Disabling zip file integration in Win Explorer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Thelo
  • Start date Start date
T

Thelo

In WinXP's Windows Explorer, zip files are treated like
folders: they appear in the left pane (tree view) and you
can open them directly from there.

I hate that function since I have lots of zip files and it
clutters up the left pane. How can I disable it?
 
Thanks, that worked :)
-----Original Message-----
Hi Thelo,

Click on Start>Run and type the following and press enter:

regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll

This will unregister the zipfldr.dll file which handles the ZIP files in Windows XP.

--

Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://aspnet2.com/mvp.ashx?AnandoChatterjee

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"Thelo" <[email protected]> wrote in
Click to expand...
message news:[email protected]...
 
Actually, I've now found that after a while, the zip files are again treated
as folders, as if the system "repaired" the settings somehow... Is there a
way to make that change permanent
 
Thelo said:
Actually, I've now found that after a while, the zip files are again treated
as folders, as if the system "repaired" the settings somehow... Is there a
way to make that change permanent
Click to expand...


In my case, after unregistering the dll, the system continued to show
zip files on a removable zip disk as folders (they had Winzip icons,
but selecting them displayed their contents in the right pane).

Why the hell couldn't Microsoft have left the .zip extension alone
when they came up with this zipped folders scheme? Do they always
have to piss on someone else's parade?

Does anyone know a better solution than just giving up on .zip files
permanently?

Best wishes,
Don Leighty
 
Anando said:
Hi Don,

If they had the WinZIP icon, then they are being handled by WinZIP and not by the Windows Explorer through zipfldr.dll

--

Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://aspnet2.com/mvp.ashx?AnandoChatterjee
Click to expand...



Anando said:
Hi Don,

If they had the WinZIP icon, then they are being handled by WinZIP and not by the Windows Explorer through zipfldr.dll

--

Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://aspnet2.com/mvp.ashx?AnandoChatterjee
Click to expand...



Why then are the zip files displayed in the the left pane at all (and
their contents in the right pane), Anando? I'm using a fairly old
(pre-WinXP) version of Winzip, and doubt that it's trying to imitate
XP's compressed folders behavior. And yet, the zipfldr.dll was
supposedly unregistered successfully.

File associations show me that the "zip" extension is being handled by
Winzip -- and was, even before I tried unregistering the dll -- but
this does not seem to eliminate XP's compressed folders treatment of
these archive files. It just makes it erratic and unpredictable.

For example, I created a folder on my Iomega zip disk (which is being
managed entirely by XP as a "dumb" removable drive, no Iomega software
installed). I then added several subfolders, zip files, and normal
files to it. Next, I made a sibling copy of that test folder.

What happens defies explanation. Selecting folder "A" shows its zip
files in the left pane. Selecting identical folder "B" shows the zip
files as normal files in the right pane. It's this erratic behavior
that's driving me nuts.

Don Leighty
 
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