Using Compression to Free Up Space

To save disk space, you can compress files, folders, or even an entire drive that uses NTFS. You can’t compress a FAT32 drive using Windows. How much disk space you save depends on the types of file you’re compressing. Anything that’s already compressed - for example, a Zip file or a compressed multimedia file such as an MP3 music file or an MPEG movie - won’t compress much, if at all. Files such as Word documents or Excel spreadsheets compress nicely. Uncompressed graphics - for example, Windows Bitmap BMP files - compress very well. Compression saves space so that you can pack more information on your drives, but it has two main disadvantages:

• First, your computer takes longer to access a compressed file, folder, or drive. If your computer can run Windows Vista at a decent speed, the extra effort required for compression shouldn’t matter unless you need every ounce of performance for example, for games.

• Second, you cannot encrypt a compressed file or folder. However, Windows Vista Home doesn’t offer encryption, so this concern applies only to the Business and Ultimate versions of Windows Vista.

Compressing a File or Folder

To compress a file or a folder, take the following steps:

1. Right-click the file or folder and choose Properties from the context menu. Windows displays the Properties dialog box for the file or folder.

2. On the General page, click the Advanced button. Windows displays the Advanced Attributes dialog box .

3. Select the Compress Contents to Save Disk Space check box.

4. Click the OK button. Windows closes the Advanced Attributes dialog box.

5. Click the OK button. Windows closes the Properties dialog box. To uncompress a file or folder, repeat this procedure but clear the Compress Contents to Save Disk Space check box.

Some Files and Folders Aren’t Worth Compressing

When deciding whether to compress a folder, consider the files it will contain. If the files are already in a highly compressed format, compressing the folder will save no further space. For example, files such as MP3 and WMA audio files and MPEG video files are already compressed as far as they will go, so there’s no point in compressing a folder that will contain them.

Compressing a Drive

Compressing individual folders let alone individual files is a slow business, and may not save you a large amount of space. You’ll usually get better results from compressing a whole drive. To compress an NTFS drive, take the following steps:

1. Choose Start Computer. Windows open a Computer window.

2. Right-click the drive, and then choose Properties from the context menu. Windows displays the Properties dialog box for the drive .

3. On the General page, select the Compress This Drive to Save Disk Space check box.

4. Click the Apply button. Windows displays the Confirm Attribute Changes dialog box, asking if you want to apply this change only to the root of the drive or to its sub- folders and files as well.

5. Select the Apply Changes to drive:\, Subfolders and Files option button where drive is the drive letter.

6.Click the OK button. Windows closes the Confirm Attribute Changes dialog box and displays the Access Denied dialog box, as shown here, saying that you will need to provide administrator permission to change the drive’s attributes.

7. Click the Continue button, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control.

8.Once you’re authenticated, Windows displays the Applying Attributes dialog box, and starts compressing the drive, as shown here.

9. When compression is complete, click the OK button in the Properties dialog box for the drive. Windows closes the dialog box. If you find that compressing the drive seems to have reduced your computer’s performance, you can uncompress it easily enough. Repeat the steps in the above list, but this time, clear the Compress This Drive to Save Disk Space check box. You need to authenticate yourself for decompression as well.

Windows May Be Unable to Compress Files That Are in Use

While compressing a drive, Windows may display the Error Applying Attributes dialog box telling you that an error occurred applying the attribute to in other words, compressing a file because the file is being used by another process. This dialog box offers you an Ignore button, an Ignore All button, a Try Again button, and a Cancel button, as shown here. Usually, the best approach is to click the Retry button to retry the operation. If the dialog box reappears, click the Ignore button. If Windows keeps producing the Error Applying Attributes dialog box, click the Ignore All button to ignore all the errors and continue with the compression, or click the Cancel button to cancel applying the compression for now so that you can try the operation again later.

Setting Archiving and Indexing for a File or Folder

Apart from compression, the Advanced Attributes dialog box , earlier in the article for a file or folder offers two other options:

File/Folder Is Ready for Archiving check box Select this check box or leave it selected to specify that the file or folder can be archived. Nothing will happen to the folder until you use a program that checks the archiving status of files.

Index This Folder for Fast Searching check box Select this check box or leave it selected to include this folder in any indexing operations you tell Windows to perform. By indexing your folders, Windows creates a database that lets you search more quickly for files matching specified criteria. When you’ve finished choosing settings in the Advanced Attributes dialog box, click the OK button. Windows closes the Advanced Attributes dialog box. Then click the OK button. Windows closes the Properties dialog box for the file or folder.

