Disk Cleanup utility - Compressed files

[Guest]

All of the sudden when I choose to put a checkmark in the compressed files
section of the disk cleanup utility and run it, it acts like it is cleaning
them up then the amount is the same afterward it's like 260MB of stuff that
don't want to clean up. Any suggestions on this problem?

Thanks in advance

Lonnie

 

[Anando [MS-MVP]]

Hello Lonnie,

When you put the check in the "Compresse files" in the disk cleanup utility, it will compress the
files that have not been used by you for a long time. This compression will help save you disk
space. You can, whenever you want, access these files without any problems. More information can be
found here:

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310312

--

Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://www.mvps.org


Folder customizations
http://newdelhi.sancharnet.in/minku

Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Guest]

What I was trying to say about this was the fact that previously when I put a
checkmark there and used disk cleanup, the # would go from like 250MB down to
nothing, now when I do it it just stays at 250MB like it's doing nothing
anytime I run it.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Michael Stevens]

In

What I was trying to say about this was the fact that previously when
I put a checkmark there and used disk cleanup, the # would go from
like 250MB down to nothing, now when I do it it just stays at 250MB
like it's doing nothing anytime I run it.

Thanks for your time.

The files are probably compressed to the maximum they can be compressed.
What kind of files are you compressing? Video and image files are already
compressed and will not compress much further.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Guest]

Actually I havn't the foggiest what they are, or where even to look. I just
knew that I could save space by putting a checmark there when I ran the disk
cleanup utility. Where do I look?

 

[Allen L.]

I find that just compressing which files you feel you don't use often, or
that just take up a lot of space, by selecting them manually is a better
solution. When you have the "Compress Old Files" option in your disk cleanup
utility, it takes forever to run, in my opinion (as it's hunting for files
not recently used to compress). You can edit your registry by first
exporting the key: (
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress
old files]
and then deleting that key from the registry and the option will disappear
from the cleanup utility and you can perform the disk cleanup so much
faster, in my opinion.

If you want to compress a file or folder full of files, just open Windows
Explorer and find the folder you want to compress and right
click>properties>Advanced>"Compress contents to save space"

A lot of files are compressed automatically by Windows, such as Service Pack
Files and update files. They generally show up as blue in Windows Explorer.

....Allen

In

 

[Guest]

Thanks for that info Allen. One quick question though. How in the world can
a person find out what has already been compressed and then choose do
uncompress it? What directory/directories are they in? Surely a person has
a choice as to whether to compress or not (for most of his/her system) right?

Thanks again

Lonnie

I find that just compressing which files you feel you don't use often, or
that just take up a lot of space, by selecting them manually is a better
solution. When you have the "Compress Old Files" option in your disk cleanup
utility, it takes forever to run, in my opinion (as it's hunting for files
not recently used to compress). You can edit your registry by first
exporting the key: (
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress
old files]
and then deleting that key from the registry and the option will disappear
from the cleanup utility and you can perform the disk cleanup so much
faster, in my opinion.

If you want to compress a file or folder full of files, just open Windows
Explorer and find the folder you want to compress and right
click>properties>Advanced>"Compress contents to save space"

A lot of files are compressed automatically by Windows, such as Service Pack
Files and update files. They generally show up as blue in Windows Explorer.

....Allen

In

Actually I havn't the foggiest what they are, or where even to look.
I just knew that I could save space by putting a checmark there when
I ran the disk cleanup utility. Where do I look?

 

[R. McCarty]

Locating Compressed files/folders isn't easy. I generally turn off
that part of Disk Cleanup on any system I configure. With the
average drive sizes we have today - using compression just does
not seem to be an effective maintenance operation.
There is a process for uncompressing an entire drive. Essentially,
you compress a single folder then reverse the operation but select
the option to apply to all folders. This will undo all the compression
done thus far on the drive.

Thanks for that info Allen. One quick question though. How in the world
can
a person find out what has already been compressed and then choose do
uncompress it? What directory/directories are they in? Surely a person
has
a choice as to whether to compress or not (for most of his/her system)
right?

