zip file and the sub-atomic particle.

[tractorian]

A friend belongs to a ukulele band. They distribute their songs, by way of .pdf files wrapped in a zip file via Dropbox. My friend needs to transfer the updated song list from his laptop (a rather ancient Samsung on which the Dropbox app refuses to work) to his tablet and asked if I could simplify the process. "Shouldn't be a problem," I thought, "I've done it before, but not with a zip file."

The Dropbox part was no problem. In File Maintenance (on Windows 10), the downloaded file appears as a zipped folder in the appropriate \user\friend\dropbox folder. Clicking on this produces an un-zipped folder with the same name. Clicking on this reveals a list of pdf files, each showing the relevant tune. "Ah," methinks, "all I need do is sent up the appropriate .bat file and we're there." But of course this doesn't happen, the job (Run as Administrator) reports that there are no files. Going down to good old DOS, I find this is confirmed. There is a zip file there, but it is a file and not a folder.

Back in File Manager, I can repeat the previous process, show all the files, Control-A and copy them away to the tablet. So these files seem to exist only when I look at them, hence the sub-atomic particle theory.

More seriously, is this a feature of Windows 10 File Manager (no Winzip or similar app on the laptop) and, if so, are there any suggestions on automating the transfer?

[genou]

More seriously, is this a feature of Windows 10 File Manager (no Winzip or similar app on the laptop) and, if so, are there any suggestions on automating the transfer?

In your CMD / BAT script -

PowerShell Expand-Archive -Path "Full path of ZIP" -DestinationPath "Full path of folder to extract all"

Then copy the contents of "Full path of folder to extract all" to the tablet.

[ReformedCharacter]

More seriously, is this a feature of Windows 10 File Manager (no Winzip or similar app on the laptop) and, if so, are there any suggestions on automating the transfer?

The zip file is just a single file (containing a number of pdfs) which is why DOS shows it that way, Windows tries to make it easier by showing the contents as a folder. In the past I have used 7-Zip which has a command line option and can be run from a batch file, it should do what you want:

https://sevenzip.osdn.jp/chm/cmdline/index.htm

RC