Winzip annoyance

I'm doing some work which involves opening a large number of zipped Excel files, checking they're OK, and if they are, that's fine - do nothing.

The speed at which I can do this is greatly impeded by the stupid messages I keep getting from Winzip. Every time I open a file - just to look at it and check, remember, not to edit anything - and then quit without changing or saving, it comes up with the stupid message: "[Name of file] has been changed since it was extracted. Update archive with this file?"

But I haven't changed anything - I've just looked at it, no more. So what's it on about?

Then, whatever I reply to that (Yes/No doesn't really matter, since it hasn't actually changed anyway - but I usually choose "No" to be on the safe side) it says: "[Name of file] has been changed since was extracted to a temporary folder. Delete the temporarily extracted copy of this file?"

To this one, I usually say "Yes", since if it's only a temporarily extracted version anyway, I don't want it kicking around to cause any confusion later.

Anyway, this all might seem no big deal, but when you've literally dozens to check, two error messages for every single one is no joke. Even if they only take a second each to dismiss, the annoyance is huge.

So why is it even reporting anything's changed in the first place? I'm just looking at the stuff...

T.

Quite agree Tina.

And when you open an 'old' zipped Excel file you get three messages, Excel asks if you want to save it in the latest format!

Grr!

Being on Windows 7 I don't need WinZip; it just deals with zipped files transparently. Yet another reason to use a modern OS.

I am on Windows 7.

What's that got to do with it? The files are supplied to me as zip files, and no, I'm afraid it isn't "just dealing with them transparently".

So it's just a "feature", is it?

No way of switching it off?

Arrange for the Excel files to be Read-Only before they are Zipped?

Can't find any such option.It would seem to be a useful option though.

IIRC, as soon as you scroll through an Excel File, it tries to remember the last position - hence you have "changed" it (even though you haven't changed any contents)!

You don't need a third-party program to open, create, or use zip files in Windows 7. Explorer let's you see the contents of a zip file and open individual files within an archive. So, don't use WinZip, just open the files directly.

I was more meaning, by my reference to an 'old' Excel file, that when you close an Excel file last saved by a previous version of Excel it asks whether you want it to save it with the current version. (It might be possible to turn that prompt off, not specifically looked).

Yeah, it's obviously something like that, but it's damn annoying. The feature is actually quite useful if you have edited anything, as it's much easier just being able to save it back to the zip file than having to save it elsewhere and manually do it afterwards. BUT, as it's only a very small minority of documents I'm having to edit - the majority are fine - it would be much better if I could disable it, for this work, at least.

Haha! A couple of problems with that!

Firstly, it's a done deal, now, so would only be able to suggest it for future, similar exercises. Secondly, it would be a pain for the small minority of cases where I do actually need to edit something. Would have to save a copy first, and work on the copy.

In reply to a post by TLM:

So it's just a "feature", is it?

No way of switching it off?

It's not a problem with WinZip - The files have been changed simply by opening them and WinZip is simply asking if you want to save the modified file or save the existing.
To avoid this, extract the files to a folder, edit them and then re-archive them.

Windows has featured "native zipping/unzipping" since XP but, it doesn't work with all archives and can corrupt the data in some instances.

just re-assosciate the zip files to be opened by win7 rather than winzip
once you open using default win7 explorer options you can open files, close them and no prompt appears - just tested it !!