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Anon sends a file (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 years ago by [M] to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 2 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I call bullshit on this post. Since Windows 10 you can just double click a zip file and it opens up like any other directory (even if it isn't) and shows you the files.

If this zoomer wanted to open it they'd obviously double click.

So calm down boomers, this is fiction.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    If it's an executeable with dependencies in the archive it might not run without being unpacked.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago*

    The greentext says "he asks for some files", that doesn't sound like an executable, which usually gets blocked by the mail system anyway (even in a zip, if there's no password on it).

    But yeah, that is one way to have it broken, besides Windows refusing to run a random .exe

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Maybe they downloaded the zip and then immediately tried to open it in a specific program through the open dialog giving them an error. I see similar mistakes with my parents - they have no concept of where files are, it's just "on the computer" because they rely so heavily on "smart" file picker dialogs that show you everything recent or by a file type no matter where it's actually located.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Administrators can disable this, so I think the larger point is: if a tech literate person receives a zip file, they understand that it is in fact a compressed archive that can contain one or more files and directories, and that you need an archive tool to extract the contents, whereas a tech illiterate person doesn't understand this and expects it to just be handled magically when they double click on it and are stumped when that doesn't work.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Not super tech literare... Is there even a reason to unzip the files if you just want to grab one of them? I kust assumed windows is unzipping it into some weird temporary memory anyway to show me them, so a file is a file?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I mean the file is zipped, as in compressed. So it might just look like a file, but if you open it inside the zip (with file explorer) Windows does have to decompress the file in the background to show it to you.

    Which is obviously slightly slower than if you unzip the file and put it somewhere and then open it, but you won't really notice the difference except we're talking about massive files.

    And of course if you make changes to the file you can't save it (except to a new file) as it gets opened up as read only.

    If you just want to store the file and view it every now and then I don't see a reason to unzip it. And you can always do that later anyway.

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