spycat thinks that winace would be good as winrar except winace likes to somehow change its own settings.
powerarchiver very good too. tons of features. but may be too much for new guy.
winzip also good. good for new guy. but lacks features as advanced disk spanning, won't handle ace and rar.
spycat thinks that winrar best overall for balance. easy too use.
fast and handles lots of formats. is amazing what it will do. spycat even uses this to make simple install routines.
if want fancy with features, go powerarchiver.
if new guy and not intersted in w*rez, go winzip.
if in middle, go winrar. it is really good.