3 Ways to Disable Automatic File Compression For Windows

3 Ways to Disable Automatic File Compression For Windows

File Compression is a type of data compression where the information in the original file is encoded using fewer bits than initially required. In other words, the less critical or redundant information is removed to store the data with lesser resources and space than needed. Compression of files is usually done when there isn’t enough memory left on the computer drive to store the files. This also eases the effort to transmit the data.

However, there are some disadvantages associated with file compression. These may include issues such as; complexity involved in compressing large files, time cost to uncompress the data, how to open jar files in windows 10, and the inclusion of unwanted errors during transmission of the data. Additionally, there may be a necessity to download appropriate programs to compress and uncompress the files, which further increases its complexity.

The famous and most widely-used Operating System, Microsoft Windows, has a built-in feature that automatically compresses files to clear up space when the computer is running low on memory. This is usually not noticeable, and hence, while accessing the compressed folder, Windows has to decompress it again, adding to the time cost. To disable automatic decompression of files in Windows, three different methods can be followed.

1)  Modifying Registry on Computer

  • Click on Start or press Win+R (to open run window) and type regedit and press Enter
  • Navigate to Computer → HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE → SYSTEM → CurrentControlSet → Policies
  • Double-click on ‘NtfsDisableCompression,’ a pop-up window appears
  • Now change the Value data on the window from 0 to 1 and click OK
  • After this, once you have rebooted the computer, you’re all set.

2)   Using Command Prompt

  • To open Command Prompt, go to Start and type cmd, then right-click on Command Prompt and then, select Run as administrator, or press Win+R and type cmd
  • To access your account as an administrator, you may be prompted to enter the password and other credentials
  • In the Command Prompt window, type, below command, fsutil behavior set disable compression 1 and press Enter
  • The below note appears

Note that Changes to this setting require a reboot.

DisableCompression = 1 

After this, the last step is to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

3)   Using the Windows Local Group Policy Editor (applicable only for professional or enterprise version of Windows)

  • To begin with, first, click on Start or press Win+R and type gpedit.msc and press Enter
  • Navigate to Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → System → Filesystem → NTFS
  • Next double-click on ‘Do not allow compression on all NTFS volumes’
  •  If the status is ‘Not Configured’ or ‘’Disabled,’ then change it to ‘Enabled’ and click OK
  • Now when we navigate back to the Group Policy Editor window, we will notice the ‘Do not allow compression on all NTFS volumes’ listed as ‘Enabled.’
  • Finally, reboot the computer to effect the changes.

There is also a manual way of decompressing files individually. If you find that a file or a folder has been decompressed automatically by Windows, then you can use this approach.

Firstly, right-click on the file or the folder and select Properties. Then on the General tab, click on the Advanced button. Uncheck the box that reads ‘Compress contents to save disk space’ and click OK. Further, it may ask to decompress the subfolders as well. Click on Yes if you want to do so, and the file or the folder gets decompressed.

contributor

Related Articles

Leave a Reply