.torrent files are used by BT Clients. I recommend Azureus, which is n00b friendly and excellent! .rar files are just files bunched into a .rar format, a bit like .zip files! You have to use WinRAR to "unbunch" the files. .rar files are usually associated with games/movies/software. Hope this helps, and feel free to ask any other questions!
yes, use winrar to extract the contents of the .rar files that you download. but, when you download bit torrent apps and games, sometimes the people sharing the original file will share multiple .rar or .zip files. this happens frequently because a program shares quicker for everybody if it's split into multiple files. after you finnish downloading these multiple .rar or .zip files, you will then have to put all the pieces back together. i recommend you use winrar. if you have multiple .zip files - highlite all the files and then right-click on the first and choose (extract here) to extract all the files and winrar will put all the pieces back together. don't forget - when winrar is done extracting the first .zip out of all the ones you highlited, you have to tell it "yes" to over-write, otherwise it won't work. telling it to over-write will allow winrar to put all the pieces back together. if you get multiple .rar files you will do the same. if you downloaded a .rar file and a lot of other files came with it that don't have a nice looking icon and have a file extension with numbers in it, then somebody has split the file. all you have to do is double-click on the .rar file and wait for winware to generate all the files within that archive. then winrar will ask you where to extract the contents. it's a little confusing at first, but you'll get the hang of it. hope this helps. let me know if you have any questions.
