Windows 11 zipped folders / files immediately crashes File Explorer

I have generally found that this problem occurs specifically when Windows 11 is installed and you're using OneDrive or OneDrive for Business. It doesn't matter whether I'm using Microsoft's built-in extraction utility or a third-party one such as 7-Zip, and this is likely why.

Since the Windows Desktop and several other folders one would commonly extract a file to are replicated to the OneDrive cloud (or Sharepoint Online) in such a scenario, unzipping to one of the synced locations causes the issue.

A workaround can be to unzip to a non-synced location such as a temporary directory. However, this is certainly not a solution. It's also a problem I didn't have under Windows 10. I'm unsure why Microsoft has not fixed such a glaring issue in the year-plus that Windows 11 has been released; I've had the issue on the initial version and 22H2.

Later I downloaded and installed Nanazip which was suggested somewhere and that seems to be working.

I had uninstalled 7-zip File Manager too because I thought that was causing problems too, but then many months later reinstalled an updated 7-zip File Manager and that seems to be working too.

I still many months later have not tried to reinstall PowerDesk although I do need it for synchronization of files. Would like to know of any success with PowerDesk and Windows 11!!!

Hi, I'm have the same issue on windows 10 freezes the folder for around a minute everytime I end up clicking it, then slowly everthing else on my PC starts going glithy. I have updated all drivers and the bios to the latest version, as well as tried SFC, DISM and repair mode restart. But they all say there are no problems. And the problem continues to happen.

mine doesnt crash file explorer, but it certainly does freeze up halfway through.
just another way windows11 makes life harder for anyone who isnt just a email-your-mother-on-a-sunday type user.
if you want to get anything constructive done, win11 is sure to make your life harder that it should be (or even used to be - curse the day i upgraded from win10)

I have had this issue for for well over a year. It has been driving me nuts.

For me zip files on the local drives were fine. But if the zip file was on a network drive Explorer would completely freeze and crash. Windows 11 had an improvement where instead of a full explorer freeze and crash, I could just close that instance of Explorer and it'd be fine again. Until to touched a zip file on my server!

Today I finally fixed it.

I installed the latest version of 7zip (I already had an older version installed)

Then using a zip file on my local drive I set the default application to 7zip File manager (7zipFM.exe)

You could also go to settings - apps - default apps - search for zip extension and choose 7zip File Manager.

Now I have full functionality back again with the benefit of fast viewing the zip contents inside 7zip.