Configuring Indexing and Search Options

Windows Vista automatically creates indexes of all the files and folders on your computer that are marked for indexing. Windows marks most of your data files and folders for indexing by default, so it indexes these items unless you specifically tell it not to by clearing the Index This File for Fast Searching check box or the Index This Folder for Fast Searching check box in the Advanced Attributes dialog box for the file or folder. Windows doesn’t index your system files and program files, because normally you won’t store data in your system folders and program folders, so you won’t need to search through them. Unlike Windows XP, which let you turn off indexing if you found it slowed your computer down at inconvenient times, Windows Vista doesn’t let you turn off indexing. However, you can choose which files and folders Windows indexes and tell Windows how to index any given file type. To configure indexing and search options, open the Indexing Options dialog box. You can then modify the list of folders that Windows indexes, choose advanced settings for particular categories and types of files, rebuild your index, or move the index to a different disk drive.

Opening the Indexing Options Dialog Box

To open the Indexing Options dialog box, follow these steps:

1. Choose Start Control Panel. Windows open a Control Panel window.

2. In Control Panel Home view, click the System and Maintenance link. Windows displays the System and Maintenance window.

3. Click the Indexing Options link. Windows displays the Indexing Options dialog box.

Changing the List of Folders that Windows Indexes

To change the list of folders that Windows indexes, follow these steps:

1. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click the Modify button. Windows displays the Indexed Locations dialog box .

2. In the Change Selected Locations list box, select the check box for each folder you want to index. Windows adds each folder to the Included Locations side of the Summary of Selected Locations list box.

3. If you want to include a folder and most but not all of its subfolders, select the check box for the folder, and then clear the check box for each subfolder you don’t want to include. Windows adds the subfolder’s name to the Exclude side of the Summary of Selected Locations list box.

4. Click the OK button. Windows closes the Indexed Locations dialog box and returns you to the Indexing Options dialog box.

Choosing Advanced Indexing Options or Moving the Index

Normally, Window’s default indexing settings work well for most computers, so you may need to do no more than change the list of folders that Windows indexes, as described in the previous section. However, Windows also provides advanced settings with which you may want to experiment. To do so, follow these steps:

1. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click the Advanced button, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control. Windows displays the Advanced Options dialog box, which has two pages of settings: the Index Settings page and the File Types page.

2.In the File Settings group box on the Index Settings page, ignore the Index Encrypted Files check box, which applies only to versions of Windows Vista that include encryption which Windows Vista Home doesn’t. Select the Treat Similar Words with Diacritics as Different Words check box if you want Windows to use diacritics to distinguish words instead of ignoring them and treating, say, Motörhead the same as Motorhead.

3. In the Troubleshooting group box, you can click the Rebuild button to rebuild your index if you suspect that it has become corrupted - for example, because Search now doesn’t find files in folders that Windows is set to index. You can click the Restore Defaults button to restore your index to its default settings if you’ve made changes that appear to have had a negative effect.

4. The Index Location group box shows you the current location of the index file. You can move the file to a different location by clicking the Select New button, choosing the drive and folder in the Browse for Folder dialog box, and then clicking the OK button. The only reason for moving the index is if your computer has two or more hard disks and you can move the index to a faster disk than it is currently on. Having the index on a faster disk will give you somewhat faster indexing and searching.

5. The File Types page of the Advanced Options dialog box lets you choose which file types Windows indexes and whether it indexes only the properties or the properties and the file contents. Follow these steps:

• In the list box, select the file extension associated with the file type you want to affect. For example, select the DOCX file extension to affect Word 2007 documents.

• Select the check box to make Windows index the file type. Windows automatically selects the check boxes for file types that you can create.

• In the How Should This File Be Indexed? group box, select the Index Properties and File Contents option button if you want Windows to index the document’s content as well as its properties. Otherwise, select the Index Properties Only option button.

• If you need to add a file extension to the list, click in the text box near the bottom of the File Types page, type the extension, and then click the Add New Extension button. Windows adds it to the list and selects its check box and the Index Properties Only option button. You can then select the Index Properties and File Contents option button if appropriate.

6. When you’ve finished choosing advanced options, click the OK button. Windows closes the Advanced Options dialog box and returns you to the Indexing Options dialog box.

7. Click the Close button. Windows closes the Indexing Options dialog box.

Why Not Index All File Contents?

There are three reasons not to index all file contents:

1. Indexing file contents as well as file properties takes Windows much longer to complete the indexing process.

2. Your index file quickly becomes larger than it needs to be.

3. Searching tends to become less efficient, as you get more unrelated hits.

For these reasons, it’s best to index file contents only for data files that you might need to be able to identify by their contents. For example, you might need to be able to pick out a Word document by a particular phrase it contains.