7zip question

[HeatherL]

This is probably dumb.  I have had 7zip for years.  As of yesterday, all the files in my download section are now labeled as such.  For instance, a file that was previously labeled as AD European Extravaganza is now labeled AD European Extravaganza.zip.  The same thing is happening with .exe files, .png & .pdf.   There are probably others as I have more than 3,000 files in my computer download area. Mostly Zoo Tycoon :-)

It doesn't actually seem to be affecting anything, but the fact that there was a change at all without any notification bothers me as I don't understand computers enough to know if this is just a minor change or if there is something bigger going on that I haven't discovered yet.  I can still change the name. 

I haven't tried removing the new .zip ending as I don't want to cause any problems if this is an important change.

Of course, there may have been an automatic update of some kind, but this seems to be an odd thing to change.  From a visual standpoint, it adds a great deal more "clutter" which makes it harder for me to scan for things.

[Fern]

Bit of a two pronged reply here since I asked Jay since he uses it all the time.

His initial response was this: It is unlikely that the problem is caused by 7-zip. There are 2 possible causes. MS Windows is an extremely buggy operating system. It often corrupts memory. Sometimes when the memory gets corrupted, it shows the wrong icons/labels for files. If you do a shutdown of your computer and start it again, that should correct the memory corruption, if that is the cause. An actual shutdown would have to be done, and not hibernating the computer or putting the computer in standby, and possibly not even a restart of the computer. The other cause is if you associated the file extensions to the 7-zip program, such as right-clicking on a file, selecting Open With, and choosing 7-zip. Although that could be possible for the ".zip" and ".ztd" extensions, it seems unlikely to have been done for ".exe", ".pdf", or ".png" extensions. It is possible to change file type associations in the File Types area of Folder Options within Control Panel, but that is not something that is user friendly.

However when I was was reading your question again I wondered it you initially had the extensions turned off and something had turned them on. When I mentioned that to Jay he said: I interpreted the question differently when I just sent you a message about it. But you are probably correct. If it is that the option was turned on to show the file extensions, that is a good thing. The option can be changed in Control Panel, but most people want that turned on, especially for those that use ZT, because sometimes that is the only way to tell what a file actually is. For example, the main ZT folder has "zoo.exe" and "zoo.ini". Without the ".exe" and ".ini" being shown, people often get confused of which is which.

[HeatherL]

Thanks for checking into this.  

 

I turned the computer on, then off, no change.

 

So, going with the assumption that extensions were turned off and something turned them on, I will leave it as is and just get used to it. :-)

 

Please thank Jay for me. 

[Fern]

Whatever you do, don't try changing or deleting the extentions as then the files won't work.

[HeatherL]

I won't, thanks.