Windows 10: Windows keeps randomly compressing folders

About a week and a half ago, I noticed blue arrows on every thumbnail on my desktop. Doing some research online, I figured out that it's an indicator of NTFS compression. Following the steps I found online, I disabled the compression on the desktop folder and this indeed solved the issue. Since then, I have had this problem (Microsoft compressing files and folders) multiple times. I would start my computer, notice the arrows on a file, find the folder that had the option turned on and turn it off. Then a few days later, the same thing would happen. The strange thing is that the folder that had the option turned on, would be different every time. The first time, it was the desktop file; the time after that a program folder; I think it was an individual file once; and now it's the AppData folder. That last one is particularly annoying to undo, since a few files can't be decompressed because the associated processes are active (even with all windows closed) and the path that is shown in the popup doesn't have the name of the process in there.


Please help me. It's getting really annoying to have to decompress everything all the time. Why is it doing this? I am using an HP with win10.

:)

 

No option to compress folder

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

I understand your inconvenience and we will surely help you to resolve the issue.

1. How exactly are you trying to compress the folder?

Follow these steps to check if that helps.

1. Locate the file or folder that you want to compress.

2. Right-click the file or folder, point to Send to, and then click Compressed (zipped) folder.

A new compressed folder is created in the same location. To rename it, right-click the folder, click Rename, and then type the new name.

If the issue persists then Perform
System File Check (SFC), and then check if this fixes the issue.

Follow the steps:

SFC scan:

1. Press Windows logo + X.

2. Select command prompt admin.

3. Type ‘sfc /scannow’ (without quotes) and press enter.

4. Restart your computer.

Refer link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929833.

Hope this would help. If issue still persists post back with current status of your computer and result of the proposed suggestion, we will be happy to assist you.

 

Why does all of my folder icons look like this?

Hi,

It is possible that your folder icons have two blue arrows pointing towards each other because the NTFS compression is enabled. To efficiently assist you, we'd like to gather more information:

• Have you made any recent changes prior to this issue?
• Could you tell us what troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

In the meantime, we suggest that you follow these steps on how to disable NTFS compression:

• Right-click the folder you're referring to and select Properties.
• Under General tab, select Advance button.
• Under Compress or Encrypt attribute, disable Compress contents to save disk space.

Keep us posted if you need additional help.

 

Files in C: drive automatically compressing?

Hi Marvin,

You can set the compression state of folders and compress or decompress files by using My Computer or a command-line program called Compact. We recommend following these steps to set a folder in a decompression state:

• 
  Start Windows Explorer . In the left pane, select the folder you want to compress or decompress.
  
• 
  On the File menu, click Properties to display the
  Properties dialog box.
  
• 
  On the General tab, click Advanced .
  
• 
  In the Advanced Attributes dialog box, clear the Compress contents to save disk space check box, and then click
  OK .
  
• 
  In the Properties dialog box, click OK .
  
• 
  To keep existing files or subfolders in the NTFS folders in their current compression state, click
  Apply changes to this folder only , and then click OK .
  

Let us know if you need further help.