compressed 7z folders for XP.SP3

[nikos]

who was this guy that asked for compressed folders in XP? Well here it is (beta)
www.zabkat.com/test/7zNSE_setup_xp.exe
i am not sure if it works in general, but for sure SP3 and windows desktop search will do it. Perhaps the latter isn't required
it also worked for me on XP.SP2 and WDS 4
at present the only thing that doesn't work is launching from within archives, but I believe it is also doable

this also includes the latest 7zip dlls (for everyone), please let me know if you see anything funny with it

[sanferno]

so, is this an upgrade for everyone or a brand new version for the guy who asked for XP support?

[Kilmatead]

If you're going to use (or expect to use, or occasionally run into) RAR5 format archives, then this can be used as an upgrade for anyone. Other than that, it's more of an XP test-compatibility thing.

[nikos]

there are a few general improvements for everyone, not just for XP

[Kilmatead]

not just for XP

But, you know, the whole "setup_xp.exe" name thing sort of obfuscates that. You know. Kinda. Maybe just a wee bit. 'Cause, ya know, computer-stuff isn't opaque to start with, so if dev's don't make it worse, they just can't consider it a successful day. There's a Developer's Oath about that sort of thing, like there used to be for Mailmen. Do mailmen still take oaths? They should. Oaths are great. x2 needs more oaths. Oaths are cool. Other file-managers don't have oaths. There could be a whole sub-menu and everything to differentiate Teutonic from Monastic, Anti-Modernist from Omertà. And a special sub-section in the manual to explain why x2 wouldn't be so vain as to use mere "Vows", like those other file-managerial guys.

[nikos]

this shell extension is staggeringly complex, basically because I don't understand how all the parts work together
so every time I sit on the code, I optimize a bit here, add a litthe there, cut a few CPU cycles and so on.

[Kilmatead]

Yeah yeah yeah. You ever notice how developers always complain about how much more complex their give-away projects are compared to their day-jobs? I remember back when you used to spend your free-time calculating stuff about fire-wood and the relative surface-areas of potatoe-crisps in England (ruffled) as opposed to Greece (flat, Tayto-style). With diagrams and everything!

But then you went and had kids and got all serious and stuff.

[dmattote]

Hello Nikos, I am "guy who asked for XP support." I tried to install your program without success until I noticed I didn't have windows desktop search installed. Once that was fixed the installation wentr smoothly and it works fine. If there is anything in particular you would like me to test please let me know. Thank you very much for your efforts!

[dmattote]

Hello again Nikos. tried to open a RAR file and got an access denied error message. It isn't a big deal as I almost never encounter or use RAR files but I thought I would let you know.

[Kilmatead]

I'll confirm that WDS 4.0 is required for the 7zNSE DLL to register properly under XP. If anyone needs it, download it from here (ordinarily I would never suggest anyone download anything from CNet, but in this case it's the only place to find it - MS themselves seem to have removed their own links for the XP version, since XP support has been withdrawn).

Both formats of RAR (normal and RAR5, passworded or unprotected) work fine in XP SP3.

However, what is curious, is that if the filenames are encrypted in a passworded RAR archive, it works fine in XP (password is required to browse) but it does not work at all in Win7. Odd.

EDIT: Scratch that last bit - encrypted names work on Win7 too - something about shared folders on a VM screwed up the Win7 7zNSE setup, so ignore that.

[nikos]

tried to open a RAR file and got an access denied error message

It works for me. Did you use xplorer2 or windows explorer? For XP don't expect much from windows explorer

btw I was wise enough to keep a copy of WDS4 for XP so if anyone needs it here it is (32 bit)
as for x64 you can still get it from M$ before they remove it too

[nikos]

here's the final version 1201: www.zabkat.com/test/7zNSE_setup.exe
the context menu should work but sadly you cannot double click to open stuff inside archives -- you must extract to open
you can preview at least

as for the dependency on WDS4, it seems that even the older WDS version 3 will do. You don't need to have it running, just installed (if you are bothered by resource consumption)

[dmattote]

Thanks again Nikos, The RARs are opened just fine now!

[dmattote]

Hello again Nikos,

I was trying to do a sort of portable installation of 7zNSE as I use Xplorer2 in a portable mode. However, trying to register SevenZipFolder.dll causes an error message that it is not a valid exe/dll and there is no registration helper. Any way to get around this?

Thanks in advance!

[nikos]

you can install it off a USB stick but that would be a permanent installation on whatever computer you are installing to. Also you must make sure that the target computer has all the other required DLLs (WDS etc). Namespace extensions aren't very good for portability