I tried WinRAR this morning and it works the same as 7-zip.
the date modified matches the file dates stored in the zip archive. The date created is the current date and time. Explorer by default always shows the date modified. We never see creation date unless “add column” is used to display it.
that means if I open a Folder with files extracted from a 2016 zip archive;
They will be correct because I’m seeing the modification date by default
I think you’re one of only two people I ever met who actually registered WinRAR or WinZip 
The few, the proud, the slightly poorer than before.
i feel strongly that independent software developers should be paid for their work.
I admit that I’m not nearly as committed. to making billionaire Bill Gates even richer. 
Well, thank you! As a developer, I appreciate that. I try to legimately buy/rent my games, apps, and content too, though admittedly I try to wait for sales and sometimes do pirate Adobe and Windows in particular. Adobe I feel is actually quite good but just too expensive for home use unless you’re on a student sub, which I paid for for a decade. Windows, on the other hand… I just can’t in good conscience pay for software that enshittified.
I may have to check more on this; some formats do not have metadata, and even if they do, the data would have to be easily visible in a simple directory file listing and easily searchable.
My auto dashcam creates each video file imbedding the date & time in the file name. But it’s clumsy if I am looking for all files from a particular date and different files store & display the same data differently.
I am learning that the timestamp on files is a most important piece of data. I didn’t used to store my voluminous a/v data as well as I do now (Who knew that I would want to find a file among gigabytes 30 years hence?). So now I take extra care to include, in the file name, as much description as practical in a short text string.
There have been many times I was trying to find critical, historical files from long ago, and was only able to find them by recalling related people’s names, place names, dates, or circumstances. And if I find one this way, it would be foolish to try and rewrite the file name, as that would screw up the video script something awful.
There’s a simple rule at work with Microsoft - whether it’s Windows or Office, “If a function is necessary or very useful, the next version will hide or delete it.”
Really, though - the first problem is that computers last longer and longer, so less revenue from Windows. Add to that, a lot of people get the functionality they need for the internet from phones and tablets - iOS or Android, no Microsoft - and Windows demand is even lower. They had a similar problem with Office - 95% of the functionality people needed was already there - heck, Office 2010 was fine. They could only get away with changing the file format so many times. Worse, making Office an online app means even less demand for Windows, but at least with rental they solved the revenue issue.
Meanwhile - of course. Having done support for decades, Windows server systems and upgrades and the associated hardware cycle and migration were a pain and an expense that many small to medium businesses did not want to manage, and moving the server portion online avoids a lot of that hassle. The downside is that a lot of server functionality beyond file sharing and security is disappearing. One fitness company I recall had a server based membership management system, running on a local copy of a database. Every upgrade was painful. Another company using the software still used the Access 98 database version in 2019. The vendor’s last upgrade - everyone ran on the vendor’s central server database online - the internet was fast enough to do so, even for scan-and-enter gates. That and their mail server were the major reasons for in-house servers. And now… last I saw they were converting to online mail. Online file sharing could not be far behind.
The only saving grace for Microsoft Windows was moving desktop functions to virtual desktops. But the downside is that then it was just as easy to use a non-Windows device as the local terminal. Win some, lose some.
Yeah, it’s a tricky situation, isn’t it? 
When I deleted my Facebook account, I kept a backup of all the photos first. I then uploaded them to Google Photos, but fifteen years of pics all got the upload timestamp instead and now it’s impossible to find anything 
Personally I’m waiting for the AI searches to get more mature. Hopefully soon they’ll be able to analyze all of it and make them easily searchable by a prompt, like “that one pic of me jumping into Crater Lake”.
Yes, a lot of services moved online, but that doesn’t mean the OS itself has to get worse. In that same period, macOS, Android, iOS, ChromeOS, SteamOS, Xbox OS, Playstation OS, Fire OS, etc. all got better. Heck, even Windows Phone came and went.
Windows even in its diminished state still brings in 20 billion a year. The majority of that, I bet, is bundled OEM licenses. They have a captive audience of much of the world’s PCs. All they have to do is not piss off customers. It’s not that hard. But Microsoft gonna Microsoft…
Sometimes I wonder if Copilot has taken over their execs too. Probably not, because no AI would make the terrible decisions the Windows leadership has
Well, i just noticed one issue. yes, the files-- date modified, matches the zip archive date.
however, the folders that got created have the current date and time.
at this point, I no longer care. windows makes my head throb.
the screen shots show the folder dates from this morning. Feb 3 at 7 AM
winrar created those folders when it unpacked the zip archive.
files are correctly dated from Feb 2 at 9 AM
I’m another one (WinZip), probably 20+ years ago, because I knew the original author (Nico Mak). I was glad I did, because at some point they released a version with a new GUI that’s terrible. After fighting with it, I emailed their support and asked for a way to reinstall an older version; they sent a link without comment, which makes me think I wasn’t the only one.
I might have missed this in the thread drift, but it looks like OP tried to search for “Alice” in file CONTENTS and wanted to search file NAMES. Besides using DIR, you can use Windows Explorer search to do that–type:
filename alice
where is an asterisk. Took me a while to find this; I knew about DIR (I use /s/b a lot for that, since if I’m trying to find the file I don’t usually care about size etc. and it makes the output a lot less noisy) but if you’re in Explorer it’s easier.
Yes, the original problem is Dir filename.* in a cmd window gives results in seconds. While using Windows Search for the same file can take 5 to 10 minutes.
That is an unacceptable interruption in my work-flow.
The best solution is 3rd-party software.
Everything is a freeware desktop search utility and I agree it works well.
I had never heard of it until it was recommend here.
I just tried this with 7zip, and it kept the folder’s modified dates too (same behavior as with files). It’s a free/open-source program, so maybe use that instead if you care enough?
Downloading 7zip now. It’s worth seeing if there’s a difference.
I’m willing to problem-solve. Hopefully I find a method that works consistently.
Did you see the screenshots?
I thought, that the problem was solved. The dates on the files were right.
Hours Later, I noticed the wrong dates on the folders that WinRAR created.
Man, Microsoft is sure determined to annoy its customers with odd quirks.
I did see the screenshots… if I’m reading them right, the folders were showing the datetime they were extracted, rather than when they were initially created?
That particular issue probably isn’t Microsoft’s fault 
The unzipper program decides what timestamp to assign to each folder & file it extracts — if it bothers to at all. It’s a choice that the app developer has to make, if they even bother to think about it.
Yes, It looks like I manually created those folders this morning.
But actually, I only created the Top folders of the Tree. BeThouMyV and under it GPTab.
WinRAR asked where to Extract and Save. I clicked on GPTab.
WinRAR extracted the entire folder tree and files from the ZIp and saved under GPTab.
Note WinRAR has had some serious security vulnerabilities. The company where I work uninstalled it across the organization. If you are going to continue using it, be sure that you are using the latest version.
There’s always been a risk that a Zip or RAR could contain a malicious file.
Self-unpacking rars stored within an exe were popular in the 00’s. Fears of virus ended their use.
Users should Virus check before opening and after unpacking files.
But this is new? I normally unpack to a MyWrk folder for virus check.
So, this exploit is putting malware into the Windows Startup?
Even if the WinRar output path is MyWrk?
This could be a Massive attack against GitHub. All their software is distributed in RAR or Zip containers.
They’re out of business if Users are afraid to use WinRar.
If you have a version of WinRAR prior to 7.13, it is vulnerable to a malicious file no matter the output path. So if you are going to keep using WinRAR, make sure you are on a recent version.
I am on my Laptop. I just instalked last week from their website.
I need to check my Android version on my phone