Thread: Turn On or Off ZIP Compressed Folders

How to Turn On or Off ZIP Compressed Folders in Windows Vista?


Turning on ZIP Compressed Folders means handling the ZIP compressed folders in the same way as normal folders i.e. you can open them by simply double clicking them and then access their contents even if you do not have third party compression and decompression software such as WinZip or WinRar installed on your system. You can extract their contents too.

ZIP Compressed Folders turned on:



Figure 1


Turning off ZIP Compressed Folders means that they cannot be accessed in the same way as normal Folders. They need third party compression and decompression software such as WinZip or WinRar to open them and access their contents. So if you do not have third party compression and decompression software and ZIP Compressed Folders is turned off then you will get a dialog box that will ask you to associate a program to open the zip folder.

ZIP Compressed Folders turned off:



Figure 2


Note: If you have uninstalled 3rd party compression and decompression software then you must first Enable Built in ZIP File support in Windows Vista.

You can turn on ZIP Compressed Folders in the following manner:

1) Download the attached file ZipCompressTurnOn.txt given at the bottom of the post

2) Open ZipCompressTurnOn.txt and click on the File menu and then Save As option



Figure 3


3) Now save the file as ZipCompressTurnOn.reg on the Desktop



Figure 4


4) The file ZipCompressTurnOn.reg will look like this



Figure 5


5) Now double click the ZipCompressTurnOn.reg file

6) Click Continue button if prompted by UAC

7) Click Run button to continue

8) Click Yes button to confirm



Figure 6


9) Click OK button when successful



Figure 7


10) Restart your PC for the changes to take effect.


You can turn off ZIP Compressed Folders in the following manner:

1) Download the attached file ZipCompressTurnOff.txt given at the bottom of the post

2) Open ZipCompressTurnOff.txt and click on the File menu and then Save As option

3) Now save the file as ZipCompressTurnOff.reg on the Desktop

4) Now double click the ZipCompressTurnOff.reg file

5) Click Continue button if prompted by UAC

6) Click Run button to continue

7) Click Yes button to confirm

8) Click OK button when successful

9) Restart your PC for the changes to take effect.