Extracting a .zip file into Program Files (x86)

UAC protects the Program Files folders in both 32Bit and 64Bit. The only way around this is the method you've mentioned, or alternatively to disable UAC. The latter I do not suggest.

"The access control list for C:\Program Files (x86) does not grant any write permissions to standard users. To see this for yourself, right-click on the folder in Explorer, select ""Properties"" from the context menu, and select the ""Security"" tab.

Explorer in Windows Vista handles permission failures by attempting to elevate to Administrator privileges, hence the UAC prompt when you drag a folder into C:\Program Files (x86).

7-Zip does not handle permission failures by attempting to elevate to Administrator privileges. If you want to run 7-Zip as an Administrator account in order to install software into the Program Files directories, find the icon for ""7-Zip File Manager"" in the Start Menu, right-click on it, and select ""Run as administrator"". Now you can pick up anything.

What you're already doing is also perfectly reasonable: extract archives as a standard user and move the extracted files into Program Files, taking advantage of Explorer's UAC prompts."

I have the same problem with WinRar. However when dragging the files into an Explorer window from the main WinRar window a prompt appears that you canauthorize this action to have the files extracted in that location.