Can Windows built-in ZIP compression be scripted

Question

Is the ZIP compression that is built into Windows XP Vista 2003 2008 able to be scripted at all  What executable would I have to call from a BAT CMD file  or is it possible to do it with VBScript   I realize that this is possible using WinZip  7-Zip and other external applications  but I m looking for something that requires no external applications to be installed

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Just for clarity   GZip is not an MS-only algorithm as suggested by Guy Starbuck in his comment from August   The GZipStream in System IO Compression uses the Deflate algorithm  just the same as the zlib library  and many other zip tools   That class is fully interoperable with unix utilities like gzip   The GZipStream class is not scriptable from the commandline or VBScript  to produce ZIP files  so it alone would not be an answer the original poster s request     The free DotNetZip library does read and produce zip files  and can be scripted from VBScript or Powershell   It also includes command-line tools to produce and read extract  zip files    Here s some code for VBScript    dim filename  filename    C  temp ZipFile-created-from-VBScript zip   WScript echo  Instantiating a ZipFile object      dim zip  set zip   CreateObject  Ionic Zip ZipFile    WScript echo  using AES256 encryption      zip Encryption   3  WScript echo  setting the password      zip Password    Very Secret Password    WScript echo  adding a selection of files      zip AddSelectedFiles    js   zip AddSelectedFiles    vbs    WScript echo  setting the save name      zip Name   filename  WScript echo  Saving      zip Save    WScript echo  Disposing      zip Dispose    WScript echo  Done      Here s some code for Powershell     System Reflection Assembly   LoadFrom  c   dinoch  bin  Ionic Zip dll      directoryToZip    c   temp    zipfile    new-object Ionic Zip ZipFile   e   zipfile AddEntry  Readme txt    This is a zipfile created from within powershell     e   zipfile AddDirectory  directoryToZip   home    zipfile Save  ZipFiles ps1 out zip      In a  bat or  cmd file  you can use the zipit exe or unzip exe tools   Eg   zipit NewZip zip  -s  This is string content for an entry   Readme txt  src

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to create a compressed archive you can use the utility MAKECAB EXE