Thanks again

Lonnie

I find that just compressing which files you feel you don't use often, or
that just take up a lot of space, by selecting them manually is a better
solution. When you have the "Compress Old Files" option in your disk
cleanup
utility, it takes forever to run, in my opinion (as it's hunting for
files
not recently used to compress). You can edit your registry by first
exporting the key: (
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress
old files]
and then deleting that key from the registry and the option will
disappear
from the cleanup utility and you can perform the disk cleanup so much
faster, in my opinion.

If you want to compress a file or folder full of files, just open Windows
Explorer and find the folder you want to compress and right
click>properties>Advanced>"Compress contents to save space"

A lot of files are compressed automatically by Windows, such as Service
Pack
Files and update files. They generally show up as blue in Windows
Explorer.

....Allen

In

Actually I havn't the foggiest what they are, or where even to look.
I just knew that I could save space by putting a checmark there when
I ran the disk cleanup utility. Where do I look?



:

In Lonnie <[email protected]> replied with a ;-)
What I was trying to say about this was the fact that previously
when I put a checkmark there and used disk cleanup, the # would go
from like 250MB down to nothing, now when I do it it just stays at
250MB like it's doing nothing anytime I run it.

Thanks for your time.



The files are probably compressed to the maximum they can be
compressed. What kind of files are you compressing? Video and image
files are already compressed and will not compress much further.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm



:

Hello Lonnie,

When you put the check in the "Compresse files" in the disk cleanup
utility, it will compress the files that have not been used by you
for a long time. This compression will help save you disk space.
You can, whenever you want, access these files without any
problems. More information can be found here:

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310312

--

Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://www.mvps.org


Folder customizations
http://newdelhi.sancharnet.in/minku

Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/protect


All of the sudden when I choose to put a checkmark in the
compressed files section of the disk cleanup utility and run it,
it acts like it is cleaning them up then the amount is the same
afterward it's like 260MB of stuff that don't want to clean up.
Any suggestions on this problem?

Thanks in advance

Lonnie

 

[Guest]

Since posting this I did a little searching in the help files of windows xp
pro, and it turns out that they are supposed to be colored in some way/look
different than other files/folders on the system. I used explorer to look at
just about all folders...etc...etc...and I didn't see any discolorations or
anything....so if I took what that info said as gospel, then I would have to
think that there isn't any file/folders that are compressed, but I know that
that isn't so as I've used disk cleanup to compress all the time. ?????
Wierd huh?

Thank you for your response

Lonnie

Locating Compressed files/folders isn't easy. I generally turn off
that part of Disk Cleanup on any system I configure. With the
average drive sizes we have today - using compression just does
not seem to be an effective maintenance operation.
There is a process for uncompressing an entire drive. Essentially,
you compress a single folder then reverse the operation but select
the option to apply to all folders. This will undo all the compression
done thus far on the drive.

Thanks for that info Allen. One quick question though. How in the world
can
a person find out what has already been compressed and then choose do
uncompress it? What directory/directories are they in? Surely a person
has
a choice as to whether to compress or not (for most of his/her system)
right?

Thanks again

Lonnie

I find that just compressing which files you feel you don't use often, or
that just take up a lot of space, by selecting them manually is a better
solution. When you have the "Compress Old Files" option in your disk
cleanup
utility, it takes forever to run, in my opinion (as it's hunting for
files
not recently used to compress). You can edit your registry by first
exporting the key: (
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress
old files]
and then deleting that key from the registry and the option will
disappear
from the cleanup utility and you can perform the disk cleanup so much
faster, in my opinion.

If you want to compress a file or folder full of files, just open Windows
Explorer and find the folder you want to compress and right
click>properties>Advanced>"Compress contents to save space"

A lot of files are compressed automatically by Windows, such as Service
Pack
Files and update files. They generally show up as blue in Windows
Explorer.

....Allen

In Lonnie <[email protected]> typed:
Actually I havn't the foggiest what they are, or where even to look.
I just knew that I could save space by putting a checmark there when
I ran the disk cleanup utility. Where do I look?



