[11.50b1 x32] 7ZIP does not run on Win95/98

[siealex]

TC 11.50b1 still runs flawlessly on Windows 95 and 98. But the internal 7ZIP packer does not: it displays "File tcbit7z.dll not found!", although it is in the same directory as all other TC files. Is 7ZIP completely unsupported on these platforms? No problems on WinXP.
Image: https://i.ibb.co/bPrZxZQ/4276.jpg
If 7ZIP is not supposed to run on Win9x, it should be disabled in the settings window.

[ghisler(Author)]

Unfortunately the used library doesn't work on Windows 9x/ME. Does external 7zip work?

[siealex]

External 7zg.exe works only for unpacking, not packing (or is it not 7zg.exe at all?). Trying to pack gives "Incorrect command line". I am using 7-Zip 9.20, the latest available version that supports Win98.
7zip plugins do not work at all.

[ghisler(Author)]

It's probably because I use switch -scsUTF-16LE to pass names as Unicode to 7zg.exe.
Other parameters I use:
-m0=LZMA2 to set compression method to LZMA2
-mmt=2 to set number of threads
-ms= to set solid block size, or ms=off to turn it off
-md= to set dictionary size if not default
-mfb= to set word size if not default
-sfx to create self-extracting archive
-mx=6 to set compression rate
-stl to set archive date to that of the newest contained file
-p to set a password
-mhe=on to also encrypt names
-sdel to move files to archive

Does your version of 7zip not support any of these?

[MaxX]

2siealex
The only way to get .7z open by TC on W98 is:
Multiarc.wcx + 7z.exe,7z.dll 9.20 (or even 7za.exe)

No other plugins or newer versions work there.

[MaxX]

Just got an idea.

For RAR we have:

UnRAR.dll - the last ver.
UNRAR9X.DLL - self compiled 6.24
UnRAR64.dll - the last ver.

So there could be solution as the *9x.dll - the self compiled version for those legacy OS, or just 9.20 version of it.

[ghisler(Author)]

I have compiled TC7Z.DLL 32-bit myself with Visual Studio 6.0, so unpacking should work also on Windows 9x/ME.

However, for packing I use the bit7z library from here to call the 7zip library, because packing is too complex for me to call the dll directly:
https://github.com/rikyoz/bit7z

Unfortunately this library needs to be compiled with the ISO C++17 standard option, which isn't available in Visual Studio 6.0.

[ghisler(Author)]

I made a few improvements for using external 7-zip on Windows 9x/ME:
- "Use internal 7-ZIP packer" is now disabled
- Deleting files now also works via external 7-zip packer
- Renaming isn't currently supported and does nothing
Please try it!

18.10.24 Fixed: 7-Zip packing not working on Windows 9x/ME with external 7zg.exe 9.20 (32/64)

[petermad]

2ghisler(Author)
I downgraded my 7-Zip on Windows XP to version 9.20, but when I try to pack with 7zG.exe in TC 11.50b3 32bit I get the error from 7-Zip: "Incorrect command line". I tried disabling "Set archive date to newest file date" to no avail.

I have no problems packing with Total7zip using the same 7zG.exe

It occurs both when packing on FAT32 and NTFS

[ghisler(Author)]

I need more information, it works fine here.
Change the program to notepad.exe, it should show you the command line when it can't open the file.

[petermad]

Change the program to notepad.exe, i

notepad.exe opens with the message (translated): "The syntax in the file name, folder or disk name is wrong"

7zG.exe does work. If I for example run this from the command line

Code: Select all

7zG.exe a test.7z test.text

The test.txt is packed to test.7z as expected

Should I try with another version than 9.20 of 7-zip?

[Usher]

2petermad
Could you use 7-zip 9.22 beta for tests? It's still available on Sourceforge site and it has some bugs fixed. Newer 9.2x alpha versions are more buggy.
New command line switches were added in 9.3x alpha versions - you can also test 9.38 version (it doesn't work in Win9x). It uses LZMA2 as default method.

[petermad]

2Usher

I could, but Ghisler/history writes:

18.10.24 Fixed: 7-Zip packing not working on Windows 9x/ME with external 7zg.exe 9.20 (32/64)

It was actually ver. 9.22 beta that I had on my Windows XP computer before I downgraded to 9.20.

I have now replaced 9.20 again with 9.22 beta but I still get the "Incorrect command line" from 7-Zip

Since 7-Zip 9.20 and 9.22 doesn't seem to support the -stl switch I tried to disable "Set archive date to newest file date" - but to no avail.

Notice, I have not installed 7-Zip with it's installer - I have just unpacked the files (the same as under Windows 7, 8.1 and 10) - does the XP version rely on any Registry setting for 7-zip?

[petermad]

I went up to 7-Zip 9.38 - And that one worked with my Windows XP

I then tried 7-Zip 24.08 and it also works on Windows XP. - but I now realize that I misread:

18.10.24 Fixed: 7-Zip packing not working on Windows 9x/ME with external 7zg.exe 9.20 (32/64)

as

18.10.24 Fixed: 7-Zip packing not working on Windows 9x/XP with external 7zg.exe 9.20 (32/64)

Still weird that I can use 7-Zip v. 9.2x's 7zG.exe from the command line in XP but not via TC

[MaxX]

I have not installed 7-Zip with it's installer - I have just unpacked the files

No problem there. The 7zip "installer" is just a simple sfx module.

does the XP version rely on any Registry setting for 7-zip?

None of existing features of new versions make old versions fail. The only thing you should check is the additional parameters line, where you can write anything you wish -- "HKCU\SOFTWARE\7-Zip\Compression\Options\7z\Options". AFAIK such an old versions like 9.x did not have the support of this in 7zG.exe at all (did not even know that), so there should be no problem too.

Still weird that I can use 7-Zip v. 9.2x's 7zG.exe from the command line in XP but not via TC

That's why I say that we should NOT use bit7z at all in another topic
viewtopic.php?p=462441#p462441
Just use the dll to "read" and exe to "write". Directly. The same way we process RAR archives. I really don't see any sense of the problematic bit7z lib here.