Windows 11 zipped folders / files immediately crashes File Explorer

Anonymous
2022-01-24T04:24:45+00:00

My Dell laptop was previously Windows 10, now 11. When I right click any zipped folder, it immediately crashes Windows Explorer, but then everything comes back. I can't unzip any zipped file at all - doesn't seem to matter what size it is.

I was trying to use the built-in unzipper utility in Windows, and when that didn't work I tried a couple 3rd party apps, including WinZip. Nothing works; they all crash, and they crash on ANY zipped file I have.

And by the way if I try to ZIP any set of files - even just 3 little word files, it does the same thing. The screen flashes, all my icons go away for a second. Then things come back, but nothing will zip or unzip.

thanks if you have any ideas!

Christine

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

120 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2024-08-24T23:02:14+00:00

    If anyone is still having this problem, I solved it by removing the registry key associated with .zip file context menu.

    Win+R

    regedit <enter>

    navigate to, and remove HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts.zip

    close regedit

    If you want pretty icon etc again then go to default apps and assign one.

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-01-03T20:37:31+00:00

    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.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2022-11-29T00:11:38+00:00

    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.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2022-07-13T19:47:34+00:00

    Is there an update to this? I do not have Carbonite but each time I unzip a file internet explorer crashes. It partially unzips the file as there is usually 1 file from the zip inside it. If I delete that partially unzipped file and try to unzip again it usually works the second time.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2022-06-30T22:32:52+00:00

    I also had to uninstall PowerDesk. They sent me an updated file that solves their licensing problem, but I have not tried reinstalling power desk yet. I use it mainly on my laptop and Surface Go. The laptop will update to Windows 11, at least MS says it will, but I'm not so sure I want to. I'm kind of glad the Surface Go will not take Windows 11, but that limits its life to a few more years.

    If I try the Power Desk reinstall on my office desktop with Win 11, I'll let everyone know if it's worked.

    Good luck, everyone!

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments