Uncompressed files can silently take up gigabytes of space on your Windows PC—slowing things down and cluttering up your drive without you even realizing it. Luckily, you can easily compress files to save space without having to delete anything.
Table of Contents
Most of us don't think much about the trove of files we store on our PCs. However, over time, those files can build up and eventually you may find yourself facing a warning message about your PC being low on storage space.
This is really annoying, and even if you practice saving storage space on your PC, you will probably find that files are taking up more space than they should. Luckily, Windows has an easy fix for this problem.
Most people probably have never thought about using the file compression system that comes with Windows, and why would you? After all, you need those files and don't want to create any obstacles when using those files when needed.
But file compression doesn't have to be a hindrance in your path. In fact, file compression can make your files easier to access while saving storage space.
Of course, you don't need to compress everything on your computer. In fact, compressing files you use every day can actually slow things down a bit because Windows has to decompress them every time you open them.
Instead, you want to focus on large, infrequently accessed files. Good examples include:
Also, keep in mind that some file types—like JPEGs , MP4s , and PDFs —are compressed by design. You can still compress them into archives for organization or sharing, but the space savings may be small.
Windows provides two easy ways to compress files, and you don't need to install anything extra.
This method works right inside File Explorer and compresses files immediately. This means you can still open and use them without having to manually unzip them.
Here's how to compress NTFS files:
Windows will automatically compress the selected files or folders. You'll still see and open them as usual, but they'll take up less space on your drive. If you find that accessing those files is much slower, you can turn off compression by following the same steps above and unchecking the Compress contents to save disk space option .
Compressing files into an archive is another convenient way to compress files. This is often used for long-term file storage - like backups - or for sharing files with others.
To add files to a zip archive using Windows built-in tools:
You can unzip the file later by double-clicking on it and extracting the file contents anywhere on your PC.
If you want better compression or more control over file compression formats, there are some great third-party tools.
7-Zip is the most recommended compression tool because it is completely free. It supports many formats, such as 7z , ZIP , and TAR , and has some of the best compression ratios of any of these programs. Overall, it is the best way to compress files in Windows.
PeaZip is another free option that has a clean, easy-to-use interface and a variety of formatting options. If you want to store your data and files with a little more security, you can also take advantage of the encryption features. These encryption features are especially great if you want to follow these tips for keeping your data safe.
WinRAR is another great compression tool, and while it's still recommended by many, both 7-Zip and PeaZip do a better job. Plus, while WinRAR's free trial technically never expires—you can keep using the program virtually indefinitely—you'll get pop-ups about purchasing a full license after the trial ends.
Any of these tools are great to use when you're compressing large folders or want to apply strong encryption to archives that Windows doesn't provide by default.
It's best to know which files are taking up the most space on your Windows PC before you start compressing any of them. That way, you can focus your work on the files that are taking up the most space.
Additionally, there are many files that you may want to avoid compressing for whatever reason. These include system files, important files that you access daily or frequently, and working projects that you don't need to back up or share at this time.
Compressing files in use will require you to decompress them when you use them again, which will slow down your workflow exponentially.
Error code 0xc0000098 in Windows causes a blue screen error on startup. The ACPI.sys driver is often to blame, especially on unsupported versions of Windows 11 like 23H2 or 22H2 or Windows 10.
In some cases, sometimes you start your computer in Safe Mode and the computer freezes. So how to fix the error in this case, please refer to the article below of WebTech360.
Snipping Tool is a powerful photo and video capture tool on Windows. However, this tool sometimes has some errors, such as constantly displaying on the screen.
Every network has a router to access the Internet, but not everyone knows how to make the router work better. In this article, we will introduce some router tips to help speed up the wireless connection in the network.
If the results seem slower than expected, don't be too quick to blame your ISP - mistakes when performing the test can skew your numbers.
In the article below, we will introduce and guide you to learn about the concept of QoS - Quality of Service on router devices.
Windows has a built-in Credential Manager, but it's not what you think it is—and certainly not a replacement for a password manager.
Microsoft charges for its official codecs and doesn't include them in Windows 10. However, you can get them for free without pulling out your credit card and spending $0.99.
While having trouble accessing files and folders can be frustrating, don't panic—with a few simple tweaks, you can regain access to your system.
After creating a USB boot to install Windows, users should check the USB boot's performance to see if it was created successfully or not.
Although Windows Storage Sense efficiently deletes temporary files, some types of data are permanent and continue to accumulate.
You can turn off Windows 11 background apps to optimize performance, save battery and reduce RAM consumption.
When a computer, mobile device, or printer tries to connect to a Microsoft Windows computer over a network, for example, the error message network path was not found — Error 0x80070035 may appear.
We can block Internet access for any application or software on the computer, while other programs can still access the network. The following article will guide readers on how to disable Internet access for software and applications on Windows.
Instead of paying $30 for a year of security updates, keep Windows 10 safe until 2030 with this simple solution.
