Winzip and WinRar are commonly used programs to compress and decompress files. An archive is a file that has been compressed to take up less space on a hard drive. When a file is compressed using programs like Winzip or WinRar, it can be stored anywhere and reduces file size and transmission time for emails. WinRar is able to compress and decompress the most popular file formats, like ZIP and RAR, without needing other decompressor programs.