XP keeps searching in my .zip and .rar files like folders!

Ever since I upgraded a laptop with 2000 to XP, it keeps looking in all compressed archives like .zip and .rar when I do a file search!

This is driving me nuts, as it makes searching take forever!

Additionally, sometimes archives appear looking like folders in explorer (but not always).

I've looked in the search advanced options, in the explorer folder options and in the WinRAR options and can't find anywhere to get this to STOP.

Surely it must be somewhere but I'm just overlooking it.

 

Perhaps an association problem?? Run a command line assoc.zip and see what it says.

Mine is:

C:\>assoc.zip
.zip=WinZip

 

If it's an association problem, running the .reg file from Doug Knox should put it back in the standard order. DougKnox Zip Folder Fix

If you have installed a 3rd party compression tool, you'll have to reconfigure it after running the fix. Perhaps even reinstall it.

 

Thanks, but I tried running the DougKnox fix and uninstalling WinRAR then re-installing (after the normal reboots of course) and had NO luck!

What's also odd is that even when WinRAR was uninstalled, my .ZIP files were still being showed as folders! This is strange.

It's driving me nuts becuase I don't WANT my computer snooping in all my zip files when I'm doing a simple file search or a browse.

Surely some others have experience this ".zip file being treated like folder" problem before???

 

That is strange indeed. Look in My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > File Types > scroll to ZIP and see what it says. If shown, click the Restore To Default button - if not, click the Advanced button and see what is listed and what the default action is. Ditto for .rar file type.

If it's hopelessly messed up there, delete the file type .zip and .rar and reboot for effect. Do not reinstall Winrar until you test for effect.

 

It talked about a file association called "zip FOLDER ", in the file types window. Which was odd.

I have done searching to see if there's some kind of "zip folder options" in XP itself but thus far can't find any. As I said, in Win2000 this wasn't an issue. For some reason, XP is treating my compressed files as if they were folders.

I will try more experiments and see what happens.

 

Hey, that seems to have helped, Arie!

What I wonder, though, is, what CAUSED this problem in the first place? I'd like to understand it better.