Why is Windows 11 Zip not working?

[Clariman]

Windows 11 zip isn't working today. I am sure it was yesterday!

I'm trying to Zip a folder which has a sub-folder and 3 files within it. Inside the sub-folder there are 3 further folders.

I have tried right-clicking and selecting Compress to Zip file. Nothing happens
I have tried right-clicking, then sendto, then compress to Zip. Nothing
I have tried creating a new Zip folder and trying to copy and paste into it, but nothing.

Any clues?

Thanks

[Infrasonic]

Tried a restart (cold boot)?

[Clariman]

Tried a restart (cold boot)?

Good idea. For someone reason I didn't think of it as a reboot type issue. Some updates lined up to install too.

[Urbandreamer]

Ok, I know that this will be an unpopular suggestion, but.

Don't trust and expect windows zip to work, use a dedicated program instead.
My choice is peazip.
https://peazip.github.io/peazip-64bit.html

7-Zip is good as well.
https://www.7-zip.org/

FWIW, I had problems with the default Zip on Linux mint, so this is not specific to windows.

[Clariman]

Tried a restart (cold boot)?

Good idea. For someone reason I didn't think of it as a reboot type issue. Some updates lined up to install too.

Nope. Didn't work

[Clariman]

Ok, I know that this will be an unpopular suggestion, but.

Don't trust and expect windows zip to work, use a dedicated program instead.
My choice is peazip.
https://peazip.github.io/peazip-64bit.html

7-Zip is good as well.
https://www.7-zip.org/

FWIW, I had problems with the default Zip on Linux mint, so this is not specific to windows.

I have 7-zip installed. If I use that, will my recipient be able to unzip it even if they don't have it installed? I guess zip techniques are fairly standard these days?

[servodude]

Ok, I know that this will be an unpopular suggestion, but.

Don't trust and expect windows zip to work, use a dedicated program instead.
My choice is peazip.
https://peazip.github.io/peazip-64bit.html

7-Zip is good as well.
https://www.7-zip.org/

FWIW, I had problems with the default Zip on Linux mint, so this is not specific to windows.

I have 7-zip installed. If I use that, will my recipient be able to unzip it even if they don't have it installed? I guess zip techniques are fairly standard these days?

Yeah. The output of there process if you choose zip will be a zip for reading by any zip capable programme

[Infrasonic]

Checked to see if there's any W11 updates that have borked it?
2nd week of every month is patch Tuesday so it's quite possible MS have sent an update out that has bugs in it. Have a quick search round the tech press to see if it's a recent issue. If so uninstall the problematic update.

[torata]

I have 7-zip installed. If I use that, will my recipient be able to unzip it even if they don't have it installed? I guess zip techniques are fairly standard these days?

Yeah. The output of there process if you choose zip will be a zip for reading by any zip capable programme

Quick caveat to supplement Clariman's reply. If you want to password protect and send to somebody who's using Windows built-in zip software, make sure you set the encryption method to 'zipcrypto' from AES-256.

torata