why are WBA's being downloaded as ZIP's

Because IE, that's why.

Or because some users out of wtf ever reason totally unnecessarily decides to ZIP the .wba.
Just more work for the Mods (which for me, personally detracts in the rating), and adds more confusion for those who decide to download it.

Well I for one upload all of my work as .zip as in a lot of cases I include a few little extras with the skin, a wallpaper or two, or few icons, etc. If you were to just rename it to .zip in my case it would not work at all as .wba that is also inside the .zip would not install. Extracting files is a simple process though, so this shouldn't really be a big issue for anyone.

I don't get it, shouldn't windowblinds be the default program for wba files. what does IE have to do with the way files are handled. so, IE changes the file extension from wba to zip without notification, hmmm.

I guess if you just download/apply it nothing changes, but if you rightclick -> save target as, everything goes haywire.

Quite franktly, I wouldn't know.... I haven't used the shitty browser in years.

If nothing else applies, blame IE.

Nuance and Winterfell both downloaded as .zip files when they were in fact .wba's. Using IE9 in Win7. Assuming every uploaded blind is loaded and  applied by at least one moderator, I again assume they arrive as .wba's and not .zips or someone would have noticed by now that they had to be renamed to be loaded.

For some weird reason, the extension does get changed on downloading. A .zip with a blind and wp in it gets extracted to a folder, you get a wba and a wall in the folder, a renamed .wba unzipped into a folder gives you a mess to clean up. 

gmc2, are you using a zip utility to create the .wba's or does SKS do that?

BTW Snowy, that "save target as" feature hasn't worked for IE9 for years, broken after a site update, I believe.

It is definitely IE Snowie.  I went to download a random skin in FF and it downloads as a .wba, went to download the exact same skin in IE and it is a .zip. Microsoft does it again....

that's a security feature.

more info

it can be fixed on the server side.

will that happen? unlikely, else it would have been fixed years ago.

suggest using a modern browser like Chrome or Firefox.

SKS, the program makes the wba file, don't really think I know how to do otherwise.

I'm still with IE8 and prefer this browser for it's ease in controlling unwanted cookies and distracting/annoying video content. When I find a modern browser that allows more control by the user of unwanted downloaded content, well, I'll consider it.

fixed the typo.

use Chrome with Ghostery and Adblock Plus and set plugins to "click-to-play" and you should be fine, but i was actually referring to what you should suggest to the people that ask you via pm.

Every single file uploaded is tested for errors, authentisity, "extra" files etc etc, wether it being in WBA or ZIP format, and often on multible systems/OS's.

Tom, it's been like that for ages.
Was like that way even before I started as Moderator almost 9 years ago.

I've downloaded content from this site using IE6, 7, 8 and 9.  Never before has IE just had it's way with renaming file extensions.  It only seems to be with .wba's, but not other content in compressed form. Something has recently gone screwy, sometime just before the GUIC started.

Winterfell was among the first to have this behaviour, and I mentioned it in the skin comments.  IIRC, downloading it from the GUIC site with IE9 it was ok, but not if downloaded from WC. I will test this later when I get on my 7 rig.

Using Chrome on XP there is no problem, (I still prefer IE9 on 7) but seriously, tell a new member who chooses to use IE that they need to install another browser to download some skins from WC? I think not.

Lol, yeah, but I have not used IE in ages.

Oh, and by the way the problem is being caused by something here at WC. I just went to download a .wba file from my personal site and IE did not rename it, it came in as .wba. So the WC web programmers need to have a look at this.

Ok, using IE9 I downloaded Nightlight. From the GUIC site, it downloads as a.wba and self-installs. Downloaded from WC it is a .zip file.

Yup. That's what its doin' alright. One .wba and one .zip. The zip from...ugh!.....IE9.

This is a long time issue with IE.  Do a Google search and see it's been going on for years on a wide range of websites.

Well, does that mean it is fixable then here at WC?

Easiest fix: Use another browser.

IE is the problem.  It doesn't recognize what a .wba file is so it changes to .zip.  

I would never advise anyone to use IE.

Operative word here being "some". All other content seems to be ok, zipped or otherwise. I've only been here since 2008, but have always used a version of IE as a browser. I've never seen IE6, 7, 8, or 9 change a file extension on any other files I have downloaded, here at WC or elsewhere. Why is it that only .wba's get renamed?

The .wba files were just fine up until lately, but now some but not all .wba's get renamed to .zip. Blaming it on IE9 alone is somewhat of a cop-out imho.

I posted a while back about the weird problems but did not get any response at all. Along with this problem, at about the same time that links to users sites got broken, nothing uploaded to WC shows the file size. There is without a doubt something wrong with how the site is handling uploads and downloads.

Sorry ID, but IE is not the problem at all, I can download a .wba from my site and it downloads as a .wba. It is something on WC causing the issue evidently.

Then explain why I can download the same windowblind from the GUIC site as a wba and it works as it is intended. Nothing gets renamed, yet the browser is the same.

echo, echo,

I have essentially used IE since way back time and have not had this problem before.

This problem has started recently and coincides with the GUIC starting time.

Downloading from the GUIC site presents me with a wba file.

Downloading from the WC site presents me with a zip file.

IT'S NOT THE BROWSER, IT'S THE SITE.