Now in Windows, you don’t need to download an external disk cleaner app or clean files manually to free up space. Microsoft has added a great utility tool in Windows 10, known as NTFS compression. It is a type of compression feature that is designed to reduce the file size to save storage space. While it is a lightweight compression tool, but it includes various settings. Here is how to use NTFS compression to compress the file size on Windows 10.
How to reduce file size with NTFS file compression
Compressing the file with NTFS file compression is the simplest way to make the file size smaller without doing any extra settings or compressing the complete drive. It will reduce the file size automatically, even without affecting the performance. Go through the below points to compress files or folder in your Windows 10 PC with NTFS compression.
1. Launch the ‘File Explorer.’
2. Browse a folder that you would like to use to save the compressed files.
3. Then, click on the ‘Home’ tab at the top.
4. Click ‘New folder’ to make a new folder. Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcut, “Ctrl + Shift + N” to create a new folder quickly (without using step 3 & 4).
5. Give your new folder a name. You can type “Compressed Data” or “My Compress Files” for the folder’s name.
6. Press ‘Enter’.
7. After creating the folder, right click on it and select ‘Properties’ from the last of the menu.
8. Make sure the ‘General’ tab is opened.
9. Click on the ‘Advanced’ button at the bottom.
10. In the Advanced Attributes window, go to the ‘Compress or Encrypt attributes’ section.
11. And, tick ‘Compress contents to save disk space.’
12. Now, click on ‘OK.’
13. Confirming windows will open, here click on ‘Apply changes to this folder, subfolders, and files.’
14. Then click ‘OK.’
NTFS file compression has been enabled successfully; now you don’t have to do anything. It will automatically compress the size of existing files in the folder as well as the files you saved here in future.
Trick: If you want to know is NTFS file compress is working, you can quickly check the storage saved by it. To check, open folder’s ‘Properties,’ here “Size” is showing the actual size (without compression) of the files and “Size on disk” is showing the size after compression.
Tip: If you’ve changed your mind and want the files to not be compressed anymore, go to the Advanced Attributes window and deselect ‘Compress contents to save disk space’ in Compress or Encrypt attributes section.
How to reduce file size with NTFS drive compression
Instead of compressing the files or folders, you can use the NTFS compression feature to compress the complete drive. Here is how.
1. Launch the ‘File Explorer.’
2. Click ‘This PC’ in the left menu.
3. Right-click on the drive (partition) you want to enable the NTFS compression feature for.
4. Select ‘Properties’
5. In the General tab, tick ‘Compress this drive to save disk space.’
6. Then click ‘Apply’ button.
7. Confirming windows will open, here click on ‘Apply changes to drive[Name]:\, subfolders, and files.’
8. Then click ‘OK.’
9. Again click ‘OK’ to confirm.
Now, NTFS compression works for the drive you’ve enabled it for.
Enne garcia is a self-professed security expert; she has been making the people aware of the security threats. Her passion is to write about Cyber security, cryptography, malware, social engineering, internet and new media. She writes for Norton security products at norton.com/setup.
