ZIP file extractor that automatically deletes original?

October 8, 2005 10:42 PM

I'm looking for a Zip file extractor for Windows with some specific requirements that I haven't been able to meet...

My major requirement is that I can double-click on/open a .zip archive, and it can be automatically expanded to a folder (or not, if a single file), *and the original deleted*. The only program I know that did this was (is?) Stuffit Expander, but I'd prefer not to use it (bug problems in the past, and it's essentially trialware). There are a lot of (completely) free programs out there that can handle zip files, but I can't see any that can handle this. I've currently got 7-zip, IZARC, and ZipMagic installed, and none seem to be able to do this, nor have I figured it out on XP's native implementation. Truly, clicking through that wizard just to expand your zip file is a huge pain.

I use Windows 2000 and XP. If there's a way to mod XP to do this automatically, that's good for XP, at least. This is obviously not life-threatening, but it sure is annoying.

posted by RikiTikiTavi to computers & internet (8 comments total)

I don't have a windows box in front of me, so I don't know for sure if it will do what you mentioned. However, if you haven't tried it, I suggest quickzip. It is free and fairly robust.
posted by AllesKlar at 10:59 PM on October 8, 2005

You shouldn't need to use the wizard with izarc. Right-click on an archive in windows exploder, and you should see an "izarc->" thingie that has options for extract here, extract to [directory with name of file], etc. I don't know if you can configure it to delete unzipped files, though.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:22 PM on October 8, 2005

I was suprised to see that winrar wasn't listed among the things you tried. It's originally a .rar file extractor, but has been modified over the years to open just about every compressin type I'm aware of. In windows, you can right click on any compressed file, including zip, and select from a menu of items that include things like "unzip here." (meaning directly into the same directory the zip file sits in.) and "unzip..." which opens the application's main interface for you to decide to unzip it elsewhere. also, there's "unzip to [filename]\" which creates a new directory within the directory the zip file sits in which all the zip file's contents are extracted into. all without opening the app up. The default settings do not delete the original zip immediately after performing this operation, but there may be an option to enable it to do that. I'm not at my home computer, so i can't check immediately. either way, the app is shareware, and you don't have to register it to use it as long as you want, and since you don't have to open the interface to decompress the archives, you theoretically never have to see the registration reminder that pops up wen you open the app up. I figure it's at least worth playing with.
posted by shmegegge at 2:24 AM on October 9, 2005

You could just write a batch file to do this, though you'd risk losing everything if there's an extraction problem.
posted by krisjohn at 8:03 AM on October 9, 2005

In ZipMagic one of the extra options under the right mouse button when used in the Explorer was "Convert Zip to Folder". That does the trick.

Mind you, if I recall correctly you'd have to enable that option in the preferences or some such place.
posted by ijsbrand at 10:39 AM on October 9, 2005

DirectoryOpus can be easily customized to do exactly what you said, by clicking with left, middle or right mouse button on an icon. I have in fact done this. Plus, it's a kick ass windows explorer replacement.
posted by signal at 12:48 PM on October 9, 2005

Thanks, folks. I'll look into those, and I have no idea why I didn't consider scripting this; mea culpa. By the way, it seems the right way to script this would have the deletion move the file to the recycle bin, thus providing a degree of idiot-resistance.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 10:27 PM on October 9, 2005

Oh, and ZipMagic is essentially the old Stuffit, but it's been a long time and maybe it's worth another look. It used to be awesome when it was just for the Macintosh.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 11:05 PM on October 9, 2005