There is a built-in compression tool in Windows 10 to compress drives to free up disk space. The only downside is that you can compress only drives, meaning that you cannot compress individual folders.
Using file compression tool (zip tool) in Windows 10 to compress folders is a not a wise idea since it creates zip files and you need to open up the zip file to access files. Same with third-party file archiving utilities as well.
Would not it be cool if we could compress individual folders in Windows 10 without creating zip files?
CompactGUI is an excellent piece of software designed to help PC users to use the compact OS feature (a built-in feature in Windows 10) to compress individual folders in Windows 10.
The CompactGUI tool can reduce the size of folders significantly. That said, you might not gain much by compressing folders that include certain file types such as JPEG, AVI, and MP3 as these files are already highly compressed. The tool is ideal to compress games and programs.
To begin with, CompactGUI tool offers four compression algorithms: XPRESS4K, XPRESS8K, XPRESS16K, and LZX.
Compress individual folders in Windows 10
Here is how to use the CompactGUI tool to compress individual folders in Windows 10 to save disk space.
Step 1: Download CompactGUI tool from this official page and run the same.
Step 2: On the home screen of the utility, you need to select the folder that you want to compress with CompactGUI. Browse to a folder and select it.
Step 3: Next, select a compression algorithm of your choice. Again, we suggest you choose an algorithm between XPRESS8K and XPRESS16K for best results.
Also, make sure that the Compress subfolders option is selected. If you want to compress hidden and system files, please select Action on Hidden and System Files option.
With default settings, CompactGUI tool does not compress GIF, JPG, JPEG, BMP, PNG, MKV, MP4, WMV, AVI, BIK, OGG, FLV, MPG, M2V, M4V, VOB, MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC, ZIP, RAR, 7Z, CAB and LZX file types are these types are already highly compressed.
If you want to compress a folder containing one of these file types, click the gear icon, uncheck Skip files that are highly compressed option and then click Save button. You might need to close and open the tool again.
Step 4: Finally, hit the Compress Folder button to begin the compression. Depending on the compression algorithm, your PC’s configuration and size of the folder, the tool might take few minutes to hours to complete the compression job.
Once done, you can see the old size of the folder and new size of the folder. You can now open the folder and open files in it to check if they are opening as they should.
If you are not happy with the result, click the Uncompress Folder button to restore the folder to its default settings.
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