:

In Lonnie <[email protected]> replied with a ;-)
What I was trying to say about this was the fact that previously
when I put a checkmark there and used disk cleanup, the # would go
from like 250MB down to nothing, now when I do it it just stays at
250MB like it's doing nothing anytime I run it.

Thanks for your time.



The files are probably compressed to the maximum they can be
compressed. What kind of files are you compressing? Video and image
files are already compressed and will not compress much further.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm



:

Hello Lonnie,

When you put the check in the "Compresse files" in the disk cleanup
utility, it will compress the files that have not been used by you
for a long time. This compression will help save you disk space.
You can, whenever you want, access these files without any
problems. More information can be found here:

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310312

--

Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://www.mvps.org


Folder customizations
http://newdelhi.sancharnet.in/minku

Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/protect


All of the sudden when I choose to put a checkmark in the
compressed files section of the disk cleanup utility and run it,
it acts like it is cleaning them up then the amount is the same
afterward it's like 260MB of stuff that don't want to clean up.
Any suggestions on this problem?

Thanks in advance

Lonnie

 

[Alias]

The compressed files are blue, that is the name of the file, while
uncompressed ones are black.

Alias
"Lonnie" wrote
..

Since posting this I did a little searching in the help files of windows
xp
pro, and it turns out that they are supposed to be colored in some
way/look
different than other files/folders on the system. I used explorer to look
at
just about all folders...etc...etc...and I didn't see any discolorations
or
anything....so if I took what that info said as gospel, then I would have
to
think that there isn't any file/folders that are compressed, but I know
that
that isn't so as I've used disk cleanup to compress all the time. ?????
Wierd huh?

Thank you for your response

Lonnie

Locating Compressed files/folders isn't easy. I generally turn off
that part of Disk Cleanup on any system I configure. With the
average drive sizes we have today - using compression just does
not seem to be an effective maintenance operation.
There is a process for uncompressing an entire drive. Essentially,
you compress a single folder then reverse the operation but select
the option to apply to all folders. This will undo all the compression
done thus far on the drive.

Thanks for that info Allen. One quick question though. How in the
world
can
a person find out what has already been compressed and then choose do
uncompress it? What directory/directories are they in? Surely a
person
has
a choice as to whether to compress or not (for most of his/her system)
right?

Thanks again

Lonnie


:

I find that just compressing which files you feel you don't use often,
or
that just take up a lot of space, by selecting them manually is a
better
solution. When you have the "Compress Old Files" option in your disk
cleanup
utility, it takes forever to run, in my opinion (as it's hunting for
files
not recently used to compress). You can edit your registry by first
exporting the key: (
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress
old files]
and then deleting that key from the registry and the option will
disappear
from the cleanup utility and you can perform the disk cleanup so much
faster, in my opinion.

If you want to compress a file or folder full of files, just open
Windows
Explorer and find the folder you want to compress and right
click>properties>Advanced>"Compress contents to save space"

A lot of files are compressed automatically by Windows, such as
Service
Pack
Files and update files. They generally show up as blue in Windows
Explorer.

....Allen

In Lonnie <[email protected]> typed:
Actually I havn't the foggiest what they are, or where even to look.
I just knew that I could save space by putting a checmark there when
I ran the disk cleanup utility. Where do I look?



:

In Lonnie <[email protected]> replied with a ;-)
What I was trying to say about this was the fact that previously
when I put a checkmark there and used disk cleanup, the # would go
from like 250MB down to nothing, now when I do it it just stays at
250MB like it's doing nothing anytime I run it.

Thanks for your time.



The files are probably compressed to the maximum they can be
compressed. What kind of files are you compressing? Video and image
files are already compressed and will not compress much further.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm



:

Hello Lonnie,

When you put the check in the "Compresse files" in the disk
cleanup
utility, it will compress the files that have not been used by
you
for a long time. This compression will help save you disk space.
You can, whenever you want, access these files without any
problems. More information can be found here:

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310312

--

Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://www.mvps.org


Folder customizations
http://newdelhi.sancharnet.in/minku

Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/protect


All of the sudden when I choose to put a checkmark in the
compressed files section of the disk cleanup utility and run it,
it acts like it is cleaning them up then the amount is the same
afterward it's like 260MB of stuff that don't want to clean up.
Any suggestions on this problem?

