7-Zip Portable Support

Many of the most common issues that arise when using 7-Zip Portable are addressed here. Please read through the various topics to see if any of them address your question. You can also post a question in the 7-Zip Portable Support Forum.

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7-Zip Portable-Specific Issues

• Installing 7-Zip Portable
• Using 7-Zip Portable
• Upgrading 7-Zip Portable
• Change 7-Zip Portable to Another Language
• Running from a CD (7-Zip Portable Live)
• Known Issues
• Modifications - A list of the modifications made to 7-Zip in this package
• Version History

General 7-Zip Issues

• 7-Zip Frequently Asked Questions
• 7-Zip Forum

Installing 7-Zip Portable

To install 7-Zip Portable, just download the portable package at the top of the 7-Zip Portable page and then double-click it. Select the location you wish to install to and click OK. A 7-ZipPortable directory will be created there and all the necessary files installed. That's all there is to it.

Using 7-Zip Portable

To start up 7-Zip Portable, just double-click 7-ZipPortable.exe file where you installed 7-Zip Portable on your portable drive. Then, use it just like you would a local copy of 7-Zip. There are a couple of things to keep in mind:

• Stay Safe - When using portable apps, it's always a good idea to practice Safe Portable App-ing.
• Removing Your Drive - When you're done, exit 7-Zip and then wait for the activity light on your removable drive to stop flashing. Then select the 'Safely remove [device]' option from the icon in the system tray. If you remove the drive while it is writing, you may lose data.

Upgrading 7-Zip Portable

To upgrade to a newer version of 7-Zip Portable, just download a new copy and unzip it to your portable drive, right over the previous version. Your settings will not be altered.

Change 7-Zip Portable to Another Language

By default, 7-Zip Portable is set to English. To change to another langauge, start 7-Zip Portable as normal. From the main menu, select Tools and then Options. Then click the Language tab. From the dropdown, select your language of choice and then click ok. The change will take effect immediately.

Running from a CD (7-Zip Portable Live)

Support for running from a CD is built into 7-Zip Portable. Just extract it to a local drive and run it at least once to generate a set of default settings. Next, make any configuration changes you'd like. Finally, burn the whole 7-ZipPortable directory to CD being sure not to change the locations of any files.

Known Issues

The following are known issues with this package:

• Trojan/Virus detected - AntiVir and Avast, on more than one occasion, have claimed there is a trojan or virus in the launcher. This is due to poor trojan detection in both products that will occasionally mis-identify many NSIS-based applications as trojans. It will usually occur after a definitions update. You should contact your antivitus provider and let them know of their mistake.

Modifications

I made some modifications to the default version of 7-Zip to make it more USB key friendly (decreasing total install size and the number of writes to the drive, which will increase drive life). These changes are listed here so you'll know what they are, and so you can recreate the process, if so desired.

• Friendly Launcher - 7-Zip Portable launcher is included. It automatically handles your registry settings.
• EXEs and DLLs Compressed - All EXEs and DLLs were recompressed using UPX. This gets our installed size down to one that is a bit more manageable. The options used were: --best --compress-icons=0 --nrv2d --crp-ms=999999 -k

Version History

• 4.4.2 - August 23, 2006
  • First general release
• 4.4.2 Pre-Release 2- August 20, 2006
  • Fixed issue with registry plugin in Windows XP
  • Fixed issue with preferences not being saved correctly
• 4.4.2 Pre-Release - August 19, 2006
  • First pre-release