#454 7-zip password protected folders

[Chris H]

In order to resolve a dispute, as the developer of 7-zip, could you please confirm that a compressed/encrypted file created by 7-zip is NOT simply a password-protected folder and that the data contained inside is NOT in it's orginal format.

Therefore simply knowing the password to a zip file created with 7-zip would not allow files contained therein to be read (e.g. pdf files by a pdf reader, or jpg files by an image viewer) until the data in the zip file had first been decompressed and decrypted (e.g. using 7-zip software) to return it to its orginal format,

Many thanks