Vista + Zip files = Lame

Robbeh · Dec 18, 2007, 06:46 AM

Unzipping a 79mb file (Realtek ac97 drivers)

7zip - 5.4 seconds
Vista - 8 mins 42 seconds

This is with Vista SP1 RC, which is much faster at unzipping than the RTM. I know a dedicated unzipping program is always going to be faster, but 97x faster seems a little extreme! How did they get zip files in vista so wrong? Xp wasn't too bad with zips, what did they do to it?

Disclaimer - The author of this post thinks vista, in the main, is awesome and is not inciting a M$ Suckz type thread

**Vikingod** · Dec 18, 2007, 08:43 AM

That is definetly strange. It doesn't take me 8 mins to unzip an 8gb dvd file, let alone some drivers. With SP1, my unzipping time improved noticably too.

Are you using the built in zip program? Might want to try WinRAR or something else, my guess is you will see huge improvements.

mkk · Dec 18, 2007, 10:03 AM

In case you need to rid the system of the Zip-Folders functionality completely:
Annoyances.org - How do I turn off Compressed Folders (built-in support for ZIP files) in Windows Vista and XP?
(it can sometimes linger on after a third party program is installed)

Dyre Straits · Dec 18, 2007, 04:22 PM

I'm using Vista Home Premium OEM 32-bit and just ran a test Unzipping a 380 MB file to over 900 MB.

Total time: 45 seconds.

But, this was using WinRAR.

Judas · Dec 19, 2007, 12:52 AM

Fact is.... if you have vista.... just don't bother screwing around with zips till you download winrar or whatever you usually use.

It seems to be system dependant,.

PangingJr · Dec 19, 2007, 02:35 AM

Robbeh,
i do not have an answer for you nor cannot explain why it has not yet been fixed? it could be that this is something that's not easy to fix. but i'm sure Microsoft knows about this problem (and long time already.)

think of it this way in the mean time, the built in tool is there (and as you already know that it's not perfect) for you to use it before you can install a better third party tool, there are some good free tool available for the purpose.

Robbeh · Dec 20, 2007, 05:09 PM

Cheers for the replies! Just to clarify my original post, i was using 7zip on vista v.s. the inbuilt vista tool. Tried it on a couple of (powerful) vista machines to be sure but it is literally 97x slower!

WardenWolf · Dec 20, 2007, 11:24 PM

There are a few different subversions of the zip format. Vista could have been stumbling over an oddball extreme compression that it wasn't really designed to handle. I use WinACE in Vista64, and have no problems other than the fact that the context menu doesn't work.