My Win 10 File Explorer has started treating zip files as folders
instead of files.

In Settings » Apps » Default apps » Choose default apps by file type,
7-zip is associated with the .zip type, with a black-and-white icon
of "7z" inside a box. If I double-click a .zip file in File Explorer,
it opens in 7-zip.

However, in Windows Explorer the .zip file's icon is a yellow folder
with a blue-and-white "z" superimposed. That's trivial, but in the
left-hand panel (called Navigation Pane), Explorer shows every
..zip file as if it were a folder. Since I have an archive directory
with dozens of .zip files in it, the actual subfolders are pushed
way off the bottom edge of the window.

I tried re-registering .zip files in 7-zip's Tools » Options, then
restarting Explorer; no change. I tried again, running 7-zip as
administrator; no change.

Though restarting Explorer is usually enough for these sorts of
changes, I even did a full system restart; still no change.

How do I tell Windows 10 that .zip files are files, not folders?

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

"Stan Brown" <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm> wrote

| However, in Windows Explorer the .zip file's icon is a yellow folder
| with a blue-and-white "z" superimposed. That's trivial, but in the
| left-hand panel (called Navigation Pane), Explorer shows every
| .zip file as if it were a folder. Since I have an archive directory
| with dozens of .zip files in it, the actual subfolders are pushed
| way off the bottom edge of the window.

I still don't understand file explorer vs windows explorer. If I
go to the Start Menu and open File Explorer, I get the same window
I see when I open a folder directly or the Computer shortcut.

In any case, I've noticed that Win10 is a mess when it comes
to setting file extension defaults. I've been using PeaZip and had
trouble even getting Windows to accept it as an option. But with
all file types you can change icons. I've actually set ZIP files on
Win10 to display a WinZip style clamp icon because PeaZip offers
only a confusing icon that looks like a cardboard box.

First, in the Registry go to HKCR\.zip (or any other file extension).
The default value will be the "class" name for that type. Say it's
"7-zip.Zipfile" Then you look up HKCR\7-zip.Zipfile\.

Under that key will be a DefaultIcon key. The default value there
specs the icon. In my case, for example, I switched it from a
PeaZip icon to C:\icons\zip.ico,0

On 2/7/2024 3:46 PM, Stan Brown wrote:
>
> My Win 10 File Explorer has started treating zip files as folders
> instead of files.
>
> In Settings » Apps » Default apps » Choose default apps by file type,
> 7-zip is associated with the .zip type, with a black-and-white icon
> of "7z" inside a box. If I double-click a .zip file in File Explorer,
> it opens in 7-zip.
>
> However, in Windows Explorer the .zip file's icon is a yellow folder
> with a blue-and-white "z" superimposed. That's trivial, but in the
> left-hand panel (called Navigation Pane), Explorer shows every
> .zip file as if it were a folder. Since I have an archive directory
> with dozens of .zip files in it, the actual subfolders are pushed
> way off the bottom edge of the window.
>
> I tried re-registering .zip files in 7-zip's Tools » Options, then
> restarting Explorer; no change. I tried again, running 7-zip as
> administrator; no change.
>
> Though restarting Explorer is usually enough for these sorts of
> changes, I even did a full system restart; still no change.
>
> How do I tell Windows 10 that .zip files are files, not folders?
>

The "integration" change is on Windows 11, so that's probably not it.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-11-getting-native-support-for-7-zip-rar-and-gz-archives/

But your observation:

"Explorer shows every .zip file as if it were a folder"

that's a sign that Windows 10 *did* get the same integration.
It means it's using zipfldr.dll - like integration support,
but, it's providing it for a 7z file type.

I don't use the integration, because the real 7Zip is multi-core
decompression and fast as blazes. igor didn't accelerate all
formats (nobody expects "tar" to go faster because your
CPU has four cores). Just some of them are accelerated.

7ZIP might not do .zip compression as fast as "pigz" does it,
but that does not bother me too much.

Paul

On Wed, 7 Feb 2024 18:29:47 -0500, Paul wrote:
>
> On 2/7/2024 3:46 PM, Stan Brown wrote:
> >
> > My Win 10 File Explorer has started treating zip files as folders
> > instead of files.
> >
> > In Settings » Apps » Default apps » Choose default apps by file type,
> > 7-zip is associated with the .zip type, with a black-and-white icon
> > of "7z" inside a box. If I double-click a .zip file in File Explorer,
> > it opens in 7-zip.
> >
> > However, in Windows Explorer the .zip file's icon is a yellow folder
> > with a blue-and-white "z" superimposed. That's trivial, but in the
> > left-hand panel (called Navigation Pane), Explorer shows every
> > .zip file as if it were a folder. Since I have an archive directory
> > with dozens of .zip files in it, the actual subfolders are pushed
> > way off the bottom edge of the window.
> >
> > I tried re-registering .zip files in 7-zip's Tools » Options, then
> > restarting Explorer; no change. I tried again, running 7-zip as
> > administrator; no change.
> >
> > Though restarting Explorer is usually enough for these sorts of
> > changes, I even did a full system restart; still no change.
> >
> > How do I tell Windows 10 that .zip files are files, not folders?
> >
>
> The "integration" change is on Windows 11, so that's probably not it.
>
> https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-11-getting-native-support-for-7-zip-rar-and-gz-archives/
>
> But your observation:
>
> "Explorer shows every .zip file as if it were a folder"
>
> that's a sign that Windows 10 *did* get the same integration.
> It means it's using zipfldr.dll - like integration support,
> but, it's providing it for a 7z file type.
>
> I don't use the integration, because the real 7Zip is multi-core
> decompression and fast as blazes. igor didn't accelerate all
> formats (nobody expects "tar" to go faster because your
> CPU has four cores). Just some of them are accelerated.
>
> 7ZIP might not do .zip compression as fast as "pigz" does it,

