Why is it that archive files with .zip, .rar and .tar extensions show upin Win7 Explorer as "folders" but.7z archives show up as a "file".Surely Microsoft isaware of the far superior 7-Zip.

Probably because they would have to follow the LGPL software license and provide the linking code (or whatever, not that big of a LGPL buff). I don't see that happening any time soon ^__^Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!

Why is it that archive files with .zip, .rar and .tar extensions show upin Win7 Explorer as "folders" but.7z archives show up as a "file".Surely Microsoft isaware of the far superior 7-Zip. I see only .zip files appearing as folders..rar and .tar files appear as files just like .7z and very other archive files.Regards Picsoe

Microsoft natively supports the ZIP file format, largely because it's the only commonly used compression format unencumbered by patent or GPL issues. Tar files are a Unix format, and are not compressed at all. tar => (t)ape (ar)chive, and was originally used to store data to magnetic tapes (the reel-to-reel kind). In a sense, tar files are the iso files of yesteryear. I'm not sure Windows even supports tape drives anymore - I think Win2k may have been the last version to support even DAT tapes natively. .7z is GPL encumbered - though I'm not entirely clear how that works for a file format. Theoretically, you should be able to write a commercial, close-source, utility to read and write them, but most people just use 7-zip. It's also not all that common. .rar is closed-source, and still associated with media pirates. It's not a widely used format, and even at that, is losing ground to .7z - another niche player. Give it time. If the format takes off, it may eventually get native Windows support.

My impression is that's only a display issue. *.zip files are displayed with a "compressed (zipped) folder" icon, other compression file types like *.rar or *.7z are displayed as files (even if they are compressed folders). The main reason will be that *.zip is a native Windows format (can be opened without 3d party software), the others are not. That doesn't mean that Windows couldn't handle 7-zip files as well when 7-zip is installed.Mobile AMD64 3000+, VIA Apollo K8T800 chipset, 1 G RAM, ATIRadeonMobility 9700, 20x DVDRW, C:XPSP3 (55G),D:WIN7 (25G),F:DATA (250G)

My guess is that a awful lot of people would like all the "compressed folder archives" to be shown as folders.I fully agree with this request.Regards Picsoe

It appears as what it should be. If you do care about the icon of compressed files, as a work around, maybe you can manually change the icon for .rar, .7z files. To do this, please refer to the following website:How to Change the Icon for a File Type in Windows 7 and VistaPlease note: we provide this link for references, Microsoft doesn't guarantee any change in this website.Best RegardsDale

But: Changing the icons alone, may lead to some confusion. Imagine anyone trying to open an iconized "compressed folder" that actually uses 7z compression:He possibly can't do that (if 7-zip isn't installed), doesn't see the content of the folder and is irritated. As a design rule, all icons that are not OS symbols (for drives, folders and unknown files) are associated to the application that opens the specific files ("Word" icon for Word documents, "Notepad" icon for txt documents, "Zipped folder" for *.zip archives, a bookshelf icon for *.rar archives and a 7z icon for 7z archives). Theyaren't contained in the system's own icon store but in the correspondent applications itselves. Where is a need to change that?Mobile AMD64 3000+, VIA Apollo K8T800 chipset, 1 G RAM, ATIRadeonMobility 9700, 20x DVDRW, C:XPSP3 (55G),D:WIN7 (25G),F:DATA (250G)

Dale, the icon is hardly the issue. The issue is that when I double click ona "zipped" folder icon I actually get to see the contents of the archive. Not sowith .7z archives. I would actually have to open7-Zip to look inside the archive.Anyway, likeSeth said, perhaps 7-Zip will become so popular that everyone will use it and drop .rar and .zip. I have only discovered it recently and am abig fan. 7-Zip reduces text files by 35% more than zip. An 18MB zip file takes 11MB with 7-Zip. Who would still use zip after having used 7-Zip?