If you are either working with a standard self-extracting Zip file or you are working with the WinZip Self-Extractor program itself you may find a Run WinZip button. There are two possibilities for why this button may not work.
The first possibility involves a change made in WinZip 14. To fully support Windows 7, a change in how WinZip registers its installed location was required. While the change is compatible with all supported versions of Windows, it is now incompatible with the Run WinZip feature in self-extracting Zip files:
- created by WinZip Self-Extractor 3.1 or earlier
- created by Self-Extractor Personal Edition from WinZip 12.1 or earlier
Also, if you are using WinZip Self-Extractor 3.1 or earlier with WinZip 14 installed, and you click Run WinZip from the wizard panel in order to create a Zip file, you will see an error message. If you are using WinZip Self-Extractor 4.0 and this error occurs, please download and install again. A newer build (8672) of version 4.0 has been made available that corrects this issue. This build of WinZip Self-Extractor 4.0 also includes manifest files that have been updated for compatibility with Windows 7.
The other possibility that would cause Run WinZip in a self-extracting Zip file to fail would be that the self-extracting Zip file was created with a much earlier version of WinZip Self-Extractor Personal Edition. These older self-extractors looked at the WIN.INI file to find the location of WinZip.
Starting with WinZip 8.1 changes were made to store information in the registry. WinZip no longer writes anything in the WIN.INI file.
If you wish to open a self-extracting Zip file in WinZip 14 and Run WinZip does not work, you can open it using one of these three methods:
- Right click on the self-extracting Zip file and choose Open with WinZip from the WinZip context menu
- Drag and drop the self-extracting Zip file on to the WinZip icon on the desktop
- From WinZip’s Open dialog, change Files of type to All files, navigate to the self-extracting Zip file, select it, and then click Open
