Vista: Executing exe-files from archives does not work

chill · Post by *chill » 2007-02-22, 22:08 UTC

With Vista it's not possible to execute a programm from within an archive (zip in my case). TotalCommander asks for "unpack and execute" as usual. After unpacking the message "file not found" appears.

Other file types have no problems. So I can view images or text files from archives.

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2007-02-23, 10:20 UTC

I can think of two possible reasons:

1. Where is your TEMP variable pointing? I guess that it points to an invalid location.

2. What file type? Can you try with a different file type, e.g. a TXT or even an EXE file? Vista seems to make a mess with associations.

Lefteous · Post by *Lefteous » 2007-02-23, 10:26 UTC

I cannot reproduce the problem here on Vista where I can execute programs from archives without problems.

chill · Post by *chill » 2007-02-23, 23:05 UTC

Updated Bug-Description:

It seems to happen only on programs which causes the Vista UAC dialog to appear. Mostly this happens on setups and installers.

My TEMP-var is ok. It points to the usual location in my user dir.

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2007-02-25, 15:57 UTC

Indeed the UAC dialog isn't currentls supported by WinExec, which is used in this function.

2Lefteous
You said that WinExec supports UAC dialogs in your tests, but this wasn't the case in my tests. Can you test this again, please?

Just put the TC installer in a ZIP and try to start it from there while logged in as administrator with restricted rights on Vista.
Do you get the UAC dialog?

Lefteous · Post by *Lefteous » 2007-03-04, 13:40 UTC

2ghisler(Author)

You said that WinExec supports UAC dialogs in your tests, but this wasn't the case in my tests. Can you test this again, please?

Yes it still works when I call WinExec directly in a test app.

Just put the TC installer in a ZIP and try to start it from there while logged in as administrator with restricted rights on Vista.
Do you get the UAC dialog?

No in this case I can actually confirm the "file not found" message. Other apps work fine when started from an archive though. I don't understand the problem here. TC extracts the file frm the archive and then executes it. If should work in the same way as direct execution.

chill · Post by *chill » 2007-03-27, 20:07 UTC

It seems you have fixed this in TC7 RC1. I just tested it and now I can start programs with UAC-Dialogs from archives without problems.

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2007-03-28, 16:51 UTC

Nice to hear that, thanks for your feedback!