Windows won't unzip zip files. Says it's blocked.

External Since: May 11, 2007 Posts: 1

It could be a couple of things.

1. The zip file has a leading backslash or some other path separator
issue that doesn't agree with Windows.
2. The file was downloaded using IE and has retained the Internet Zone
data in an NTFS alternate data stream.

You can get around #1 by using a different unzip utility. WinRAR is my
current favorite.
You can get around #2 by removing the alternate data stream using
SysInternals streams utility with the -d option - "streams -d".

See http://tinyurl.com/26rmw3 for the solution.

--
kerpau

External Since: May 12, 2007 Posts: 2

3 options:
GET RID OF YOUR M$ BOX AND BUY A MAC;
INSTALL LINUX; or
If you really can't do any of the 2 above, install WINZIP my friend!

"Thomas Thomassen" wrote:

> Recently Windows XP SP2 has prevented me from unzipping zip files. Whenever I
> try to unzip a file I get the message: Windows has blocked access to these
> files to help protect your computer.
>
> Windows blocks files that are marked as not trusted.
>
> When I follow the help file information it says I can choose to unblock the
> file from it's property dialog box. However, there is no such option.
>
> I first thought it was a special type of zip file created under certain
> circumstances. But I even get that message if I use Windows to zip a text
> file and then try to extract it again.
>
> I have also installed Windows Defender Beta, could this be causing this
> issue? I have never had any problems with the built in zip utility in Windows.
> I can extract the zipfiles just fine in any other compression software.
>
> -Thomas