Disabling Windows' native Zip folder support
Tonight I finally got sick of Windows XP's native support for Zip files in Windows Explorer. It really slows down Explorer and I really have never even liked the fact that it treats Zip files as folders. I want compressed archives to be what they are—files. If I want to view the contents of compressed archives, I'll use an archive applications like WinRAR.
To prevent Windows XP from treating compressed Zip files as a folder,
go to "Start > Run" and type the following:
regsvr32 /u zipfldr
If you wish to restore native Zip support in Windows, just go
back to "Start > Run" and type the following:
regsvr32 zipfldr
Dan
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Feb 11, 2006
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9:34 PM
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9448 Views
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Comments (29)
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Disabling this support speeds Windows Explorer up dramatically when there are a lot of zip files in a directory.
btw.. nice looking dogs.
You hit #1 on a simple Google search and your suggestion was perfectly what I was looking for!
Scott
I use XP at work and occasionally need to search network drives for specific files and since the archived files all share the zipfile name with just different extensions (not my idea, I just work here) searching inside the zip archives is a BIG waste of time. And with 10-12 years of archives it is a LOT of time.
Thanks again,
Dan O.
Just what I wanted but (sigh) how do I get the WinRAR icon associated with zip/rar files back?
It's easier when scanning folders to see the compressed files :)
For an entire extension, open Windows Explorer, select Tools, Folder
Options, File Types, Advanced.
(Thanks to Eric:
http://www.tabletquestions.com/windows-xp/62186-as...)
You have saved what little hair I have in my head.
Regards
Steve
It should be mentioned that this also disabled Explorer's Find tool from searching inside zips. This "feature" was getting incredibly annoying on my 300 GB external hard disk, which has many large zip files on it, none of which I ever want Windows to search inside!
You have to check the button to turn off WinZip's explorer enhancements *before* you run the regsvr32 command and re-associate zip files, in order for it to work as expected.
I was looking for a way to disable explorer search inside zip files (that slows down the searches), I could not imagine that disablig the support of zip folders, I'd disabled the search into zip files. Thank you again.
(I've got zip files with thousands of file compressed and searches of simple files were become impossible.
Thanks a lot.
If XP is "fixing" itself, then my guess is you're running something that's changing the registry settings back for you. I've never seen this behavior, but if you're logged in to a Corporate LAN, they could be enforcing registry policies on you.
It's also possible a program designed to prevent spyware is preventing the change.
I was trying sort out a folder with pictures and archives in subfolders, windows's zip support totally screwed up everything I tried.
Not enabling this in folder options is one big screwup by microsoft.
The solution is just rename the zipfldr.dll to zipfldr.dll_ in the windows/system32 directory. And when windows complain ignore it. This will solve the problem altogether.
What agony to have to sit through a search for 30 seconds/zip file. My google search took me right to your tip.
The zip dll file got its way back whenever you try to associate the zip file with winrar.