greetings :) in any case, there is something different with WinRAR. as stated, i have tested both IZArc and PKZip with the settings mentioned and both work fine. WinRAR without a password also works fine. once a password is added in WinRAR it fails at that point, with zipengine unable to properly read the file header. without knowing what structure its using for the zip header i wont be able to read it in.