Thanks for the information, Paul.

So how can I disable this "integration", if that's what's responsible
for putting every *.zip file into the navigation pane? (I did a new
google search, including the "integration" term, but came up with
nothing useful.)

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

On Wed, 7 Feb 2024 17:55:20 -0500, Newyana2 wrote:
>
> "Stan Brown" <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm> wrote
>
> | However, in Windows Explorer the .zip file's icon is a yellow folder
> | with a blue-and-white "z" superimposed. That's trivial, but in the
> | left-hand panel (called Navigation Pane), Explorer shows every
> | .zip file as if it were a folder. Since I have an archive directory
> | with dozens of .zip files in it, the actual subfolders are pushed
> | way off the bottom edge of the window.
>
> I still don't understand file explorer vs windows explorer. If I
> go to the Start Menu and open File Explorer, I get the same window
> I see when I open a folder directly or the Computer shortcut.
> f
> In any case, I've noticed that Win10 is a mess when it comes
> to setting file extension defaults. I've been using PeaZip and had
> trouble even getting Windows to accept it as an option. But with
> all file types you can change icons.

Thanks, but I'm not exercised about the icon. I mentioned it only as
part of my summary of behavior that made sense and behavior that
didn't.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

Stan Brown <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm> wrote:

> My Win 10 File Explorer has started treating zip files as folders
> instead of files.
>
> In Settings » Apps » Default apps » Choose default apps by file type,
> 7-zip is associated with the .zip type, with a black-and-white icon
> of "7z" inside a box. If I double-click a .zip file in File Explorer,
> it opens in 7-zip.
>
> However, in Windows Explorer the .zip file's icon is a yellow folder
> with a blue-and-white "z" superimposed. That's trivial, but in the
> left-hand panel (called Navigation Pane), Explorer shows every
> .zip file as if it were a folder. Since I have an archive directory
> with dozens of .zip files in it, the actual subfolders are pushed
> way off the bottom edge of the window.
>
> I tried re-registering .zip files in 7-zip's Tools » Options, then
> restarting Explorer; no change. I tried again, running 7-zip as
> administrator; no change.
>
> Though restarting Explorer is usually enough for these sorts of
> changes, I even did a full system restart; still no change.
>
> How do I tell Windows 10 that .zip files are files, not folders?

Zip file integration has been around since Windows XP using the
zipfldr.dll for exported functions available to Windows/File Explorer.

https://www.vistax64.com/threads/zip-file-compressed-folders.93827/

That article mentions editing the registry to enable/disable zipfolder
support in Windows. The .reg files are just text files, so you can view
them before committing their changes to the registry.

I haven't bothered to disable zipfolders in Windows (not at 10), and
I've always had a 3rd-party zip tool, like Peazip (which is a fork of
7-zip, but with a better GUI, and added features).

Used to be programs could edit the registry to make changes to filetype
associations. Malware did that, too. So Microsoft changed Windows 10
to make many filetypes protected. You cannot edit the registry to
change them. Programs cannot directly edit the registry to change them.
The config wizard in Win10 must be used, because it knows how to
generate a valid hash for the UserChoice registry key. In Win10, enter
"assoc" and pick "choose a default app for each type of file". In the
"Choose default apps by file type" dialog, scroll down to the .zip
filetype association. For me, Peazip is shown as the external handler
for that filetype. Clicking on Peazip, or whatever is currently
selected, shows you a list of registered handlers for the filetype.
Looks like you already went there to check the .zip filetype association
for what handler gets used to open a .zip file. Making selections
inside of the 7-zip program itself won't work.

That's for selecting the handler to open a filetype. If you go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.zip

You'll see the (default) data item points to the handler. For me, it
specifies PeaZIP.ZIP. But under the CompressedFolder/ShellNew subkey,
it still lists zipfldr.dll. That's what File Explorer uses to display
those object types.

To see specifics on the PeaZip.ZIP filetype association for .zip, I look
at:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PeaZip.ZIP

That shows which resource is used to display an icon (when the file is
treated as a PeaZIP.ZIP filetype). The icon could be a separate .ico
file, as for Peazip, or it could be an index to a resource inside a .dll
or .exe file.

I suspect changing the icon for the .zip handler only affects the
right-pane view showing files. The icon would show next to the file in
the file list. The "folder" in the tree pane is still using the shell
icon defined for use by Explorer, and that's still using zipfldr.dll.
For example, I have many .zip downloads for FMs (Fan Missions) for
various Thief games, and Darkloader which is Thiefsie-like. In the
right-pane file list, the Peazip icon is shown next to each .zip file.
In the tree pane of Explorer, a folder object icon is shown, because
zipfldr.dll is still getting used for Explorer's shell icon. So, I can
use File Explorer's zipfldr handling of .zip files to let me navigate
into .zip files without having to first extract them. I can see files
and subfolders inside the .zip file without having to first use Peazip
to extract the .zip file to dump the files and folders within to
someplace to then see them nor do I have to load Peazip to look at the
TOC (Table of Contents) of a .zip file to see what is inside a .zip
file.

I get the best of both: File Explorer lets me drill into .zip files
starting in the tree pane to select the .zip file shown as a folder, and
then drill further using the right-side file pane. I could use Peazip
to do the same to drill into a .zip file to look at files and folders
within, but I would have to separately start Peazip. I can use either
to extract files and folders from within a .zip file.

If you disable zipfldr.dll, like deregistering it, File Explorer won't
show .zip files as folders any more. You won't see a .zip file as a
folder object, and won't be able to drill into the .zip file to see what
files or folders are inside.

If you were to make the 7-zip and zipfldr.dll icons the same, you
couldn't tell which handler is used on a .zip file. Could be 7-zip, or
it could zipfldr integration in File Explorer. If the confusion is too
great on which handler is doing what on a .zip file, disable zipfldr and
rely solely on your 3rd-party archive file handler.

Here is some detailed info on zipfldr.dll:

https://windows10dll.nirsoft.net/zipfldr_dll.html

Windows XP users could use:

regsrv32.exe /s /u C:\Windows\System32\zipfldr.dll
regsrv32.exe /s /u C:\Windows\SysWOW64\zipfldr.dll

to deregister the zipfldr.dll file thus removing its integration with
Windows Explorer. In later versions of Windows, there is no
dllunregisterserver entry point in the DLL, so it cannot be deregistered
(to remove finding via registry).

https://www.sevenforums.com/customization/3989-how-disable-zip-folder-zipfldr-dll-post36679.html#post36679
mentions the lack of an entry point in the DLL for deregistering it.

Other than the registry edits mentioned above, the other option is to
rename or move the file, but I suspect you'll start seeing errors in the
Event Viewer log. Something expecting to find something, but failing,
probably incurs some overhead, like error reporting, or the time trying
to issue a function to a DLL that doesn't exist anymore.

zipfldr.dll, as per the nirsoft article, has 2 static icons. Indexing
starts at zero, so the registry entry of:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.zip\CompressedFolder\ShellNew

shows "zipfldr.dll,-10194". Likely the first icon at index 0 gets used
in File Explorer. What I see in File Explorer's tree (navigation) pane
is the zipfolder is shown using the file.zip name using Peazip's icon,
but subfolders are shown using the standard folder icon. That's because
the subfolders are not .zip files. They're folders inside the .zip
file, not .zip files inside a .zip file. File Explorer shows the .zip
file as a folder in the tree pane, and, for me, its icon is whatever
archive handler I installed (Peazip, for me). When File Explorer is
showing you what is inside a zipfolder, that's just the files and
folders within (and those are not .zip files unless you zipped a zip
file to bury a .zip inside a .zip). What I see in the tree pane is:

:
|__ Thief1Gold-FMs
| |__ <p> 64five.zip
| | |__ <f> Books
| | |__ <f> intrface (*)
| | |__ <f> mesh (*)
| | |__ <f> strings
| |__ <p> A_Dark_Secret.zip
| | |__ <f> Books (*)
| | |__ <f> intrface (*)
| | |__ <f> strings (*)
| :
| |__ Thief2-FMs
:

<p> Icon for Peazip.
<f> Standard folder object icon.

(*) These have subfolders, but they are NOT automatically expanded when
I open the zipfolder, or when I open any folder. When I open a
folder, just what subfolders are under there are shown.

If File Explorer showed only <p> icons on every zipfolder, and all its
subfolders, it would be misrepresenting which were zipfolders. The .zip
file is a zipfolder, and the others are just subfolders (folders inside
the .zip file), not more .zip files inside a .zip file.

If I decided to disable zipfldr.dll integration with File Explorer, I'd
probably see just see the following in the tree pane:

:
|__ Thief1Gold-FMs
|__ Thief2-FMs
:

File Explorer couldn't drill into the .zip files in its tree pane
without the assistance of zipfldr.dll.

When I am in File Explorer, and .zip files are shown as folders in the
tree pane, there is no thousands of files and subfolders that
automatically populate the tree pane. When you open a zipfolder, only 1
level is shown underneath. You would have to open more subfolders. As
with ANY folder shown in File Explorer, if you don't want to retain a
view of all subfolders under a folder you selected, deselect the folder.
It's your choice which folders remain expanded or collapsed. This not
behavior unique to zipfolders. File Explorer works the same way for ALL
folders (with subfolders) in its tree pane.