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There are VBA methods to zip and unzip using the windows built in compression as well  which should give some insight as to how the system operates   You may be able to build these methods into a scripting language of your choice   The basic principle is that within windows you can treat a zip file as a directory  and copy into and out of it   So to create a new zip file  you simply make a file with the extension  zip that has the right header for an empty zip file   Then you close it  and tell windows you want to copy files into it as though it were another directory   Unzipping is easier - just treat it as a directory   In case the web pages are lost again  here are a few of the relevant code snippets   ZIP  Sub NewZip sPath   Create empty Zip File  Changed by keepITcool Dec-12-2005     If Len Dir sPath    gt  0 Then Kill sPath     Open sPath For Output As  1     Print  1  Chr  80   amp  Chr  75   amp  Chr  5   amp  Chr  6   amp  String 18  0      Close  1 End Sub   Function bIsBookOpen ByRef szBookName As String  As Boolean   Rob Bovey     On Error Resume Next     bIsBookOpen   Not  Application Workbooks szBookName  Is Nothing  End Function   Function Split97 sStr As Variant  sdelim As String  As Variant  Tom Ogilvy     Split97   Evaluate        amp                           Application Substitute sStr  sdelim            amp         End Function  Sub Zip File Or Files       Dim strDate As String  DefPath As String  sFName As String     Dim oApp As Object  iCtr As Long  I As Integer     Dim FName  vArr  FileNameZip      DefPath   Application DefaultFilePath     If Right DefPath  1   lt  gt      Then         DefPath   DefPath  amp          End If      strDate   Format Now    dd-mmm-yy h-mm-ss       FileNameZip   DefPath  amp   MyFilesZip    amp  strDate  amp    zip        Browse to the file s   use the Ctrl key to select more files     FName   Application GetOpenFilename filefilter   Excel Files    xl      xl                          MultiSelect  True  Title   Select the files you want to zip       If IsArray FName    False Then          do nothing     Else          Create empty Zip File         NewZip  FileNameZip          Set oApp   CreateObject  Shell Application           I   0         For iCtr   LBound FName  To UBound FName              vArr   Split97 FName iCtr                    sFName   vArr UBound vArr               If bIsBookOpen sFName  Then                 MsgBox  You can t zip a file that is open    amp  vbLf  amp                            Please close it and try again     amp  FName iCtr              Else                  Copy the file to the compressed folder                 I   I   1                 oApp Namespace FileNameZip  CopyHere FName iCtr                    Keep script waiting until Compressing is done                 On Error Resume Next                 Do Until oApp Namespace FileNameZip  items Count   I                     Application Wait  Now   TimeValue  0 00 01                    Loop                 On Error GoTo 0             End If         Next iCtr          MsgBox  You find the zipfile here     amp  FileNameZip     End If End Sub   UNZIP  Sub Unzip1       Dim FSO As Object     Dim oApp As Object     Dim Fname As Variant     Dim FileNameFolder As Variant     Dim DefPath As String     Dim strDate As String      Fname   Application GetOpenFilename filefilter   Zip Files    zip     zip                                             MultiSelect  False      If Fname   False Then          Do nothing     Else          Root folder for the new folder           You can also use DefPath    C  Users Ron test           DefPath   Application DefaultFilePath         If Right DefPath  1   lt  gt      Then             DefPath   DefPath  amp              End If           Create the folder name         strDate   Format Now    dd-mm-yy h-mm-ss           FileNameFolder   DefPath  amp   MyUnzipFolder    amp  strDate  amp                Make the normal folder in DefPath         MkDir FileNameFolder           Extract the files into the newly created folder         Set oApp   CreateObject  Shell Application            oApp Namespace FileNameFolder  CopyHere oApp Namespace Fname  items           If you want to extract only one file you can use this           oApp Namespace FileNameFolder  CopyHere             oApp Namespace Fname  items Item  test txt            MsgBox  You find the files here     amp  FileNameFolder          On Error Resume Next         Set FSO   CreateObject  scripting filesystemobject           FSO deletefolder Environ  Temp    amp    Temporary Directory    True     End If End Sub

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Here a my attempt to summarize built-in capabilities windows for compression and uncompression  - How can I compress    zip   and uncompress    unzip   files and folders with batch file without using any external tools   with a few given solutions that should work on almost every windows machine   As regards to the shell application and WSH I preferred the jscript as it allows a hybrid batch jscript file  with  bat extension  that not require temp files I ve put unzip and zip capabilities in one file plus a few more features

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Yes  this can be scripted with VBScript  For example the following code can create a zip from a directory    Dim fso  winShell  MyTarget  MySource  file Set fso   CreateObject  Scripting FileSystemObject   Set winShell   createObject  shell application     MyTarget   Wscript Arguments Item 0  MySource   Wscript Arguments Item 1   Wscript Echo  Adding    amp  MySource  amp    to    amp  MyTarget   create a new clean zip archive Set file   fso CreateTextFile MyTarget  True  file write  PK   amp  chr 5   amp  chr 6   amp  string 18 chr 0    file close  winShell NameSpace MyTarget  CopyHere winShell NameSpace MySource  Items  do until winShell namespace MyTarget  items count   winShell namespace MySource  items count     wscript sleep 1000  loop  Set winShell   Nothing Set fso   Nothing   You may also find http   www naterice com blog template permalink asp id 64 helpful as it includes a full Unzip Zip implementation in VBScript   If you do a size check every 500 ms rather than a item count it works better for large files  Win 7 writes the file instantly although it s not finished compressing   set fso createobject  scripting filesystemobject   Set h fso getFile DestZip  do     wscript sleep 500     max   h size loop while h size  gt  max    Works great for huge amounts of log files

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There are both zip and unzip executables  as well as a boat load of other useful applications  in the UnxUtils package available on SourceForge  http   sourceforge net projects unxutils   Copy them to a location in your PATH  such as  c  windows   and you will be able to include them in your scripts   This is not the perfect solution  or the one you asked for  but a decent work-a-round

[windows] Can Windows' built-in ZIP compression be scripted?

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