Windows 10: Compress or Uncompress Files and Folders in Windows 10

How to: Compress or Uncompress Files and Folders in Windows 10

How to Compress or Uncompress Files and Folders in Windows 10


Windows 10 supports compression for individual files and folders on NTFS volumes using NTFS compression.

While NTFS file system compression can save disk space, compressing data can adversely affect performance. NTFS compression has the following performance characteristics. When you copy or move a compressed NTFS file to a different folder, NTFS decompresses the file, copies or moves the file to the new location, and then recompresses the file. This behavior occurs even when the file is copied or moved between folders on the same computer. Compressed files are also expanded before copying over the network, so NTFS compression does not save network bandwidth.

Files or folders saved into an existing compressed folder will automatically be compressed.

This tutorial will show you how to compress or uncompress a file or folder with NTFS Compression in Windows 10.

*note NTFS compression is not the same as zipping a file or folder.

NTFS compressed files and folders will have double blue arrows overlay on their icon at the top right corner to indicate that they are compressed.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Compress Files and Folders in Properties
• Option Two: To Uncompress Files and Folders in Properties
• Option Three: To Compress a File in Command Prompt
• Option Four: To Uncompress a File in Command Prompt
• Option Five: To Compress Only a Folder in Command Prompt
• Option Six: To Compress a Folder and its Contents in Command Prompt
• Option Seven: To Uncompress Only a Folder in Command Prompt
• Option Eight: To Uncompress a Folder and its Contents in Command Prompt

EXAMPLE: Files and Folders compressed using NTFS Compression









OPTION ONE [/i] To Compress Files and Folders in Properties
1. Right click or press and hold on one or more selected files and folders that you want to compress with NTFS Compression, and click/tap on Properties.

2. In the General tab, click/tap on the Advanced button. (see screenshots below)



3. Check the Compress contents to save disk space box, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshots below)



4. Click/tap on OK. (see screenshots below)



5. If you selected a folder, then select (dot) to Apply changes to this folder only or Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshots below)








OPTION TWO [/i] To Uncompress Files and Folders in Properties
1. Right click or press and hold on one or more selected compressed files and folders that you want to uncompress, and click/tap on Properties.

2. In the General tab, click/tap on the Advanced button. (see screenshots below)



3. Uncheck the Compress contents to save disk space box, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshots below)



4. Click/tap on OK. (see screenshots below)








OPTION THREE [/i] To Compress a File in Command Prompt
*note To see more usage options for the compact command, see: compact | Microsoft Docs
1. Open a elevated command prompt depending on the access rights you need for the file you want to compress.

2. Type the command below in the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow compact /c "full path of file" /i /Q



Note Substitute full path of file in the command above with the actual full path of the file that you want to compress.

For example: compact /c "C:\Users\Russell\Desktop\File.txt" /i /Q










OPTION FOUR [/i] To Uncompress a File in Command Prompt
*note To see more usage options for the compact command, see: compact | Microsoft Docs
1. Open a elevated command prompt depending on the access rights you need for the compressed file you want to uncompress.

2. Type the command below in the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow compact /u "full path of file" /i /Q



Note Substitute full path of file in the command above with the actual full path of the compressed file that you want to decompress.

For example: compact /u "C:\Users\Russell\Desktop\File.txt" /i /Q










OPTION FIVE [/i] To Compress Only a Folder in Command Prompt
*note To see more usage options for the compact command, see: compact | Microsoft Docs
1. Open a elevated command prompt depending on the access rights you need for the folder you want to compress.

2. Type the command below in the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow compact /c "full path of folder" /i /Q



Note Substitute full path of folder in the command above with the actual full path of the folder that you want to compress.

For example: compact /c "C:\Users\Russell\Desktop\New folder" /i /Q










OPTION SIX [/i] To Compress a Folder and its Contents in Command Prompt
*note To see more usage options for the compact command, see: compact | Microsoft Docs
1. Open a elevated command prompt depending on the access rights you need for the folder and its contents you want to compress.

