How do I enable Windows 98 compressed folders in Windows 2000?

John Savill

November 12, 2000

1 Min Read
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A. Win98 includes as part of its Plus! kit a zip package that lets you browse zip files from Explorer. Neither Win2K nor Whistler Beta 1 includes this feature. However, you can enable this functionality in Win2K by performing the following steps:

  1. Insert your Win98 Plus! CD-ROM.

  2. From plus98.cab, extract all the zip-related files (i.e., *ZIP*.*):

    • DUNZIP.DLL

    • DUNZIP32.DLL

    • DZIP.DLL

    • DZIP32.DLL

    • ZIPFLDR.DLL

  3. Copy these files to your system32 directory (e.g., c:winntsystem32).

  4. Run the following command:

    C:> regsvr32.exe c:winntsystem32zipfldr.dll
    
    
  5. You will receive the following message:

    DllRegisterServer in [path]zipfldr.dll succeeded.
    
    

You don't need to restart the machine or your Explorer session. Compressed folders will now have a small zip icon with them. To open a compressed folder, double-click it or right-click it and select Explore. To extract files from the compressed folder, perform the following steps:

  1. Right-click the compressed folder and select Extract from the context menu.

  2. The Extract Wizard will start.

    Click here to view image

  3. Select your destination folder (and if the zip file has a password, click Password, and type the password). Click Next.

  4. The system will extract the files and display a results dialog box that shows the end status and provides the option of showing the extracted files. Click Finish.

To compress a file, right-click the file and, from the context menu, select Send to. Then select Compressed Folder. The system creates a compressed folder with the same name as the original file, but with the .zip extension. If you select multiple files to compress, the folder name will be the first file's name (alphabetically--and numbers come at the end of the alphabet). For example, let's say you select three files to compress: wininfo.exe, delold.exe, and 1365.txt. The folder name will be delold.zip.

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