Disc Cleanup - Compess old files. Please Help.?

Question

I have windows xp pro. Under Disc Clean up I can compress old windows files. I am looking for ways to speed up my PC even if its just a little. Is compressing old Microsoft files safe? And if I need to access them later does it just uncompress them on its own etc. I know this is mainly used to free disc space but I have over 250GB free space left. But the more free space on your hard drive the faster the PC is thats what I found out after removing 10GB of unneeded data the PC runs a little better.

What are your thoughts.

Answer 1

It is true that a clean system runs faster. Using DISK cleanup is safe and compressed files don't slow it down. You just gain more free space, and your files would still be there. You won't even notice the difference. I think it's safe as it could be, I've done it several times without problems.

Answer 2

There isn't any danger is compressing your old files in this fashion. Windows treats compressed folders the same as regular folders and can compress and uncompress on the fly, meaning very quicly, so quickly you won't notice any degradation in system performance.

However, there is a couple of things you need to know about compression. First, while Windows treats these files the same your Office applicttions don't. You can't use the regular Open/Save dialog boxes from within the application to open/save these data. You need to double click on the file to open in its native program or first remove the item from the compressed folder and place it in another folder or temporarily onto your desktop. Also, when you do double click to open, it is saved to a hidden temp folder, and your Office application will offer to save any modifications to that hidden temp folder if you try a normal save operation. If this occurs and you do not have hidden files unhidden, then you can lose your file and not be able to locate it. You first need to save to a temp folder of your choosing, or the desktop and then trasfer them back the the compressed folder. Also, when you take the files off of an NTFS formatted drive you lose the compression you gained. So, this is not good for emailing or uploading to websites.

Using compression is a great way to free up some disk space especially for older files you don't use as much. You can also compress entire disks and if you keep the above in mind easily work with all files on that disk. However, keep in mind that some file types compress much more than others and third party applications such as WinZip compress much better and are transferable without losing the compression. WinZip also makes it easier to upload or email large files.

Hope this information helps, good luck and have a nice evening.

Answer 3

It's quite safe, but I would not reccommend doing it too often. I do mine once a month. I have had no problems opening any files on my computer that have been compressed and I didn't need a special program to do it. I hope that helps!