Winzip vs. Windows compression utility

[John]

Hi there. People keep on telling me that I can right-click a file and then
go Sendto>>Compressed (zipped) folder and that will compress my file.
However, when I do this, the file is compressed from 8.38MB to 8.33MB, which
to me doesn't seem like a significant difference. when I use Winzip as
opposed to the Windows compression utility (I guess that's what it's called
when Windows does it for you by the abovementioned procedure) the same thing
happens: 8.38 to 8.33. Why aren't these compression services making my files
significantly smaller and which one is the best of the two?

John

 

[Rock]

Hi there. People keep on telling me that I can right-click a file and then
go Sendto>>Compressed (zipped) folder and that will compress my file.
However, when I do this, the file is compressed from 8.38MB to 8.33MB,
which to me doesn't seem like a significant difference. when I use Winzip
as opposed to the Windows compression utility (I guess that's what it's
called when Windows does it for you by the abovementioned procedure) the
same thing happens: 8.38 to 8.33. Why aren't these compression services
making my files significantly smaller and which one is the best of the
two?

It depends on what the file type is. Some are already compressed, for
example .jpg and some certain video formats, so you won't see much change,
in fact in some cases the size will actually increase. So what kind of file
is this.?

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

People keep on telling me that I can right-click a file and then go
Sendto>>Compressed (zipped) folder and that will compress my file.
However, when I do this, the file is compressed from 8.38MB to 8.33MB,
which to me doesn't seem like a significant difference. when I use
Winzip as opposed to the Windows compression utility (I guess that's
what it's called when Windows does it for you by the abovementioned
procedure) the same thing happens: 8.38 to 8.33. Why aren't these
compression services making my files significantly smaller and which
one is the best of the two?

Since both applications use the same algorithm, there is no difference.
In general, trying to compress executable files (*.exe, *.dll) or
graphic files being already compressed (*.jpg) is just a bad bargain.
Try to compress a bitmap file (*.bmp) instead in order to see the
reduction of size.

 

[Mike Cawood, HND BIT]

Hi there. People keep on telling me that I can right-click a file and then
go Sendto>>Compressed (zipped) folder and that will compress my file.
However, when I do this, the file is compressed from 8.38MB to 8.33MB,
which to me doesn't seem like a significant difference. when I use Winzip
as opposed to the Windows compression utility (I guess that's what it's
called when Windows does it for you by the abovementioned procedure) the
same thing happens: 8.38 to 8.33. Why aren't these compression services
making my files significantly smaller and which one is the best of the
two?

John

Because the files are already compressed.
However Winzip is much better due to its excellent encryption facility, up
to 256 bit encryption.
Regards Mike.

 

[John]

Rock,

I'm working with .jpg files. Care to explain how I could compress the folder
that they are in with "bitmap" or whatever. Or is that a bad idea as another
poster already suggested?

John

 

[Jim]

Rock,

I'm working with .jpg files. Care to explain how I could compress the
folder that they are in with "bitmap" or whatever. Or is that a bad idea
as another poster already suggested?

John

Bitmap is an image file format, as is jpg, as is tiff, as is gif, etc. What
people are telling you is that sometimes trying to compress jpg files
actually causes the file size to increase.
However, this situation does nor arise with bitmap files. Thus, there is no
such facility as compressing a folder with "bitmap".
Jim

 

[BillW50]

Bitmap is an image file format, as is jpg, as is tiff, as is gif,
etc. What people are telling you is that sometimes trying to
compress jpg files actually causes the file size to increase.
However, this situation does nor arise with bitmap files. Thus,
there is no such facility as compressing a folder with "bitmap".
Jim

What Jim, Rock, and others are saying is that WinZip and Windows built
in compression (and others) try to compress the file(s). Files like txt
and bmp compress well. Other types like jpg, gif, and many others don't
compress well. The reason being is that their format, they are already
compressed. And compressing files that are already compressed don't
usually work out really well. And sometimes it actually increases their
sizes if you try.

 

[Rock]

Rock,

I'm working with .jpg files. Care to explain how I could compress the
folder that they are in with "bitmap" or whatever. Or is that a bad idea
as another poster already suggested?

"Rock" wrote

You misunderstand. You don't compress with bitmap. Bitmap is a type of
graphic file with the extension .bmp. These are not compressed so you will
see a space reduction when a .bmp file is compressed. .Jpg files are
already compressed, hence very little change.

 

[HeyBub]

Hi there. People keep on telling me that I can right-click a file and
then go Sendto>>Compressed (zipped) folder and that will compress my
file. However, when I do this, the file is compressed from 8.38MB to
8.33MB, which to me doesn't seem like a significant difference. when
I use Winzip as opposed to the Windows compression utility (I guess
that's what it's called when Windows does it for you by the
abovementioned procedure) the same thing happens: 8.38 to 8.33. Why
aren't these compression services making my files significantly
smaller and which one is the best of the two?

This is a clue that the files are already compressed.

Think about it... if you could further compress and already compressed file,
the ultimate file size would be one byte.