Easy way to uncompress 400 zip archives in a Win XP directory?

January 14, 2004 3:02 PM

Any easy way to uncompress about 400 zip archives in a Windows XP directory? I thought I was smart but this problem has made me feel dumb.
posted by johnnydark to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Yeah: install Winzip (don't use the default compressed-folder option within XP). Then select all of the archives, right-click, and choose 'extract to here'. And Winzip will unzip each of them, one by one, without any further intervention.
posted by humuhumu at 3:15 PM on January 14, 2004

Then select all of the archives, right-click, and choose 'extract to here'.

Sorry, missed a small step, just to be picky:

right-click, choose WinZip -> 'Extract to here...'
posted by humuhumu at 3:25 PM on January 14, 2004

winrar.
posted by the aloha at 3:37 PM on January 14, 2004

use a command line program, both winzip and winrar will treat every zip with its own window, which is cumbersome for many files.

Basically you want a command-line winzip so you can just say "unzip *.zip" in the directory using the command prompt and you'll be done in seconds.
posted by mathowie at 4:18 PM on January 14, 2004

like PKZIP?
posted by armoured-ant at 4:34 PM on January 14, 2004

1. get hold of a copy of pkunzip.

2. if all the files are in the same folder you need a batch file like this (make sure there are no space is the files) - i'm assuming the archive folder is c:\archive, and there is no file called tmp.zip. You may need to change % to %% in batch files - I forget.

File GOUNZIP
========================
c:
cd \archive
md tmp
move *.* tmp
cd tmp
rename *.zip *.
for %a in (*.) do pkunzip ..\%a.zip ..\%a
del *.*
cd ..
rd tmp

pkunzip can be found at http://www.sedonadps.com/pkunzip.htm
but I'm not sure of the source (googled), and this may be a trojan, virused file, etc.

Plus - don't trust me on this... really.
posted by seanyboy at 5:11 PM on January 14, 2004

Batch files end in .bat - use notepad to create the file...
Save the file on the desktop as "Gounzip.bat" (When saving, the quotes ARE important.
posted by seanyboy at 5:14 PM on January 14, 2004

I second Winrar. It won't open a new window for each file if you select them all and use the right click menu item in Explorer. You can choose to extract all the archives in place, or each to their own subdirectory. Easy as pie. I have used it for 200+ zip files before, and it's nice and quick.
posted by Nothing at 11:18 PM on January 14, 2004

Iceows is a little better than winzip, and no annoying nag screen. But I think the command-line pkunzip is the way to go. Just test it on 10 files first, in a separate directory, then go hog wild.
posted by mecran01 at 6:08 AM on January 15, 2004

Another way to do it using WinRar is to open one of the archives, then hit the ".." to go up a level, to the directory. Now you can select them all and hit the extract button.
posted by smackfu at 12:56 PM on January 15, 2004