2. Type the command below in the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow compact /c /s:"full path of folder" /i /Q



Note Substitute full path of folder in the command above with the actual full path of the folder that you want to compress it and its contents.

For example: compact /c /s:"C:\Users\Russell\Desktop\New folder" /i /Q










OPTION SEVEN [/i] To Uncompress Only a Folder in Command Prompt
*note To see more usage options for the compact command, see: compact | Microsoft Docs
1. Open a elevated command prompt depending on the access rights you need for the compressed folder you want to uncompress.

2. Type the command below in the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow compact /u "full path of folder" /i /Q



Note Substitute full path of folder in the command above with the actual full path of the folder that you want to uncompress.

For example: compact /u "C:\Users\Russell\Desktop\New folder" /i /Q










OPTION EIGHT [/i] To Uncompress a Folder and its Contents in Command Prompt
*note To see more usage options for the compact command, see: compact | Microsoft Docs
1. Open a elevated command prompt depending on the access rights you need for the compressed folder and its contents you want to uncompress.

2. Type the command below in the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow compact /u /s:"full path of folder" /i /Q



Note Substitute full path of folder in the command above with the actual full path of the folder that you want to uncompress it and its contents.

For example: compact /u /s:"C:\Users\Russell\Desktop\New folder" /i /Q







That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Enable or Disable NTFS File Compression in Windows
• How to Compress or Uncompress Windows 10 with Compact OS
• Change or Remove Double Blue Arrows Icon on Compressed Files and Folders in Windows 10
• Turn On or Off Show Encrypted or Compressed NTFS files in Color in Windows 10
• How to Find and List Compressed Files and Folders in Windows 10

:)

 

bootmgr compressed

compress-uncompress-files-folders-windows-10

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

Files in C: drive automatically compressing?

So here is what I have found.

Existing machine was slow and all files were being compressed

• Tried to uncompress all files
• Early the next day the files were re-compressed

• Applied latest 1809 updates
• Machine still showed to be compressing files
• Re-Re-uncompressed all files bypassing all errors on specific files showing they could not be uncompressed
• Rebooted
• Cleared the %temp% file
• Ran a Disk cleanup that included over 10gb of compressed drive information and old versions of windows etc
• Rebooted again

When the machine booted all desktop files were still showing dual arrows and "compressed"

Withing 5 minutes of the reboot the arrows vanish while I was watching. Now the computer is no longer acting sluggish and no files have re-compressed themselves.

I think this is a larger issue that probably needs to be looked into. Out of my 20 machines I admin this is the 2nd that has had this exact same problem.

 

Pictures Compressed When Viewed/Accessed in File Explorer.

Hello Tymmicus, my name is Irisdiel and I am an independent advisor.

To decompress your picture files that were compressed by Windows File Manager I suggest you follow the instructions down below.

Right-click on the compressed folder, click on Properties and then click on Advanced.

As you can see, “Compress contents to save disk space” is checked.

Uncheck that and click OK. This will return you to the basic properties for the folder. Click OK here as well and you’ll be presented with one more option.

You can uncompress just the folder and not its contents. Any new files placed in the folder will not be compressed automatically.

However, you can also uncompress everything — the folder and everything inside of it — by selecting “Apply changes to this folder, subfolders, and files”. Do that and click OK.

Depending on the size of the folder and its contents, this operation can take some time. Once complete, the folder and everything within it will no longer be compressed.

The only problem with this approach is that you need to operate on a compressed folder to uncompress it and its contents. If a folder itself is not compressed but contains many compressed files, you have to multi-select the individual files to perform the operation
above.

I also suggest you visit the URL down below for more information and methods.

URL:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

Hope this helps!

Thank you and good luck,

Regards- .

 

How to get rid of the blue arrow for the compressed folder, I do not want to uncompress the folder

How to get rid of the blue arrow for the compressed folder, I do not want to uncompress the folder , can microsoft give us a script to run to remove the arrows from the folder , its irritating to look at the folders.