Windows behaves oddly after looking in an zip folder

[Teis Draiby]

I have experienced a problem that seems to be related to the build-in
function that views zip folder contents (without using WinZip). After having
viewed and extracted zip folder content, Windows XP starts to behave oddly:

1) Windows that are under the mouse pointer automatically become active -
which is very disturbing.

2) Using the 'backwards' button in Explorer switches back but then forward
again instantly after... Also very disturbing.

Has anyone experienced something similar? How can I solve the problem?


Thank you very much! Teis

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

I have experienced a problem that seems to be related to the build-in
function that views zip folder contents (without using WinZip). After having
viewed and extracted zip folder content, Windows XP starts to behave oddly:

1) Windows that are under the mouse pointer automatically become active -
which is very disturbing.

Sounds like X-Mouse got turned on, but I don't know why unzipping a file
would do that. TweakUI (from MS powertoys site) can turn it off again,
if that's what it was.

2) Using the 'backwards' button in Explorer switches back but then forward
again instantly after... Also very disturbing.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

No, because I avoid the built-in .zip handler entirely ..

How can I solve the problem?

Disable the built in .zip handling (start, run, regsvr32 /u
zipfldr.dll), and then use winzip (shareware .. found on most PC cover
disks, and also downloadable from the www) instead.

 

[Teis Draiby]

Sorry, I switched off the build-in zip thing and also played around with
tweakUI. The X-Mouse function does the window switching in a lot more
controllable way than I am experiencing. The switching does only happen
sometimes and occasionally I'm not able to select a folder or the desktop.
The first time it happend I stopped it by deleting adware with Spybot, but
at this time Spybot doesn't detect any adware. My XP is just installed one
week ago, quite frustrating....


Teis

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

Sorry, I switched off the build-in zip thing and also played around with
tweakUI. The X-Mouse function does the window switching in a lot more
controllable way than I am experiencing. The switching does only happen
sometimes and occasionally I'm not able to select a folder or the desktop.
The first time it happend I stopped it by deleting adware with Spybot, but
at this time Spybot doesn't detect any adware. My XP is just installed one
week ago, quite frustrating....

So are you saying it still happens even with windows .zip handling
turned off? If so, what provokes it now - I thought it only happened
after you unzip files, so does it still do that even if you use winzip??

 

[Teis Draiby]

It has happend twice, first time yesterday immediatly after I attempted to
extract files from a zip folder, which freezed. It seemed that I was able to
solve the problem by removing adware with Spybot.

Today the problem showed up again, this time also immediately after
extracting files from a zip folder. Though I can't rule out that the zip
folders doesn't have anything to do with it it seems to be related.
Restarting or shutting down the computer doesn't help. It does not help
deactivating 'zip folders' and using WinZip instead. It is definitely not
something intentionally - Windows behave very unpredictable. Sometimes I
can't select a folder sometimes I can. In Outlook Express it automatically
opens mail subfolders - sometimes.
This time there is no adware to remove, since I already removed it. When I
start up in safe mode it works perfectly but rolling back Windows to a
restoring point before the problem appeared doesn't help. Scanning my
computer with Norton AntiVirus says that there are no viruses (AntiVirus
always on).

regards, Teis

 

[Alex Nichol]

It has happend twice, first time yesterday immediatly after I attempted to
extract files from a zip folder, which freezed. It seemed that I was able to
solve the problem by removing adware with Spybot.

Today the problem showed up again, this time also immediately after
extracting files from a zip folder. Though I can't rule out that the zip
folders doesn't have anything to do with it it seems to be related.

That suggests to me that it may be related to some file that is *in* the
zip folder, and which you have activated by extracting I think a good
AV scan, with latest data file, of the folders concerned