Mysterious Problem

[johnost]

This problem has suddenly popped up - it is not specifically flightsim related - but posted in the hope that somebody has a clue. On a fairly new computer running E6700 duo, 4Gb Ram, 8800GTX and Vista 32-bit, I am suddenly unable to open any *.zip files. When I try, the Windows Explorer page display starts "pulsating" rapidly in size. If I 'X' the Explorer page, a transparent page keeps pulsating over the Vista opening page, and I have no way of stopping this.

After a couple of minutes it stops, and I get an Windows error message listing path and file saying "The filename or extension is too long", but it happens with any zip file that I have been able to open before. The computer works normally otherwise and no changes have been made other than keeping up with Windows updates.

This one has me stomped, and I don't know where to start looking.

[CPSBruce]

Sounds like one of your windows updates corrupted the built in zip extractor.

[johnost]

You are absolutely correct. I restored the computer to the point before the last Windows update, and the problem went away. The update was

Definition Update for Windows Defender - KB915597 (Definition 1.37.1.0)

- but I don't understand how it would affect the unzip function. Anyway, thanks for your attention.

John

[harleyman52]

Sometimes a restart is all thats needed,and during your roll back it restarted,so you really don't know it was the update.....

Its happened to me once too...Reboot is our friend,and for unknown reasons fixs lots of goofy stuff going on....:confused:

[johnost]

I actually did many restarts, cleanups, Registry cleaning, etc. trying to fix the problem. Only the restore action fixed it. Now the M$ Update service is hounding me to install the missing update, but it also says that once installed, it can not be uninstalled, so I guess I will have to do without it - LOL!

[harleyman52]

Glad you got it going...On the update you can click it,and tell it to hide the update,then it will quit bothering you about it....;)

[davemead]

- but I don't understand how it would affect the unzip function. Anyway, thanks for your attention.

John

You're using Vista... don't expect any rationale behind its actions.