jaxyspace wrote: ↑Sun Mar 04, 2018 9:31 pm
Is there any way to integrate wimlib LZX compression into Windows explorer? To use in a similar way as "compact /exe:lzx" but taking advantage on the superior compression ratio of wimlib? Or even better, use LZMS with transparent compression
I'm aware of a paid software called ZIPmagic who
claims they do this using wimlib, but I don't know how they reach this.
I am not sure if your post is confused or not...
If you're asking whether ZIPmagic is able to transparently compress a disk, the answer is yes.
If you're asking whether ZIPmagic is able to transparently display archives as folders in Windows Explorer, the answer is again yes.
ZIPmagic is both a `traditional` transparent file archiver, and a transparent disk compressor.
wimlib is only involved in the transparent disk compression side, of course.
ZIPmagic relies on its own 7-Zip based file compression stack for the `traditional` archiving features, plus WinZip compatible ZIPX support (including JPEG compression) through a commercial third party library (BricolSoft). But these libraries don't actually help with the transparency of the file archiving stack, of course.
ZIPmagic has developed its own proprietary Windows File Explorer shell namespace extension over the years, which it uses to achieve the transparency in its `traditional` file archiving stack - where archives appear like folders, are browsed as such with lightning speed, with full support for copy/paste, drag/drop, double-click to extract/edit/compress, etc.
You can look up information about shell namespace extensions online, but only ZIPmagic has a high performance, scalable, and stable NSE - this is the result of years of R&D investment in this area. Faster by an order of magnitude than even Windows's own NSE, this was no minor feat. You can also find multiple third party source codes/binaries, but all of them are plagued by some problem or the other which makes the resultant NSE's utterly unusable in real world scenarios.