Table of Contents
ZIPExplorer Table of Contents

© 1995 Silicon Prairie Software

All Rights Reserved.

Contents

Overview

Top 20 Things To Try (For People That Hate Reading Documentation)

Opening ZIP Archives

Exploring ZIP Archives

Creating a new ZIP Archive

Executing Files From Within a ZIP Archive

Extracting Files From a ZIP Archive

Dragging Files out of a ZIP Archive

Extracting Manually to a Specific Path

Extracting Files with the Clipboard

Extracting Files Without Opening the Archive

Addings Files and Directories to a ZIP Archive

Scanning Archives for Viruses

Using Encryption and Decryption

Troubleshooting

Comments / Questions / Technical Support


Comment/Problems: Contacting Silicon Prairie Software
Comments/Problems: Contacting Silicon Prairie Software

We would like to hear from you if:

  You have a problem that you cannot find an answer to in the help file

  A feature does not behave as documented, or even as you expected

  You require technical support

  You have comments, complaints, suggestions

We hope you find ZIPExplorer extremely useful.  If for some reason you don’t, we really want to hear from you with your ideas on what it would take to make it better.  And of course, if you do find it useful, feel free to drop us a note to let us know why!

Regular Mail:

Silicon Prairie Software

Suite N202

4771  148th Ave NE

Bellevue, WA 98007

Email:

plummer@iceonline.com

WWW:

http://www.iceonline.com/home/plummer/zipexplr


QuickStart Info

This topic is a quick list of 20 of the things you can do with ZIPExplorer, and how to do them.  For more information on any of these, refer to the help contents.

1. 	ZIP archives will now appear on your desktop and in folders with a special icon that looks like a normal folder but that has “Zip” emblazoned on it.

2. 	You can double click these new icons to open the archive as if it were a folder.  You can also right-click the icons and select “Explore” to open them in a hierarchical tree-style view.  From there, it behaves just like a normal explorer.

3. 	Once the archive is opened (as in item 2, above)  you drag new items from your desktop or any folder into the archive to compress them.

4. 	You can also drag any item out to your desktop or a folder to extract them.

5. 	You can create a new ZIP archive anywhere by selecting the New/ZIPExplorer Archive menu from your desktop (or in any folder).

6. 	You can right-click any item and select “Extract To Path” to extract items to a specific location without having that destination open in the explorer.

7. 	You can “Copy” items from an open archive and “Paste” them anywhere in the filesystem any number of times (as long as the folder you copied from remains open).

8. 	You can drag or paste items directly into Exchange messages.

9. 	You can drop files and folders onto a ZIP archive’s icon (just as if it were a normal folder) to compress items into the archive without actually opening it.

10. 	You can set the passwords for extracting items and for compressing new items with the ZIPExplorer/Set Passwords menu item in any archive folder.

11. 	You scan select any or all of the items in an archive and select “Scan For Viruses” from any of the selected items to invoke your favorite virus scanner on the files before you extract them.

12. 	You can delete any set of selected files and folders within an open archive from the context menu of the selected items or by pressing the Delete key.

13. 	You can set the level of compression for new items that you add by selecting the ZIPExplorer/Options menu in any ZIP folder.

14. 	You can quickly extract (or “checkout”) files from an archive by selecting “Extract to Path” from the archive icon without actually opening the archive.

15. 	You can drag the archive to the place you wish to extract the files to and then select “Extract Here” from the icon’s context menu for a little extra convenience.

16. 	You can view documents and run standalone programs from within an archive simply by double-clicking it as you would if it were in a normal folder.  Handy for reading “readme” files before extracting them.

17. 	You can view an open archive in “Details” mode (from the View/Details menu) to see a great deal of information about each item in the archive.

18. 	ZIPExplorer archives are fully hierarchical, so you can compress entire subtrees into an archive and navigate them normally.  You can also drag entire subtrees out selectively to decompress them.

19. 	When you are dropping (compressing) items into an archive folder, dropping the items onto a folder icon in the archive compresses the new items into that subdirectory.  The same is true for dropping items to any directory in the left hand (tree view) pane when you are in explorer mode.

20. 	You can right drag into an archive folder (or onto its icon) and select from other options, such as “Update”, which will replace only files that are older then the ones you are dropping.

