Hi everyone, I'm running Win98 on my computer and am thinking of upgrading to Win ME. The aspect of Win ME that particularly is luring me to upgrade is the Zip Folders. But before I go ahead, I have a couple of important questions to ask about these Zip folders. Firstly, can you run programs within the Zip folders? (For example if I have a program such as pool.exe and it requires pool.dat in the same folder, will itr run?) Secondly, are these compressed folders available in the command prompt? Not the read mode DOS (Windows ME doesn't have that!), but a dos box under Windows. Say for instance, I have an MSDOS game located in C:\games\oldgame, can I access that game in command prompt by typing "cd c:\games\oldgame" if the "oldgames" folder is compressed? Thirdly and finally, can choose to install software (at the time of the software installation) into these compressed folders? (Like say for instance Adobe Photoshop). Thanks in advance for any assistance regarding my queries.

You can extract just a few file from a zip drive.So if you have a poo game ziped on a disk, you can extract just the game and any files it needs to run,and leav things like help and reead me files.but if you just extract the pool.exe and it needs pool.dat to run then it wont work. If you know command promt(and i dont to well) I know you can zip and unzip files by it.but you cant run a game that is ziped by command promt or anything else for that matter. Im not sure what your asking on the third question so if this answer dosnt make sence,sorry.If a file is compressed in any way,you or any aplication can use it.so if you installed adobe photoshop into a ziped file(and im not sure how you could do it even if it would work)it would not run.even if you left the .exe file unziped.you could install only the files needed to run the app and zip everything else,like jpegs or text files,then unzip them when you wanted to use them.however that ould be a real waist of time to save very little space.My favorite rule of thumb is;if it will fit on a 1.44mb floppy then it dont need to be ziped. I hope I hep a little

Thankyou for your response Wolfe. However, I was not concerned with Zip Disks. I am talking about the compressed folders functionality that comes with Windows ME. I don't want to store any programs on a zip disk (I don't have one) but in a "Compressed Folder" in Windows ME (which is basically a zip file). Thanks for your advice anyway.

"Firstly, can you run programs within the Zip folders?" As a general rule... no. Just like Winzip or any other zipping utility, you must unzip the files in order to run them. They will not run in compressed form. "Secondly, are these compressed folders available in the command prompt?" No. And if you have many DOS programs, I would rethink upgrading to ME. Most of them will not run... at all. ME is hard on old DOS programs. Many people found this out the hard way. "Thirdly and finally, can choose to install software (at the time of the software installation) into these compressed folders?" No. And since you cannot run the program from a compressed file, I do not think ME will do what you want it to. If you are low on disk space, have you considered a secondary hard drive? They're fairly cheap right now. Pricewatch search for 30GB drives

MAME ROMS are in zipped folders and are accessed by the emulator from the zip folder.

Why... yes they are ShutMeUpOrDown:p:p I believe the emulator unzips them into memory... but since I am not a programmer I am not sure. Anyone know? You win.... All programs will run from Zipped folders... especially Photoshop. I am completely wrong in telling this guy that I don't think ME will do what he wants it to. Love you babe!:)

:) i definately dont know but your theory sounds good to me.