAR File ?
2. Whats the best approach to opening it ?
3. Are they safe for my system ?

 

[Golden]

How safe it is depends on what's in it and where you downloaded it from. We wouldn't know.

Download and use 7 Zip to open the RAR archive to examine the contents.

 

[Pauly]

A rar file is a compressed file similar to a zip file, the rar format is common and poses no problem.
Are they safe for your system ? this depends on what is inside it and/or where you got it from

Personally I use 7zip for all my compressed/zip files, its lightweight and free and will deal with most files
7-Zip