Jerky/slow Scolling in folders with alot of zip files 1

[denzilla]

Has anyone noticed that if you have a ton of zipfiles in one folder, the screen lags, jerks, and hang insanely! It is at its worst in the Icon view, but also bad in the thumbnails, and tiles view as well. It gets progressively worse the more zips you add to the folder. In my case, I have over 3000 zip files (MAME Roms) in one folder. I have to change the view to details or list just to be able to scoll up and down in the folder. I've tried disabling all the XP eye candy, enabling/disabling the smoothscroll list boxes options. Nothing helps. I notice this on machines other thatn mine, but all use XP. 98 doesn't have this problem. My refresh rate is also set to 100hz so I no its not that.

p3 1.2Ghz
512 meg of ram
radeon 7500 64meg AGP
WinXP home

 

[bcastner]

This is very common, particularly if you use Winzip, but it is very common.

You might consider using more folders, as this will reduce the overhead of XP trying to read the compressed property data for a large directory of zip files.

The native XP zip compression is surprisingly faster in this setting than the add-in zip programs.

 

[denzilla]

I wonder if there is any hope for a patch? Its really annoying and if 98 can do it, Xp should do it better. I have one question though. There is almost no lag when I change the view to details. It just lines the zipfiles straight up and down and adds file information. Xp still has to read the compression info regardless. This seems to suggest a graphics hangup rather than the OS not reading the data efficiently.

 

[bcastner]

A graphics hangup? Yes, as when you are in thumbnail or iconic views more information has to be read and more software called to provide the preview.

 

[denzilla]

I see. Thanks for the insight.

 

[bcastner]

Just be happy they are not hundreds of .avi files.

 

[denzilla]

I can only imagine

 

[denzilla]

Problem is fixed!!! I emailed winzip support and here is the problem.

"I believe this issue may be related to the fact that Windows XP includes
its own zipping/unzipping feature called 'Compressed Folders'.
Compressed Folders causes Windows XP to treat Zip files as folders
rather than as files and therefore processes and provide information to
XP about the Zip files even when another Zip utility such as WinZip, is
installed. If you prefer to use WinZip (or another Zip utility) for
zipping and unzipping, you can unregister the XP Compressed Folders
feature by executing the following command from Start/Run:

RegSvr32 /u zipfldr.dll

and XP will no longer treat Zip files as folders which should
significantly speed things up. However, a feature of Compressed Folders
is to include Zip files in any Search operations you perform where you
have specified 'Search subfolders'. If you make use of this
functionality and choose to unregister Compressed Folders, you can
search for files in your Zip files by specifying *.Zip as 'All or part
of the file name:' and the name of the file you are looking for as 'A
word or phrase in the file:'

Please do not hesitate to let me know if you should have any questions
or continue to experience difficulty.


-- Cathy Shea, WinZip Technical Support"

After rebooting it will look as if winzip has lost all of its associations. Simply uncheck and recheck all the associations in the winzip config. Restart and its all good. I hope this helps others.

 

[bcastner]

Cool.

There did not use to be a workaround, just a lot of excuses from Winzip.