Question Clearing stored Zip password in Windows

[rasmasyean]

When you open a password protected Zip file, it seems to save that password somewhere and allow you to reopen that Zip file without reentering the password.

You can clear the saved password by logging off or rebooting, but that's kinda of annoying to do under certain circumstances.

Where does it store this password information? Is it "readable" by someone else? And how to you clear it so that next time you open the Zip file, it will prompt for the password?

Thanks.

 

[onespeedbiker]

It's my understanding zipfile passwords are not stored. Rather the nature of password protected zipfiles allows access to the files, but only requests a password when the files are extracted.

 

[rasmasyean]

Well, what happens is that if you open the Zip folder, and double-click the file, it will prompt for a password.
You only have to enter it once and the file (and any other files in the Zip file) will open successfully every time you double-click it. You can close File Explorer but it won't reprompt you for the password. The only way I've found to prevent it from reopening without prompting is to relog/reboot.

 

[gardenman]

Create a batch file with the following in it:

FOR /f "tokens=2-3 delims==" %%G IN ('cmdkey /list ^| find ".zip"') DO cmdkey /delete:"%%G=%%H"

Name it ClearPasswords.bat and run it.

Reference:
https://superuser.com/questions/1089915/prevent-windows-10-from-saving-zip-password