OK, we lied.  There are actually 21 things:  You can even browse and extract things from ZIP archives inside of other archive.


ZIPExplorer Overview

ZIPExplorer is an extension to your Windows Shell which allows you to interact with compressed ZIP archives as if they were normal folders on your hard disk.  You can open ZIP archives as you would any normal folder, and inside you will find the files and directories that were added to the archive by whomever originally created it.

With ZIPExplorer you can:

- Open and browse the internals ZIP archives as if they were part of your normal disk structure

- Execute programs and read files, spreadsheets, and documents directly from

  within the ZIP file, without ever having to extract them

- Extract files from the ZIP archive to your desktop, or any other normal folder.

- Drag and drop files seamlessly from a ZIP archive to any normal folder

- Compress files simply by dragging them into a ZIP folder

- Copy files from the ZIP archive to the clipboard, and paste them to the desktop,

  mail messages, normal folders, or any other suitable OLE drop target.

- You can even do all of these things with ZIP archives inside of other ZIP archives!

ZIPExplorer is all you need to work with existing ZIP files: it contains all of the necessary decompression code, and does not rely on any external programs.

[  Opening ZIP Archives  ]


Opening ZIP Archives

There are three methods by which you can Open a ZIP archive:

1) 	Double-clicking its icon in the explorer

2) 	Right-clicking its icon and selecting “Open” from its context menu

3) 	Entering the name of the ZIP archive from the command line

Each of these first three methods yields the same result:

This view behaves exactly like the Open view of a normal filesystem folder, with the exception that the root of the view is the ZIP archive itself.

In addition to “Opening” ZIP archives, you may also “Explore” them.

[  Exploring ZIP Folders  ]


Creating New ZIP Archives

You can create a new, empty ZIP archive in any folder (including the desktop) by right-clicking an empty area on the folder and selecting New from the resulting context menu.  Among the other registered document types that are listed you will find “ZIPExplorer Archive”.  Selecting this menu will create the new archive.


Exploring ZIP Archives

If you select “Explore” from the context menu of a ZIP archive, ZIPExplorer will open the archive in hierarchical “explorer” view:

This view allows you to more easily navigate through the structure of a ZIP archive that contains directories.  This view behaves exactly like the Explorer view of a normal filesystem folder, with the exception that the root of the view is the ZIP archive itself.


Problems With Executing Files from Archives

There are two main requirements for executing a file from within an archive.

First, the file should be of a type which is registered on your system, such as a .txt file.  To examine or modify the set of file types which are registered on your system, select the View/Options menu from any Explorer window and select the “File Types” tab of the resulting dialog.

Second, if the file is an executable, it must be able to run standalone:  it cannot depend on DLLs or data files which are also in the archive, since those files will not “exist” if they have not been extracted.  In order to run a file from an archive which does depend on other archived files (such as a Setup or Install program), it is best to extract all of the required files to a new filesystem folder, and then execute the file in question from this new folder.


Executing Programs From Within a ZIP Archive

To execute a program that resides inside of a ZIP archive, you can simply double-click it as you would any application from your Windows shell.  You can also “execute” files of any registered type, such as text files, word processor documents, and so forth:  ZIPExplorer will load the correct application, and provide it with a copy of the file in question.

There are few caveats you should be aware of when executing files from within ZIP archives:

[  Problems with Executing Files  ]


Extracting Files From an Archive

There are four methods by which you can extract files from a ZIP archive:

- Dragging files from the archive view to another folder or the desktop

- Selecting one or more items in an archive view, right clicking on your

   selection, and picking "Extract to Path"

- From the context menu of the ZIP archive itself, selecting one of the

   extraction menus

- Copying one or more items in an archive view to the clipboard, and then

 pasting them to your destination of choice.


Dragging Files out of a ZIP Archive

The easiest way to extract files from an archive is to open the archive in which they are contained, and then drag them to the destination folder you chose.  The destination folder can be anywhere in the filesystem, including the desktop.  The destination can also be any application that supports the FileContents clipboard format, such as a mail program.

NB: because of a problem with the current release of the Windows Shell, if you drop multiple objects into a folder that is not in “Auto Arrange” mode, you may need to select “Line Up Icons” in the destination folder after the drop.  Otherwise, the new files/directories will appear to be stacked one on top of another.  This appears only to be an issue for source applications which, like ZIPExplorer, user the FileContents clipboard format.

