Basically, it has become not only a Review, but also a Tutorial, which was not necessarily the original intent, but I'm glad that it turned out that way. I don't think it does a piece of software justice, if things are not explained well. :)
Most of my friends would just use 7-Zip which is a great product and free. Winrar is actually considerably faster than 7 zip, especially for rar files IMOP.