Re-associating files after regsvr32.exe /u

[John H Meyers]

To disable and re-enable XP's default time-consuming file searching
into all .zip and .cab files, I have created simple command files
which un-register and re-register zipfldr.dll and cabview.dll
using regsvr32.exe, per articles found via web search.

There is no problem when unregistering these DLLs and searching,
but after re-registering the DLLs, it often happens that
"Zip folders" and CAB files are not re-associated
with the proper programs to open the files
(nor their proper default icons, as well).

I have found a simple way to manually restore these associations,
which is to take _any_ file, say xyz.txt, display its Properties,
and change its default "Open with" property to some other choice
(to have .txt files open with Editpad instead of Notepad, for example).

The moment that the unrelated file type .txt is changed,
_all_ of the desktop icons are regenerated,
and lo and behold, even the .zip and .cab files
suddenly not only have their correct default icons,
but Windows also suddenly remembers how to open those types, too,
and everything is completely back to normal.

I am looking for something to include in my _command_ files
to accomplish the same thing -- not to change the "association"
of some unrelated file type like .txt, but rather
to force the "regeneration" of the information
that was not completely restored by merely re-registering
zipfldr.dll and cabview.dll, which were not sufficient in themselves
to restore all of the functionality of "Zip folders" and CAB files.

Thanks!

 

[Mark Dormer]

You need to refresh the shell, not easy to do with a scripting language.

See http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Refresh_shell_icons

Perhaps someone has complied a small exe to do this!

Regards
Mark Dormer

 

[John H Meyers]

[about disabling/enabling searching into .zip and .cab files
via unregistering/registering zipfldr.dll and cabview.dll,
which doesn't always restore associations after re-registering]

You need to refresh the shell

Thank you very much.

The previously mentioned experiments
(where manually changing any association accomplished
fixing the .zip and .cab associations at the same time),
plus the content of http://windowsxp.mvps.org/zipfldr.htm
suggested a specific command which seems to do this:

assoc .txt=txtfile

This actually changes nothing,
because it's always present anyway,
regardless of what program is associated in turn with "txtfile";
however, it has exactly the desired effect,
when performed after each invocation of regsvr32.exe
to unregister or register zipfldr.dll and cabview.dll
and is what's otherwise missing in those commonly posted suggestions
(which I had incorporated into command files).

Of course, having found the above page, it happens also to contain
a program (with a small GUI) which manages to disable only the searching
into .zip and/or .cab files, without disabling anything else at all.

I had wanted (and have now found) a purely command-oriented solution,
simple enough to share and assure anyone that it is malware-free,
but I was willing to experiment on my own computer, and found that
the above program produced only the following minimal registry changes:

With both .cab and .zip searching enabled:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=dword:680001a0

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{E88DCCE0-B7B3-11d1-A9F0-00AA0060FA31}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=dword:200001a0
"UseDropHandler"=""

With both .cab and .zip searching disabled:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{E88DCCE0-B7B3-11d1-A9F0-00AA0060FA31}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=dword:00000000
"UseDropHandler"=""

This in turn gives rise to an alternate command-based solution,
in which each command simply invokes "regedit /s reg_file"
where the above are included in the registry files.

Searches on the above CLSIDs find these exact entries in many places,
it turns out, but no one seems to have suggested changing just
one registry entry for .cab (the first of each pair),
and just the second registry entry of each pair for .zip
which seems to accomplish the desired suppression of searching
into the .cab and .zip files, without affecting anything else.

Thanks again for your tip, and also to Ramesh Srinivasan
("Windows XP Fixes, Tips and Tweaks" http://windowsxp.mvps.org )
leading to these various and much appreciated solutions.

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[John H Meyers]

Slight correction:

Ramesh Srinivasan's program offering a simple GUI with two check-boxes,
for enabling/disabling finding files inside .zip and .cab files,
is actually found at http://windowsxp.mvps.org/nofindinsidezip.htm

"NoFindInsideZip" -- everything should be as clearly named

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