Stop Windows XP from searching ZIP and CAB files

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_w.htm#z

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article03-202
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/nofindinsidezip.htm

It can take quite a while longer if Windows includes inside compressed files while searching.  The common way to remove this capability:
regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll

  regsvr32 /u cabview.dll

After each command you should see a RegSvr32 dialog box "DllUnregisterServer in (the).dll succeeded."

You will lose all  built-in Windows capabilities for ZIP and CAB files, so you may look into 7-Zip, WinZIP, or WinRAR as an alternative for working with these files.  If  you want to add one or both of these capabilities back later:
regsvr32 zipfldr.dll

  regsvr32 cabview.dll

There is another nice solution, a program called NoFindInsideZip, which appears to set the "Attributes"  registry values to zero in the following keys:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262}\ShellFolder

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{E88DCCE0-B7B3-11d1-A9F0-00AA0060FA31}\ShellFolder
(Note: You may have to copy and paste these keys to see them.)

These are the same keys noted in the fix for Vista, but this program may be specific to XP.