Why are Zip files so slow to open?

I suspect you’ve fallen victim to two things – a shortage of storage space and a few supposedly ‘helpful’ features of Windows XP.

Let me start, please, by addressing the issue of storage space. You have an 80G hard drive. That may seem like a lot of drive space, but if you’re anything of a ‘hoarder’ or an ‘accumulator’ it can be filled quite quickly. I really believe that adding more storage space is a far superior alternative to the approach of compressing things to cram more on! 80G hard drives cost less than $100, 160G hard drives can be obtained for less than $150. A CD burner can be obtained for less than the price of a concert ticket, and a large spindle of blank CDs can be obtained for less than the cost of a Takeaway meal for the family! There really is no need anymore to ‘squash’ things down so you can cram more onto a drive, because, albeit with a bit of scrimping and scraping, extra storage is now affordable even for those people of Social Security incomes!

With that matter out of the way, let’s look at what might be happening on your system.

Windows XP actually provides TWO forms of file compression. The ‘Zip’ files you refer to are actually what Windows XP calls ‘Compressed (Zipped) Folders’. They are file ‘Archives’ which allow a file or group of files to be stored in a smaller space, and Windows XP can create or expand them as part of its normal, everyday operation. But if your hard drives and partitions use the NTFS file format, there is also another form of compression available called ‘NTFS compression’. This is generally used on drives or partitions, but can also be used on folders as well. ‘NTFS compression’ is the one used when you run ‘Disk Cleanup’ and enable the “Compress old files” option. Because those Zip files you’ve downloaded would probably sit there without being accessed for long periods of time, it’s quite possible that they, and the folders they’re stored in, have been part of that ‘Compress old files’ action at some point, and that when you try to access them now Windows is having to work it’s way through two levels of compression.

There is another, unrelated ‘feature’ of Windows XP which might also be enabled on your system, and acting to slow things down. Windows’ ‘Indexing Service’ is a feature intended to enable quicker access to the files and folders stored on your system. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work all that well. If you have large numbers of files and folders, and your hard drive is a bit poorly maintained with the ‘Cleanup’ and ‘Defragmenter’ tools not used often enough, the Indexing Service can actually SLOW DOWN access to your files and folders!

There might also be a detrimental effect from something you’ve done to the system yourself. If you have multiple file compression programs installed on your system, they may be acting against one another, and creating a ‘slowdown’.

That little explanatory discussion out of the way, let’s look at ways to correct the situation.

Install a secondary hard drive if you’re becoming a bit cramped for storage space, or at the very least move some of your stored material to CD to free up drive space. Nothing will help improve Windows performance if you don’t give it ‘breathing space’ and it hasn’t got the room to work in.
Then start off by thoroughly checking your system for any traces of viruses or spyware, and cleaning any instances you find. There’s no point to performing maintenance on an infested system, because the intrusions will be acting against you.
Next, use ‘Disk Cleanup’ and ‘Disk Defragmenter’. Do NOT enable the Compress old files option in Disk Cleanup.
Open ‘My Computer’, right-click on each drive or partition in turn, and ensure that “Compress drive to save disk space” and “Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching” are both deselected. Click on ‘Apply’ if any change is made, and wait for the change to be completed.
Uninstall unused programs from your system. They slow things down as well.
Pay some attention to the File compression software loaded on your system. Ensure that in the ‘Settings’ or ‘Preferences’ for each, they are not all enabled to load at Startup. Use them only when you need to, instead of having them running in the background all the time. My own approach is to simplify the approach. I use Windows’ Compressed Folders feature for ZIP files and for extracting data from .CAB files, and load ‘WinRAR’ as well, allowing it to associate itself with all other archive formats. I find I get virtually complete coverage that way!

Those are rather general procedures to follow to get things working smoothly again. It may seem like ‘overkill’ for what appears to be such a simple problem, but remember that Windows is a quite complex piece of software, and many things that occur on your system are inter-related.

Having done all of that, you’ll most likely find that you still have some ‘NTFS compressed’ folders and files on your system. You’ll find them by using ‘My Computer’ to navigate around your hard drive, and you’ll see that they have the File or Folder names displayed in blue text. I’m sorry, but I’m not aware of any ‘Tool’ which will scan your hard drive and decompress them, so I can only advise you to do so manually for those folders where you most need to. Much of the ‘NTFS compression’ left behind will be system files and archives which don’t really need to be accessed except under unusual circumstances, so it won’t hurt to leave them that way. But your data files are another matter!

Work your way through the data storage folders of your hard drive, where you’ve placed your data and documents, and those ZIP files you’ve downloaded.
When you see a folder (or an individual file) with its name displayed in blue text, right-click on it and choose ‘Properties’.
On the ‘General’ tab, beside ‘Attributes’, click on the ‘Advanced’ button.
Deselect “Compress contents to save disk space”
If it appears selected, deselect “Allow Indexing Service to index this folder (or File)”
Click ‘OK’ then ‘Apply’ to effect the change.

That sounds tedious, I know. Perhaps one of our readers can suggest an easier method to do the job!

All of that attended to, your system should be running much better than it was before. I’d probably be inclined to run ‘Disk Cleanup’ and ‘Disk Defragmenter’ again, to clear up any mess left behind by your efforts. But there’s one other matter I’d like to mention before I finish.

Is that hard drive of yours all one partition? That’s the approach most people adopt, and it’s definitely NOT the most efficient way to go! It's far better to have several partitions on your hard drive(s).

I’d suggest Windows itself is best run by installing it to its own partition, of around 10G or so, to enable the Windows installation to have ‘elbow room’ and to be able to work in an uncluttered environment.
I also like to see another partition, of whatever size is necessary, where programs are installed to.
Finally, I like to see a further partition, of whatever size is necessary, where documents and data is stored, along with your downloaded files.

Adopting such a structure keeps things in order. There are two ways to achieve it. Firstly, you could use a Commercial software program such as Paragon Partition Manager to change the partition structure on your system. Secondly, you could back up all your data, wipe the hard drive(s) and use the Windows XP CD to create a new partition structure and install your system fresh and clean.

It’s your choice, of course, but if everything is ‘stuffed’ into a single partition, Windows will end up with problems sooner or later.

That’s all been a bit of a saga, hasn’t it? I suppose if somebody comes along and points out some setting I’ve overlooked, or a simple program tweak or system intrusion that would quickly correct your problem then I’ll be left sitting here with ‘egg on my face’! But I really think the behaviour you describe is simply part and parcel of the general system degradation that a ‘normal’ Windows installation is prone to over time. Some sensible maintenance should fix it for you!

Cheers,
Terry O’Shanassy

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