[  Copying and Pasting Files from a ZIP Archive  ]


Copy and Pasting Files from a ZIP Archive

In cases where you will want to make multiple copies of files contained within a ZIP archive, the easiest way to do the extraction is by copying the files to the clipboard, and then pasting them multiple times to as many destinations as you chose:

Note that in order to paste items from a ZIP folder, you must leave that source folder open for the duration of the paste operations, as ZIPExplorer clears the clipboard on exit to preserve memory.  You can, of course, minimize it to avoid screen clutter.

NB: because of a problem with the current release of the Windows Shell, if you paste multiple objects into a folder that is not in “Auto Arrange” mode, you may need to select “Line Up Icons” in the destination folder after the paste.  Otherwise, the new files/directories will appear to be stacked one on top of another.  This appears only to be an issue for source applications which, like ZIPExplorer, user the FileContents clipboard format.


Extracting Items from an Archive's Context Menu

When you encounter a ZIP archive on your desktop or any folder, the context menu (accessed via the right mouse button) on its icon provides two menus:

  Extract To Path

  Extract Here

These two menu items provide identical functionality, with the exception that “Extract Here” will use the current directory as the default extraction directory in the resulting dialog.  The method of extraction does not support Decryption.  You will need to actually open the archive in order to extract encrypted items

You may set the following options before beginning the extraction:

Extract To	Base path where files are extracted to

Filespec Criteria	Wildcard pattern of files to extract

All Files	Simply forces *.* to be uses as the Filespec Criteria

Overwrite	Existing files are overwritten without confirmation

Ignore Path Info	Path information is ignored for items extracted from the archive

Recurse	The filespec criteria is used to match path information

No Directories	Directory items are not extracted from the archive

In addition to a normal extraction, you may also select from one of the following extract types:

Freshen	Files are extracted only if older version already exist in the

destination directory, and are new than the existing copies

Update	Files which are older than files by the same name that already

exist at the destination are not extracted

Test Only	No files are extracted, but they are tested for archive integrity


Scanning ZIP Items for Viruses

ZIPExplorer allows you to scan any portion of the contents of a ZIP archive for viruses before you execute or extract them.  Before you can use this feature you must set up a Virus Scanner in the ZIPExplorer Options dialog (accessible from the ZIPExplorer/Options menu from any open ZIP folder):

ZIPExplorer scans only those items that you have selected at the time you chose the “Scan for Viruses” context menu from one of your selected items.  Your selection can include directories, which will cause those directories and anything below them to be scanned as well.  To scan an entire archive, open it and select all of its contents (using CTRL-A or Edit/Select All) before choosing the “Scan For Viruses” menu item.

By default, ZIPExplorer comes configured to use the Microsoft MSAV program.  You will need to change these options depending on the location of MSAV.EXE on your system and what virus scanner you wish to use.

Important Notes

  In the interests of safety (ie: to avoid Trojan Horses), you must provide the complete path to the Virus Scanner executable.  For example, C:\DOS\MSAV.EXE

   ZIPExplorer will wait until your Virus Scanner is finished checking the files, but it will not provide any information based on the results of the scan (since there is no standard way for a virus scanner to return this information).  The onus, therefore, is on the virus scanning program to inform you as to whether or not any suspicious files were found.

  The path to the files to scan (a temporary location generated when you select the Scan For Viruses option) is passed automatically at the end of the “Options” that you supply.  All files are removed automatically as soon as the scan completes.

  If your Virus Scanner requires it, you should provide whatever option is needed to force it to “Scan Subdirectories”.

If the path to your Virus Scanner includes spaces, you should enclose the path with quotation marks.

Example

To configure ZIPExplorer to use McAfee’s Scan95 product, you would provide the following:

Path:	“E:\Program Files\McAfee\Scan95.exe”

Options: 	/autoscan

This would vary, of course, depending on the location of Scan95.exe on your system.


Using Encryption and Decryption

ZIPExplorer fully supports encryption and decryption within archives.  You can access the passwords used to encrypt and decrypt items from the ZIPExplorer/Set Passwords menu item:

The Encrypt password is used to encrypt (lock) any items that you drag into this archive folder.  The Decrypt password is used to decrypt (unlock) any items that you extract or drag out of this folder.  As you browse down into subdirectories within a ZIP, the passwords that you have set in the parent directory are automatically passed to the child directories.