Thanks in advance

Lonnie

 

[R. McCarty]

Check an Explorer, View Option that may inhibit the display of
Compressed content by color.

Open Explorer, Click Tools, Folder Options, View (TAB) and
then scroll the options to the bottom of the listing. There you'll
find a box that says "Show Encrypted or compressed NTFS files
in color".

Since posting this I did a little searching in the help files of windows
xp
pro, and it turns out that they are supposed to be colored in some
way/look
different than other files/folders on the system. I used explorer to look
at
just about all folders...etc...etc...and I didn't see any discolorations
or
anything....so if I took what that info said as gospel, then I would have
to
think that there isn't any file/folders that are compressed, but I know
that
that isn't so as I've used disk cleanup to compress all the time. ?????
Wierd huh?

Thank you for your response

Lonnie

Locating Compressed files/folders isn't easy. I generally turn off
that part of Disk Cleanup on any system I configure. With the
average drive sizes we have today - using compression just does
not seem to be an effective maintenance operation.
There is a process for uncompressing an entire drive. Essentially,
you compress a single folder then reverse the operation but select
the option to apply to all folders. This will undo all the compression
done thus far on the drive.

Thanks for that info Allen. One quick question though. How in the
world
can
a person find out what has already been compressed and then choose do
uncompress it? What directory/directories are they in? Surely a
person
has
a choice as to whether to compress or not (for most of his/her system)
right?

Thanks again

Lonnie


:

I find that just compressing which files you feel you don't use often,
or
that just take up a lot of space, by selecting them manually is a
better
solution. When you have the "Compress Old Files" option in your disk
cleanup
utility, it takes forever to run, in my opinion (as it's hunting for
files
not recently used to compress). You can edit your registry by first
exporting the key: (
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress
old files]
and then deleting that key from the registry and the option will
disappear
from the cleanup utility and you can perform the disk cleanup so much
faster, in my opinion.

If you want to compress a file or folder full of files, just open
Windows
Explorer and find the folder you want to compress and right
click>properties>Advanced>"Compress contents to save space"

A lot of files are compressed automatically by Windows, such as
Service
Pack
Files and update files. They generally show up as blue in Windows
Explorer.

....Allen

In Lonnie <[email protected]> typed:
Actually I havn't the foggiest what they are, or where even to look.
I just knew that I could save space by putting a checmark there when
I ran the disk cleanup utility. Where do I look?



:

In Lonnie <[email protected]> replied with a ;-)
What I was trying to say about this was the fact that previously
when I put a checkmark there and used disk cleanup, the # would go
from like 250MB down to nothing, now when I do it it just stays at
250MB like it's doing nothing anytime I run it.

Thanks for your time.



The files are probably compressed to the maximum they can be
compressed. What kind of files are you compressing? Video and image
files are already compressed and will not compress much further.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm



:

Hello Lonnie,

When you put the check in the "Compresse files" in the disk
cleanup
utility, it will compress the files that have not been used by
you
for a long time. This compression will help save you disk space.
You can, whenever you want, access these files without any
problems. More information can be found here:

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310312

--

Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://www.mvps.org


Folder customizations
http://newdelhi.sancharnet.in/minku

Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/protect


All of the sudden when I choose to put a checkmark in the
compressed files section of the disk cleanup utility and run it,
it acts like it is cleaning them up then the amount is the same
afterward it's like 260MB of stuff that don't want to clean up.
Any suggestions on this problem?

Thanks in advance

Lonnie

 

[Guest]

Yea I checked that before after reading your last post. The checkmark was
already there to show them, so I don't know what's up with that. What do you
think? I'm definately not going to use that option in disk cleanup anymore
, I'll just pick and choose what I wanna compress, that is if we can figure
out how to decompress them all first. By the way, I tried the uncompress
method you mentioned and there are a lot of errors showing up, to the extent
that the files are in use and cannot be messed with. I tried rebooting and
then booting with just a dos prompt, but then it becomes VERY tedious and I
have to go from directory to directory via the keyboard...it will not
decompress all of drive C using the compact /u option. Do you know of any
way around that?

