I am running Windows XP Pro - recently my zip files stopped opening if
I double click on them - nothing happens. The context menu also does
not open when right-clicking on a zip file.

The Zip files do seem to be viewable as folders using the built-in Win
XP folderview feature (they show up as 'folders' in the left pane of
windows explorer), but only if there are other, regular folders in the
same location (otherwise it doesn't show up, and as a result the
contents cannot be viewed in the right pane).

Note that using WinZip to manually open the files also still works (so
the files are fine), it's just the access directly from Explorer/My
Computer.

I'm assuming this is a registry problem - anyone know a fix?

choovak@gmail.com wrote:
When you installed WinZip you told your computer to use it instead of the XP
built in zip capabilities. Right click on your desktop and see if you have
the option / new / compressed (zip) folder. My guess is that you no longer
have this feature. There are ways where you remove WinZip and re-register
the XP zip function but I've seen this fail on some computers.

I do not think this is the case because I had WinZip installed before -
and WinRar also - and everything worked fine. All three
programs/methods - WinZip, WinRar, built-in Win XP - worked, with
WinZip being the default for double-clicking.

This started happening recently, well after the installations of WinZip
and WinRar.

DanR wrote:

<choovak@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1156429239.613119.95640@i42g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
You can use the 'offical' method by opening Windows explorer, Tools, Folder
Options, File Types and find the zip entry and change it to WinZip.

Or you can simply remove and reinstall WinZip and let it do all the 'fiddly
bits'

Cheers
Paul.

It doesn't seem to be a matter of associating zip files to WinZip.
Windows just does not want to perform operations on zip files -
double-clicking does nothing, and neither does right clicking (context
menu doesn't show up).

PeeCee wrote:

"choovak" <choovak@gmail.com> wrote in
news:1156690361.606911.236980@i3g2000cwc.googlegro ups.com:

it should matter what is associated to .zip files
what have you associated to open .zip ?

I have WinZip associated with zip files (i've reinstalled WinZip, and
have set this manually). However, what I'm saying is it doesnt seem to
get to the 'association' part of double/right clicking. nothing
happens regardless of what the association is.


samuel wrote:

choovak@gmail.com wrote:


Start | Run <type in> regsvr32 %windir%\system32\zipfldr.dll <enter>

This will reregister the DLL

--
Anybody care how much Vista is going to cost?
http://tinyurl.com/h9q4j

When I had a similar problem I reported it to WinZip but before doing
so did a Google search and found this thread, which I added to my
WinZip report for "credibility." WinZip got back to me next day with
the following, which restored ability to double and right click zip
files (interestingly, this ability had not gone away if I searched for
zip files and clicked from the search results window):

This issue can be caused by the installation of the Microsoft Security
Update KB921398 for Windows XP.

One thing to note is that Windows XP, in its default state, treats Zip
files as if they were *folders* (not files). This is true regardless of
whether WinZip is installed or not. Unregistering the .DLL prevents the
OS from treating the Zip file as if it were a folder and instead,
allows Windows to understand the Zip as a *file*. You can work around
the issue by unregistering the Compressed Folders .DLL as described
below.

To unregister Compressed Folders, pull up your Start menu, select Run
and issue the command:

REGSVR32 /u ZIPFLDR.DLL

After you do this, the next time you run WinZip, you will be asked to
associate it with Zip files. This is because unregistering the .DLL
also removes the .Zip association even though it may not itself be
associated with Zip files.

When I had a similar problem I reported it to WinZip but before doing
so did a Google search and found this thread, which I added to my
WinZip report for "credibility." WinZip got back to me next day with
the following, which restored ability to double and riight click zip
files (interestingly, this ability had not gone away if I searched for
zip files and clicked from the search results window):

This issue can be caused by the installation of the Microsoft Security
Update KB921398 for Windows XP.

One thing to note is that Windows XP, in its default state, treats Zip
files as if they were *folders* (not files). This is true regardless of
whether WinZip is installed or not. Unregistering the .DLL prevents the
OS from treating the Zip file as if it were a folder and instead,
allows Windows to understand the Zip as a *file*. You can work around
the issue by unregistering the Compressed Folders .DLL as described
below.

To unregister Compressed Folders, pull up your Start menu, select Run
and issue the command:

REGSVR32 /u ZIPFLDR.DLL

After you do this, the next time you run WinZip, you will be asked to
associate it with Zip files. This is because unregistering the .DLL
also removes the .Zip association even though it may not itself be
associated with Zip files.

Thanks gv, that worked.


gv wrote: