Zip Folders - Enable or Disable Windows Explorer View

Disable Explorer Folder View of Cab and Zip Files in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8​

   Information

By default, Windows handles ZIP files just like folders. ZIP files will show in the navigation pane of Windows Explorer, and if selected in the navigation pane, you will see the ZIP file's contents in Windows Explorer just like a folder.

If you have a 3rd party ZIP program (ex: 7-Zip, etc.) installed, then this can be an annoyance to you and you may want to turn this feature off so ZIP files will only open in the program instead of Windows Explorer.

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable ZIP folders (compressed and cab folders) from having their contents expand and show in Windows Explorer like folders for all users.

   Note

Compressed (ZIP) folders and Cab folders are enabled by default to have their content expand and display in Windows Explorer folder view like normal folders.

If disabled, you will only be able to open ZIP and CAB files and extract/view their contents with a 3rd party program (ex: 7-Zip, etc.). You will only see the ZIP and CAB files in Windows Explorer.

   Warning

This can only be done while logged on to an administrator account.

EXAMPLE: Zip Folders (compressed and cab folders) Enabled and Disabled




Here's How:

1. Do step 2 and/or 3 or step 4 and/or 5 below for what you would like to do.

2. To Enable ZIP Compressed Folders
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 6 below.
Enable_ZIP_Compressed_Folders.reg


Download


3. To Enable CAB Folders
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 6 below.
Enable_CAB_Files.reg

Download


4. To Disable ZIP Compressed Folders
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 6 below.
Disable_ZIP_Compressed_Folders.reg


Download


5. To Disable CAB Folders
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 6 below.
Disable_CAB_Files.reg

Download


6. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

7. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

8. If prompted, click on Run, Yes (UAC Windows 7/8) or Continue (UAC Vista), Yes, and OK when prompted.

9. Log out and in, or restart the PC to apply.


That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How To Zip (Compress) a File or Folder in Windows
• How to Enable or Disable Zip Extracted Show Files Window

 

[Alex4]

Will this method disable searching within archives like "regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll" in Windows XP does?

 

[Brink]

Hello Alex,

No. It will only disable the view.

 

[Alex4]

Thank you. I just found where to turn this on or off: Tools, Folder Options, tab Search.

 

[Brink]

Glad you got it sorted.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/36098-search-options-change-restore.html

 

[buzzra]

What happened to the instructions for doing it yourself?

 

[Brink]

Hello Buzzra, and welcome to Seven Forums.

There never was a manual option in the tutorial.

If you like, you could download the .reg file for what you wanted to do, then edit the .reg file to see what changes to manually make in Registry Editor.

 

[buzzra]

OK, Thanks. I must have been thinking of another tutorial on this subject

 

[Brink]

You're welcome.

 

[Elbart]

I'd like to report that these registry-changes (CLSID.bak) are killing the
Windows Script Host's ability to handle zip-files without using third-party tools.

Example: https://github.com/nu774/fdkaac_aut...f292ce0f096f0eb1a4f9d026/install-mingw.js#L72

Without the "compressed folder"-feature, WSH cannot "copy" files from the zips
anymore.

Is there any other way to disable the Explorer-zip-folder-feature without negative side-effects?

 

[Brink]

Hello Elbart, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Are you able to right click on the .ZIP file and click on "Extract All"?

 

[Elbart]

I have no problems with extraction.
The registry-changes break ZIP-handling in WSH and, as I just discovered, PowerShell without third-party-tools, that's all.

 

[Brink]

Disabling this would definitely cause the issue you reported since it will no longer be able to view inside the .zip when disabled. In your case, I would recommend to leave it enabled since your scripts need it to be enabled.

 

[trasman]

Thanks Brink.
Just did some update and compressed folder was back, then I noticed there were all .rar and .7z files.

Used your
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.zip\CLSID]

to also delete these.
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.rar\CLSID]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.7z\CLSID]
And it worked (=

 

[Brink]

Thanks Brink.
Just did some update and compressed folder was back, then I noticed there were all .rar and .7z files.

Used your
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.zip\CLSID]

to also delete these.
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.rar\CLSID]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.7z\CLSID]
And it worked (=

 

[disu1950]

may i suggest using powershell to esily view .zip content:

How to read the content of a .zip file from within Windows PowerShell?

Use the OpenRead static method from the IO.Compression.ZipFile .NET Framework class.

First, we need to load the assembly that contains the class.

Here is an example:

Add-Type -assembly "system.io.compression.filesystem"

[io.compression.zipfile]::OpenRead("C:\DISU.zip").Entries.Name

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