TekBytz

Windows XP / Vista have a built in feature of supporting compressed archive files. The file types supported are .zip and .cab. Windows treats these as folders and displays it in the windows explorer tree and also includes these files during the search. This would a hindrance to the users who had used their favorite compression utility like winzip, winrar or 7-zip in their previous versions of operating system. Windows file search functionality will be slow when there are lots of compressed files in the search folder. We can overcome this hurdle by disabling this feature. This can be later enabled when required.

For Window XP to Disable

1. Open start > Run

2. Type the command regsvr32 %systemroot%zipfldr.dll /u

3. Press ok on the popup message

4. The change will take effect immediately, but you may have to restart Windows for all features of the built-in ZIP support to disappear

For Windows XP to Enable

1. Open start > Run

2. Type the command regsvr32 %systemroot%zipfldr.dll /u

3. Press ok on the popup message

4. The change will take effect immediately, but you may have to restart Windows for all features of the built-in ZIP support to be available

Where %systemroot% normally is C:windowssystem32

For Windows vista to Disable

1. Open Start > Run

2. Type “regedit.exe and click ok

3. Navigate to the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID

4. Export the values under the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{E88DCCE0-B7B3-11d1-A9F0-00AA0060FA31} and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262}

(This process is to backup those keys incase later if this feature needs to be enabled)

5. Delete the keys HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{E88DCCE0-B7B3-11d1-A9F0-00AA0060FA31} and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262}

(The key keys HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{E88DCCE0-B7B3-11d1-A9F0-00AA0060FA31} is associated with the zip file and the key

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262} is associated with cab files. In case you need to disable one of the feature zip/cab you can do it by deleting the corresponding keys.)

6. Restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

Alternate Method:

1. Download the reg file here

2. Double click to install

3. It is successful, restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

For Windows Vista to Enable

1. Open Start > Run

2. Type “regedit.exe and click ok

3. Go to File > Import and select the files that are taken backup in step 4 (For Windows vista to Disable).

4. On successful import, restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

Alternate Method:

1. Download the reg file here

2. Double click to install

3. It is successful, restart the computer for the changes to take effect.