Can Zotero be installed without 7zip?

gideonse

I started working at university whose IT department has illogically and bizarrely blocked a number of programs. Along with blocking OneDrive (but not Dropbox!), 7zip (but not Peazip!) is blocked completely by IT. And that has made it impossible to install Zotero standalone on my computer. Does anyone have any suggestions?

dstillman

I don't quite understand — are you having a problem with the normal Zotero installer, or are you trying to build Zotero Standalone from scratch? The Zotero for Windows installer is self-contained. It uses 7z compression under the hood, but it certainly doesn't require 7zip on the system.

gideonse

I'm trying to use the self-contained Windows installer. When I do it, I get an error that is title "7-Zip" and "This program is blocked by group policy. For some information, contact your system administrator." The same error happens when I try to install Firefox. I've contacted my IT people, but when tried to get them to unban OneDrive they ignored me.

dstillman

Ah, OK. Yeah, safe to say that if you can't even install Firefox, you're not going to be able to install Zotero. Zotero uses a very common installer on Windows used by many programs.

Worth noting that, if they refuse to lift this odd restriction but you can get them to install it for you the first time, Zotero's auto-updating feature should allow you to update to subsequent versions without their intervention.

gideonse

Ah, okay. Maybe they'll do that.

Added bonus: The email address that is plastered all of the IT website is dead. This is a research 1 medical school. LOL

qbritt

For anyone still looking to solve this issue, you have to open and install these applications through 7-zip directly. Here is a link to my school's article explaining the process: https://helpcenter.mines.edu/TDClient/1946/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=139468

tim820

As the OP's institution was blocking 7-zip, that method would not have worked for them. Although maybe another zip utility that *is* allowed at their institution would work in place of the 7-zip method described ? But then after un-zipping, attempting to run setup.exe directly as described would be blocked in many institutions these days.

Based on my own institution's policies and problem reports in this forum, institutions are using a very eclectic mixture of methods to enhance security on their systems these days, some more sensible than others. So something that works in one workplace won't work in others.

I miss the days when I could purchase my own preferred work software with university funds, and had full admin rights on all my work computers. That never caused any security issues, because I fully understood what I was doing. But I understand why the threats are greater these days and stricter controls are needed (although many security breaches seem to be the result of users' computer illiteracy).

dstillman

@qbritt and others: There's no need to install 7-Zip. If you can't run the installer for some reason, we distribute a regular ZIP version of Zotero that you can unzip just with Windows. Click on "Other platforms" on the download page and select "Windows ZIP".

Note that the ZIP version won't make Zotero the handler for various file types (e.g., .ris), so you'll have to do that manually if you want that to work.