Compressed files

  • Thread starter Thread starter Netter
  • Start date Start date
N

Netter

If I do not use, for example, Word for a long time and run Disk Cleanup it
will compress some of the Word files.

If later I use Word very often are the files ever uncompressed.

If not, can I cause them to uncompress?



Thanks
 
Netter said:
If I do not use, for example, Word for a long time and run Disk
Cleanup it will compress some of the Word files.
Click to expand...


No, it has nothing to do with when you use Word. It has to do with when you
use the particular files. If you have ten Word documents, open nine of them
every day, but haven't opened the tenth in a year, then that tenth file will
be compressed.

But note that it will compress files *only* if you leave the default box
"Compress old files" checked. You can turn it off if you don't want the
compression.

If later I use Word very often are the files ever uncompressed.
Click to expand...


Again, it has nothing to do with when you use Word. It has to do when you
open the files. When you open a file it will be uncompressed. If you then
save it, it will be saved uncompressed.
 
Are you saying that Word.exe (or whatever the executable file is called) is
not compressed if it is not used?

If it is compressed, is it ever uncompressed later?

Suppose I read a data file but do not resave it will it stay compressed.

What I'm thinking is that there can be many files of various types that
might be read often after being compressed (e.g., a speller's data file).
Are they never compressed.

Thanks for the reply
 
It is very brief. Maybe, once compressed a file is never saved uncompressed
even if it becomes used often

Thanks

S.Sengupta said:
Is it on NTFS?
Do some reading here:-
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307987

regards,
S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]

If I do not use, for example, Word for a long time and run Disk Cleanup
it will compress some of the Word files.

If later I use Word very often are the files ever uncompressed.

If not, can I cause them to uncompress?



Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
It is very brief. Maybe, once compressed, a file is never saved uncompressed
even if it becomes used often

Thanks
 
Netter said:
Are you saying that Word.exe (or whatever the executable file is
called) is not compressed if it is not used?
Click to expand...


No. When you said "...it will compress some of the Word files," I had
assumed you were talking about Word *documents*. Sorry if I misinterpreted
what you meant.

If it is compressed, is it ever uncompressed later?
Click to expand...


Any file that is compresseed has to be uncompressed in order to use it. That
uncompression happens automatically when you open it, but occurs only in
memory. The file on disk remains compressed unless *you* uncompress it. You
can uncompress it by right-clicking it and choosing Properties. On the
General tab, click Advanced, and uncheck the "Compress contents..." box


Suppose I read a data file but do not resave it will it stay
compressed.
Click to expand...


Like any file, compressed or not, and data or not, a compressed file is a
bunch of magnetic bits on the drive. Reading a file doesn't change any of
those bits, and can not uncompress it. It stay compressed until you
uncompress it.
 
Ken Blake said:
No. When you said "...it will compress some of the Word files," I had
assumed you were talking about Word *documents*. Sorry if I misinterpreted
what you meant.




Any file that is compresseed has to be uncompressed in order to use it.
That uncompression happens automatically when you open it, but occurs only
in memory. The file on disk remains compressed unless *you* uncompress it.
You can uncompress it by right-clicking it and choosing Properties. On the
General tab, click Advanced, and uncheck the "Compress contents..." box





Like any file, compressed or not, and data or not, a compressed file is a
bunch of magnetic bits on the drive. Reading a file doesn't change any of
those bits, and can not uncompress it. It stay compressed until you
uncompress it.
Click to expand...




Except that I have no idea what files Word, Paint,Visual Studio or some
other app uses. If I start to use some app after not using it for a very
long time it sound like the files will have to be uncompressed each time I
use them, even if I use them 10 time a day. Correct?

Thanks for staying with me!
 
Netter said:
Except that I have no idea what files Word, Paint,Visual Studio or
some other app uses. If I start to use some app after not using it
for a very long time it sound like the files will have to be
uncompressed each time I use them, even if I use them 10 time a day.
Correct?
Click to expand...


*If* you compress the files (it's up to you) they will be automatically
uncompressed (in memory) whenever you use them; no effort by you is
required. Compressed files, by default, are shown in blue, so it's easy to
see what's been compressed.

Personally I don't choose to compress any files.
 
Thanks a lot



Ken Blake said:
*If* you compress the files (it's up to you) they will be automatically
uncompressed (in memory) whenever you use them; no effort by you is
required. Compressed files, by default, are shown in blue, so it's easy to
see what's been compressed.

Personally I don't choose to compress any files.
Click to expand...
 
I thought with a 3GHz CPU it might be faster to read a compressed file and
decompress than to read an uncompressed file.

Thanks
 
Netter said:
I thought with a 3GHz CPU it might be faster to read a compressed
file and decompress than to read an uncompressed file.
Click to expand...


I doubt it. There's usually a small performance penalty with compressed
files. If your CPU is fast enough, that penalty might be close to zero, but
I doubt if the result would be a speedup.
 
Back
Top