Thanks

Check an Explorer, View Option that may inhibit the display of
Compressed content by color.

Open Explorer, Click Tools, Folder Options, View (TAB) and
then scroll the options to the bottom of the listing. There you'll
find a box that says "Show Encrypted or compressed NTFS files
in color".

Since posting this I did a little searching in the help files of windows
xp
pro, and it turns out that they are supposed to be colored in some
way/look
different than other files/folders on the system. I used explorer to look
at
just about all folders...etc...etc...and I didn't see any discolorations
or
anything....so if I took what that info said as gospel, then I would have
to
think that there isn't any file/folders that are compressed, but I know
that
that isn't so as I've used disk cleanup to compress all the time. ?????
Wierd huh?

Thank you for your response

Lonnie

Locating Compressed files/folders isn't easy. I generally turn off
that part of Disk Cleanup on any system I configure. With the
average drive sizes we have today - using compression just does
not seem to be an effective maintenance operation.
There is a process for uncompressing an entire drive. Essentially,
you compress a single folder then reverse the operation but select
the option to apply to all folders. This will undo all the compression
done thus far on the drive.

Thanks for that info Allen. One quick question though. How in the
world
can
a person find out what has already been compressed and then choose do
uncompress it? What directory/directories are they in? Surely a
person
has
a choice as to whether to compress or not (for most of his/her system)
right?

Thanks again

Lonnie


:

I find that just compressing which files you feel you don't use often,
or
that just take up a lot of space, by selecting them manually is a
better
solution. When you have the "Compress Old Files" option in your disk
cleanup
utility, it takes forever to run, in my opinion (as it's hunting for
files
not recently used to compress). You can edit your registry by first
exporting the key: (
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress
old files]
and then deleting that key from the registry and the option will
disappear
from the cleanup utility and you can perform the disk cleanup so much
faster, in my opinion.

If you want to compress a file or folder full of files, just open
Windows
Explorer and find the folder you want to compress and right
click>properties>Advanced>"Compress contents to save space"

A lot of files are compressed automatically by Windows, such as
Service
Pack
Files and update files. They generally show up as blue in Windows
Explorer.

....Allen

In Lonnie <[email protected]> typed:
Actually I havn't the foggiest what they are, or where even to look.
I just knew that I could save space by putting a checmark there when
I ran the disk cleanup utility. Where do I look?



:

In Lonnie <[email protected]> replied with a ;-)
What I was trying to say about this was the fact that previously
when I put a checkmark there and used disk cleanup, the # would go
from like 250MB down to nothing, now when I do it it just stays at
250MB like it's doing nothing anytime I run it.

Thanks for your time.



The files are probably compressed to the maximum they can be
compressed. What kind of files are you compressing? Video and image
files are already compressed and will not compress much further.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm



:

Hello Lonnie,

When you put the check in the "Compresse files" in the disk
cleanup
utility, it will compress the files that have not been used by
you
for a long time. This compression will help save you disk space.
You can, whenever you want, access these files without any
problems. More information can be found here:

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310312

--

Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://www.mvps.org


Folder customizations
http://newdelhi.sancharnet.in/minku

Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/protect


All of the sudden when I choose to put a checkmark in the
compressed files section of the disk cleanup utility and run it,
it acts like it is cleaning them up then the amount is the same
afterward it's like 260MB of stuff that don't want to clean up.
Any suggestions on this problem?

Thanks in advance

Lonnie

 

[Allen L.]

You might want to check in Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Options >
View...make sure you have the 'button' checked "Show hidden files and
folders". I personally like to uncheck the 'button' that say's to "Hide
extensions for known file types" while in that section. It's good for you to
be able to see all the extensions of files. Save you some grief if you find
someone sneaked in something under a 'known' file type on your disk. Also, a
good point mentioned to check the box that reads: "Mark encrypted or
compressed files in color" down near the bottom.

....Allen

In

 

[Uncle John]

I use cleanmgr.exe scheduled nightly with "sageset". I have large numbers of
files that are shown as compressed i.e. blue name text.