Right-click on compressed zip folder gets error

Hi rccDave,

Thanks for posting here.

It looks like some something in the background is monitoring and when a specify file is detected, it comes out (but incorrectly), so I will suggest to perform a Clean Boot first.

A "clean boot" starts Windows with a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. It helps to determine whether a background program is interfering with the file and to isolate the cause of this problem. 

These steps of "clean boot" might look complicated at first glance. However, to avoid any trouble for you, please follow them in order and step-by step so that it will help you get you back on track:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

I hope this reply could address your question, or if there is anything unclear in my post, please feel free to let me know.

Thanks again and wish you a nice day!

Best regards

Norman Li | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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* Please check and vote this answer if it helps as it will be beneficial to more community members reading here.

Norman,

I followed the procedure and performed a cold boot. There was no change to the behavior. When I create a new .zip archive, then right-click on it, I get the same "Error" message.

Is there a way to repair or reinstall the Send to Compressed Zip Folder function?

--Dave

Hi rccDave,

Thanks for your reply.

If a "Clean Boot" does not fix the problem, then I think a more powerful tool would be needed.

Autoruns is a tool can disable start-up items those are even not show with Clean Boot:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

Note: There is an Explorer tab we should pay more attention

Before you decide to use Autoruns, please do create a system restore point, in case you've disabled something might causes Windows is not boot, we can use it:

Use System Restore

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/use-system-restore-a5ae3ed9-07c4-fd56-45ee-096777ecd14e

I hope this reply could address your question, or if there is anything unclear in my post, please feel free to let me know.

Thanks again for your patience and understanding, wish you a nice day!

Best regards

Norman Li | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

-----------------------

* Beware of scammers posting fake support numbers here.

* Please check and vote this answer if it helps as it will be beneficial to more community members reading here.

Thank you for the reference to a new tool. This could be an enormous process of elimination. I have no problem going deeper with this, but could you tell me what cause possibilities we’re investigating?

You seem to suspect some other app is getting in the way.

Another possibility is the Compressed Folder (Zip) feature is broken or confused.

The issue "just appeared" on a working system.

What we really need is a tool that shows what’s happening as I right-click on a zip file.  Then we can see whether it is the feature itself or some 3^rd-party thing.  Do you have such a diagnostic tool (like a trace back, or something)?

Perhaps we should look at Registry entries for the feature?

I’d like to simply “reinstall” the Compressed Folder feature or force a reinstall like can be done by deleting a driver.  Then the OS self-heals.

Please share your diagnostic logic with me so we aren’t just guessing at things.

Hi rccDave,

I hope you are doing well.

Just want to see if you will need any further assistance through this post, or if you think my reply helps, please help to check and vote my reply as an ANSWER.

Thanks again and wish you a nice day!

Best regards

Norman Li | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

-----------------------

* Beware of scammers posting fake support numbers here.

* Please check and vote this answer if it helps as it will be beneficial to more community members reading here.

Norman,

Thank you for your reply. I haven't had a chance to dig into this further so I can't vote yes or no quite yet.

I'll mark this post and let you (it) know what happens.

--Dave

Found changing the default program to 7 Zip as per this link fixed it for me. Something broken here. Started for me today after some AutoCAD updates. Not sure if that is related though.

Rightclicking .zip file opens empty alert error - Microsoft Community

I have the same issue too and I tried running the SFC tool after I did a clean boot. The results can be seen in the attached image. I still have the error message popping up every time I right click on any zip folders.