Vista - ZIP File Support - Restore

A Restore the PC to its original condition with the HP Recovery Manager from within Windows Vista is what i tried about a week ago, I tried from the machine hard drive and from the recovery disks i made when i got the computer, it did not get over the zip problem. thats when i started to ask you about my zip opening problems.
ive seen a program called REGISTRY MECHANIC do you thing this might help
JOHN

If it is still like that right after a factory restore, then you might look to see what programs have came installed with the computer to see if one of them may be the cause by uninstalling it.

there are no different programs on my my hp now then when it ran ok for the first 2 months from new

Just so that we may be able to see if we can find a possible cause of this, do you remember running anything (ex: registry cleaner) before it stopped working properly?

See if doing a System Restore using a restore point dated before this problem may be able to help.

if i do a systen restore it only goes back 1 week to when i done a factory reset, the zip opening problem was the same before and after.
I think im going to have to put up with the problem and just use 7zip to open my zip files, at least i can open them with somtheing.
JOHN

Was it like this right after a factory reset as well? If so, then one of those included programs that came with the OEM Vista version may be responsible.

7-Zip is a better zip handler though.

Hi. I've been driving myself crazy trying to get ZIP files working in Vista after installing and uninstalling something which nuked all the correct associations. I've read this thread over and over and tried all the registry merging etc but kept getting "Application not found" when trying to open a ZIP file.

However, after some poking around on my desktop PC which ZIP files were working fine on I managed to work out what was causing the issue and thought I'd post it here in case it helps anyone else out.

On my laptop when I right-clicked on a ZIP file I was getting CompressedFolder as the default option at the top of the list, followed by Open then Explore. On my desktop I noticed that I was getting Open as the default option, then Explore. This led me to believe that it was the default action "thing" that was causing the problem as if I right-clicked and chose Open instead of just double clicking then it worked as it always used to.

Anyway, after a bit of rummaging through both registries I noticed that my laptop had an extra key that my desktop didn't have:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\compressed]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\compressed\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\compressed\shell\open]
@="CompressedFolder"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\compressed\shell\open\command]
@="CompressedFolder"

I backed the key up and then deleted it from the laptop. Voila! ZIP files working just as they always used to! Woo hoo!!

Anyway, thanks for the .reg files here as I think they solved most of the problem but for anyone who's used them and is still going mental trying to work out why ZIP files aren't behaving, have a look to see if Open isn't your default option.

Rich

Hello Rich, and welcome to Vista Forums,

Strange that location should not be there by default. I have updated the reg file download for this.

Thank you.

I'm not sure where the extra key entry came from, I think it might have been due to me trying lots of different remedies to fix the ZIP association. I noticed that someone else had the same problem as me a few pages earlier on ("Cannot find application" or similar) which is how I found this thread in the first place. Anyway, all fixed now... cheers

I'm happy to hear you got it sorted though.