Installation

1. Choose a variant

SimpleZipDrive ships in two variants that differ only in which filesystem driver they use. Pick one driver and the matching executable:

Package Driver Choose this if…
release_X.Y.Z_Dokan_win-x64.zip / ..._win-arm64.zip Dokan You want the battle-tested, widely deployed driver
release_X.Y.Z_WinFsp_win-x64.zip / ..._win-arm64.zip WinFsp You want the modern driver, cross-integrity mounting, or folder mounts on fresh directories
  • x64 — for standard 64-bit Intel/AMD systems (the vast majority of PCs).
  • ARM64 — for Windows-on-ARM devices (Snapdragon X, Surface Pro X, etc.).

If you are unsure, download the Dokan variant for your architecture. See Variants for a full comparison.

2. Install prerequisites

Both variants are framework-dependent — the .NET runtime is not bundled:

  1. .NET 10 Desktop Runtime — install the x64 or ARM64 Desktop Runtime matching your OS architecture.
  2. The filesystem driver for your variant:
    • Dokan: install the latest Dokan v2 DokanSetup.exe. Verify afterwards that the Dokan user-mode library is present (dokan2.dll is loaded from the Dokan installation, not from the app folder).
    • WinFsp: install WinFsp 2.1 or newer (2.2.x beta releases are also supported). Mounting is blocked if an older version is detected. The WinFsp.Launcher service must be running — it is installed and started automatically by the WinFsp installer.

Administrator rights are not required to run SimpleZipDrive (see Security & Privacy).

3. Install the application

  1. Download the .zip for your variant and architecture from the Releases page.
  2. Extract all files into a dedicated folder, e.g. C:\Tools\SimpleZipDrive. The package contains:
    • the executable (SimpleZipDrive.exe or SimpleZipDrive_WinFsp.exe),
    • 7z.dll and 7z_arm64.dll — the native fallback extraction libraries (required),
    • winfsp-msil.dll (WinFsp package only) — the WinFsp .NET interop (required),
    • ReadMe.md, LICENSE.txt, WhatsNew.md.
  3. Run the executable. No installer, no registry changes.

Do not separate the DLLs from the executable. The 7z fallback libraries and the WinFsp interop are probed next to the .exe; if they are missing, archives that need them will fail to open.

4. Verify

  1. Start the executable — the main window opens with a log pane.
  2. Check Help → About for the version.
  3. Mount any archive (see Getting Started):
    • If a “Dokan Driver Not Found” or “WinFsp Not Found” dialog appears, the driver is missing — install it from the link in the dialog.
    • The WinFsp variant additionally verifies the driver version and the WinFsp.Launcher service before mounting and tells you exactly what to fix.

5. Upgrade

  1. Unmount any mounted drive and close the running instance.
  2. Extract the new release over the existing folder (or delete the folder and extract fresh — your settings live in %LOCALAPPDATA%\SimpleZipDrive, not in the program folder).
  3. Driver upgrades are independent: upgrade Dokan/WinFsp via their own installers whenever you like.

6. Uninstall

  1. Delete the program folder.
  2. Optionally remove residual data: %LOCALAPPDATA%\SimpleZipDrive (settings, logs, leftover mount folders — see Configuration).
  3. Optionally uninstall the Dokan or WinFsp driver via Settings → Apps if no other software uses it.