Automatically unRAR Your Torrents Using uTorrent

June 06, 2008 by sharky

We all know how big of a pain it is having to extract all those RAR files after downloading a torrent, especially if it’s a large game ISO or DVDr movie. Even on a zippy computer it takes up to 5 minutes to extract a full DVD release - let alone if you’re stuck using an old clunker. So why not set up µTorrent to do the hard work for you while you’re at work or busy sleeping? Who doesn’t like the idea of waking up and finding your finished torrents already extracted, ready-to-watch?

This tip will allow you to set up µTorrent to automatically unRAR the files in a torrent once it’s finished downloading. Here’s how to do it:

You’ll Require:

— µTorrent

— WinRAR - be sure it’s installed to the default directory ( "C:\Program Files\WinRAR" ).

Step 1 — Create a batch file:

Download this batch file from here. Firefox users, click on the link, and just copy/paste the text into a new text document and save it as unrar.bat. Explorer users; you’ll be able to save the unrar.bat file to your hard drive. Another option - you can copy/paste the text from this link and save the file as unrar.bat.

Step 2 — This tip will not work if your µTorrent’s download directory is in your "C:\Documents and Settings\…" folder, as unrar.exe cannot handle folders or filenames that contain any blank spaces. You’ll first need to change the download path in µTorrent, through Options > Preferences - click on the Downloads tab and put a checkmark in the box "Put new downloads in". Now, enter a path, (for example - C:\uTorrent). Click Apply to save the changes.

Step 3 — As stated above, this will not work for RAR files that have blank spaces in the name. Not to worry - any proper ’scene’ torrent will not have any spaces, so movies are a great option for this.

Move the file ‘unrar.bat‘ to your µTorrent’s ‘download’ directory for the folder you want to have unRARed.

(TIP - to open the desired folder; in µTorrent, right-click on an unfinished torrent, and select "Open Containing Folder" - now copy/move unrar.bat there).

Step 4 — Back in µTorrent, right-click the desired downloading torrent that you wish to extract, and select "Properties…" at the bottom of the list.

Next, click on the Advanced tab. Now click on the [ ... ] link.

You’ll need to change the File Types to "All Files" at the bottom:

Now, browse to the torrent folder from Step 3 that contains the unrar.bat file. For example, C:\uTorrent\some_movie_name. Click on unrar.bat, select OPEN.

You should now see the correct path in the Torrent Properties to your unrar.bat file. There should be no blank spaces in the path…click "OK" to finalize.

That’s it! Once the torrent has finished downloading, it will automatically extract the files from the RARs.

NOTE — This tip only works for one individual torrent at a time. To get it to work with multiple downloads, repeat the exact same procedures for each torrent, being sure to copy unrar.bat into each directory. If anyone has an idea of how to change the *.bat file to work through the entire µTorrent downloads directory, please let me know.

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