How to Compress Files and Folders on Windows With compact.exe
Are you running out of disk space on your Windows machine? If installing a bigger storage drive or deleting files and folders isn’t an option, one of the best ways to create more space is to compress the files and folders on your computer. The good thing is that Windows has a built-in utility you can use to that end called compact.exe.
Here’s how to use compact.exe to compress files and folders on your Windows PC to save disk space.
What Is compact.exe on Windows?
In a nutshell, compact.exe is a Windows utility that reduces the size of files and folders on storage drives that use the NTFS file system without losing any data.
Depending on the type of compression you choose and the file types being compressed, you’ll get varying degrees of compression. It can range from as little as a few megabytes to entire gigabytes.
For file types that are already compressed, such as JPEG and ZIP, you won’t notice much size difference (if any) when they’re compressed with compact.exe. It can also make them slower to access. So it’s best not to use the utility to compress those types of files.
Compact.exe uses advanced compression algorithms to compress the files while ensuring their contents are still accessible. These algorithms are—from the fastest, least compact to the slowest, most compact—XPRESS4K, XPRESS8K, XPRESS16K, and LZX.
How to Compress Files With compact.exe
To use compact.exe, you’ll need a command line tool—eitherCommand PromptorWindows PowerShell. We’re going to use the latter.
To use compact.exe to compress files, follow the steps below.
As long as you follow the above steps, compressing a file with compact.exe should be a piece of cake.
How to Compress Folders With compact.exe
To use compact.exe to compress an entire folder, follow the steps below.
That’s how easy it is to use compact.exe to compress folders on Windows.
Compressing Files and Folders Natively on Windows
When running out of storage space on your Windows computer, it’s possible to do many things to create more space without adding a bigger drive or deleting files you might otherwise need later.
With compact.exe, you’re able to compress files with a simple command in Command Prompt or PowerShell. There’s even no need to use a third-party compression tool. If you prefer a more graphical way of using compact.exe, you can look into CompactGUI.
Here’s how to squeeze out those last few gigabytes of space with CompactGUI for Windows.
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