I recently migrated from Outlook Express to Outlook 2003. It’s been a relatively smooth transition save for one irritating glitch: Outlook 2003 can’t “see” Zip files. When I try to attach one to an outbound e-mail, Outlook displays everything in the selected folder except Zip files. At first I thought I was going crazy, but it turns out this is a known bug (one that Microsoft has had plenty of time to fix, cough, cough).
Fortunately, there are two easy workarounds. First, you can manually open the folder containing the Zip file, then drag it to the new e-mail window. That accomplishes the same thing as selecting a file with the attach tool. Second, you can do the following:
- In Windows XP, click Start > Run, then type Command and hit Enter. In Vista, click Start, type Command and hit Enter.
- Type regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll
- Wait for a confirmation box to appear. Click OK, then type Exit into the Command window to close it.
Presto! Now Outlook should show your Zip files like a good little e-mail client. (What was I thinking when I switched? Oh, right, Xobni… which I’m loving.)
