Quick start: archiving files in Explorer or Desktop
If you did not disable the "Integrate WinRAR into shell" option when installing WinRAR, it is possible to archive files directly in a Windows shell. Select the files you are going to compress, in Explorer or Desktop, press the right mouse button on the selected files and choose "Add to archive…". Enter the destination archive name in the dialog box which appears or accept the default name. You may also select the format of the new archive (RAR or ZIP), compression level, volume size and other archiving parameters. This dialog is described in detail in the Archive name and parameters dialog topic. Click on the OK button when done. An archive will be created in the same folder as the selected files.
You may also select the "Add to <archive name> archive" command to add to the proposed archive without additional requests. In this case compression settings selected in the default compression profile will be used.
Note that if the option "Cascaded context menus" in Integration settings dialog is switched on, you need to open "WinRAR" submenu to access to described above commands. Otherwise they are resided in the top level menu.
Another method is to drag file icons to an existing archive icon and drop them. Files will be added to this archive.