To prevent acidentally encrypting items (and subsequently not knowing what the password is), you are asked to confirm any drop into a folder where the encryption password is currently set.

If you try to extract an encrypted item but have either (a) set the wrong password, or (b) not set any password at all, ZIPExplorer will warn you and ask if you want to change the decryption password.  This can be especially handy in archives where multiple items in a single folder have different passwords.

You can determine whether or not items are encrypted by inspecting the “Encrypted” column when ZIPExplorer is in details view (select View/Details from the menu bar).

Tip: Encrypting items in a ZIP archive does not prevent others from viewing the list of what items are in the archive; it only prevents them from viewing or using the data contained in the archived files.

Be cautious when using Encryption in an archive folder.  Should you forget the password, the data is irrevocably lost.  Silicon Prairie Software has no mechanism for unlocking encrypted items without the password.


Extracting Files to a Specified Path

There are two ways in which you can extract files from a ZIP archive to a specific path on your hard disk (other than dragging and dropping or using cut and paste ).

To use the first method, open the ZIP archive and select the files and/or directories you wish to extract.  Right-click on the selection and select the “Extract to Path” menu item.  This will bring up a dialog in which you can specify the path to extract the items to.

If your selection includes directories, the directories themselves and any files or directories contained within them will be extracted.

You may also chose what will happen if files already exist by the same name:  they can optionally be overwritten, or the new files will be renamed numerically to have a different name (for example, “File.txt” will become “File (2).txt”.

You can also extract files from an archive by using the context menu of the ZIP archive itself, without opening the archive.

[  Extracting Directly From a ZIP Archive  ]


Root
The “root” of a view is the absolute parent of everything under it.  You cannot use the “up” button on the toolbar when viewing the root directory, since it has no parent.  With filesystem folders, the “My Computer” object is the root, but with ZIP Archives, the root is the archive file itself.


FileContents Clipboard Format
FileContents Clipboard Format:  The FileContents clipboard format (CF_FILECONTENTS) is a new format for Win32, which allows applications to accept data from an OLE stream.  This allows applications to accept new files which may never have actually existed in the filesystem.  Because this format is new to Win32/Windows 95, Windows 3.X applications may not support it.


Troubleshooting

The following is a summary of the most common problems you might run into while running ZIPExplorer.

Insufficient Disk Space

Invalid TEMP: Directory

Icons Do Not Line Up After Drop, or Only One File Appears


Insufficient Disk Space

For almost all ZIP operations, ZIPExplorer relies on your TEMP: environment variable being correctly set, and that the disk on which your TEMP: directory lives contains enough space to hold the files you will be extracting.  In fact, since both a temporary copy and the final destination copy will exist momentarily at the same time, the space requirements are actually double that of the files themselves.

If you are low on disk space, you can use the Extract items on the context menu of the ZIP archive itself (as opposed to opening the ZIP archive as a folder), and perform the extraction from there.  This method bypasses the OLE mechanisms normally used, and can require less temporary working space.


Invalid TEMP: Variable

ZIPExplorer requires your TEMP: environment variable to be correctly set, and that the directory to which it points resides on a disk with sufficient disk space.

Under Windows95, you can set your TEMP: directory in your autoexec.bat file, as follows:

set TEMP=C:\

Under WindowsNT, you can set your TEMP: directory in the control panel, in the SYSTEM applet.


Icons Do Not Line Up

If you drop or paste a set of multiple files to a folder (including the desktop) that is in large icon mode but that is not in auto-arrange mode, the resulting files’ icons will be stacked one of top of the other, giving the appearance of only a single file being dropped or pasted.

This is a result of a bug in the Windows shell, and is beyond the control of ZIPExplorer.  The easiest workaround is to select “Line up icons” in the destination folder after the drop, or to select any of the “Arrange Icons” menus.


Adding Items to an Archive

In order to add items to an archive, simply drag them into an open ZIPExplorer folder window.

If you drop files onto the icon of a directory within a ZIPExplorer folder window, the files will be compressed into that subdirectory within the archive.

You may drop a single file, groups of files, entire directory structure, or any combination of these in a single operation.

There will be a pause of a few seconds while the view refreshes before your new items appear in the archive window.