usage

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title: Usage Guide permalink: /usage nav_order: 4

Usage Guide

Mounting methods

Drag-and-drop

Drag an archive file from Explorer onto the executable. One archive is detected and mounted automatically on the first free drive letter from M–Q.

From the menu

Menu item	Behaviour
Mount	Opens a file dialog and mounts using your Default mount type setting (drive letter or folder — see Configuration)
Mount as Drive	Always mounts on a drive letter (auto-selected from M–Q)
Mount as Folder	Asks for an existing folder and mounts there

Command line

Usage 1 (Explicit Mount):  SimpleZipDrive.exe <PathToArchiveFile> <MountPoint>
Usage 2 (Drag-and-Drop):   drag a supported archive onto the .exe icon

Examples:

SimpleZipDrive.exe "C:\Data\backup.zip" M        → drive M:
SimpleZipDrive.exe "C:\Data\backup.7z" N         → drive N:
SimpleZipDrive.exe "C:\Data\photos.rar" O        → drive O:
SimpleZipDrive.exe "C:\Data\docs.zip" "C:\mount\zip"   → folder mount
SimpleZipDrive.exe "C:\Data\docs.zip"            → auto-mount on M:–Q:

• The mount point may be a bare drive letter (M), a drive with colon (M:), or a path to a folder. The Dokan variant also accepts M:\.
• With one argument the app behaves exactly like drag-and-drop.
• With no arguments the app starts idle; mount via the menu.
• Errors are shown in the log pane; there are no distinct shell exit codes (the app is a GUI).

Mount points in detail

• Drive letters M–Q are tried in order; occupied letters are skipped with a log line. A letter outside the pool can be requested explicitly via the command line.
• Folder mounts use the folder you provide. The WinFsp variant verifies the folder is writable with a probe file before mounting; the folder is created if it does not exist.
• One mount at a time. Mounting while a drive is already mounted shows "A drive is already mounted. Please unmount it first." Unmount first, then mount something else.

Encrypted archives

When an archive requires a password, a Password Required dialog appears. The password is verified by test-reading every encrypted entry before the mount proceeds.

• Up to 3 attempts are allowed; each mismatch logs "Incorrect password for 'X' archive (attempt n of 3)."
• Cancelling the dialog cancels the mount — nothing is mounted.
• After 3 failures the mount aborts with "The provided password did not match the encrypted X archive. Mount aborted after 3 attempts."

See Archive Support for format-specific behaviour.

Unmounting

• Unmount button in the app window.
• Closing the window triggers a clean shutdown: the drive is unmounted with a 5-second grace period, temporary files are deleted, then the app exits. If shutdown hangs, a watchdog force-exits the process.
• Unmounting waits briefly for in-flight driver callbacks, deletes all disk-cache files for the session, and releases the memory cache.

Built-in utilities

Feature	Where	What it does
Open drive in Explorer	Automatically after mount (optional setting) or menu	Opens the mounted drive rooted in a new Explorer window
Clean Temp Files	Menu	Deletes orphaned temporary cache directories left behind by crashed sessions (normally automatic at startup)
Screenshot (F8)	Global hotkey while the app runs	Captures the app window to a file — handy for bug reports
Open Config Path	Menu	Opens %LOCALAPPDATA%\SimpleZipDrive in Explorer
Update check	Automatic at startup	Compares against the latest GitHub release and offers to open the download page; silent when offline

Tips

• Mount the same archive again later — the second mount re-parses the central directory but files still in the OS file cache open instantly.
• Keep the app window open while using the drive; closing it unmounts the drive.
• The log pane is your friend: every decision (stored-entry fast path, disk-cache offload, memory limits, retries) is logged.
• For heavy repeated access to huge files, prefer the Dokan variant's zero-copy stored-entry path or ensure entries fit within the memory limit — see Performance.