Why are folders and files automatically being compressed in Windows 10?
All the files on my desktop and every file I downloaded from the Internet have suddenly been compressed in Windows 10 (as indicated by two blue arrows on the top right of the icons). I have never set such a setting in Windows. Is this a virus or something else?
My hard drive is 128GB SSD and with 5GB free space.
So why is this happening? Is there an option to turn this behaviour off?
windows-10 compression
edited Jan 8 at 20:02
Run5k
11.1k73152
asked Dec 7 '18 at 13:33
j doej doe
3814
|
show 1 more comment
All the files on my desktop and every file I downloaded from the Internet have suddenly been compressed in Windows 10 (as indicated by two blue arrows on the top right of the icons). I have never set such a setting in Windows. Is this a virus or something else?
My hard drive is 128GB SSD and with 5GB free space.
So why is this happening? Is there an option to turn this behaviour off?
windows-10 compression
edited Jan 8 at 20:02
Run5k
11.1k73152
asked Dec 7 '18 at 13:33
j doej doe
3814
1
Possible duplicate of Two blue arrows at top right of icons
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 14:46
Please take a look at this answer. It is probably being caused by Windows Updates.
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 14:47
So windows update automatically compressed my files to install updates? very bad idea!
– j doe
Dec 7 '18 at 20:35
That is understandably frustrating. On the other hand, you probably wouldn't want to miss installing critical operating system security patches, and maintaining an OS partition with only 4% free disk space is destined to be problematic.
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 20:47
NTFS compression is transparent. In all but very specific cases, the CPU time overhead is negligible.
– Daniel B
Jan 8 at 19:34
|
show 1 more comment
All the files on my desktop and every file I downloaded from the Internet have suddenly been compressed in Windows 10 (as indicated by two blue arrows on the top right of the icons). I have never set such a setting in Windows. Is this a virus or something else?
My hard drive is 128GB SSD and with 5GB free space.
So why is this happening? Is there an option to turn this behaviour off?
windows-10 compression
edited Jan 8 at 20:02
Run5k
11.1k73152
asked Dec 7 '18 at 13:33
j doej doe
3814
All the files on my desktop and every file I downloaded from the Internet have suddenly been compressed in Windows 10 (as indicated by two blue arrows on the top right of the icons). I have never set such a setting in Windows. Is this a virus or something else?
My hard drive is 128GB SSD and with 5GB free space.
So why is this happening? Is there an option to turn this behaviour off?
windows-10 compression
windows-10 compression
edited Jan 8 at 20:02
Run5k
11.1k73152
asked Dec 7 '18 at 13:33
j doej doe
3814
edited Jan 8 at 20:02
Run5k
11.1k73152
asked Dec 7 '18 at 13:33
j doej doe
3814
edited Jan 8 at 20:02
Run5k
11.1k73152
edited Jan 8 at 20:02
Run5k
11.1k73152
edited Jan 8 at 20:02
Run5k
11.1k73152
11.1k73152
asked Dec 7 '18 at 13:33
j doej doe
3814
asked Dec 7 '18 at 13:33
j doej doe
3814
asked Dec 7 '18 at 13:33
j doej doe
3814
3814
1
Possible duplicate of Two blue arrows at top right of icons
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 14:46
Please take a look at this answer. It is probably being caused by Windows Updates.
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 14:47
So windows update automatically compressed my files to install updates? very bad idea!
– j doe
Dec 7 '18 at 20:35
That is understandably frustrating. On the other hand, you probably wouldn't want to miss installing critical operating system security patches, and maintaining an OS partition with only 4% free disk space is destined to be problematic.
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 20:47
NTFS compression is transparent. In all but very specific cases, the CPU time overhead is negligible.
– Daniel B
Jan 8 at 19:34
|
show 1 more comment
1
Possible duplicate of Two blue arrows at top right of icons
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 14:46
Please take a look at this answer. It is probably being caused by Windows Updates.
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 14:47
So windows update automatically compressed my files to install updates? very bad idea!
– j doe
Dec 7 '18 at 20:35
That is understandably frustrating. On the other hand, you probably wouldn't want to miss installing critical operating system security patches, and maintaining an OS partition with only 4% free disk space is destined to be problematic.
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 20:47
NTFS compression is transparent. In all but very specific cases, the CPU time overhead is negligible.
– Daniel B
Jan 8 at 19:34
1
1
Possible duplicate of Two blue arrows at top right of icons
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 14:46
Possible duplicate of Two blue arrows at top right of icons
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 14:46
Please take a look at this answer. It is probably being caused by Windows Updates.
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 14:47
Please take a look at this answer. It is probably being caused by Windows Updates.
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 14:47
So windows update automatically compressed my files to install updates? very bad idea!
– j doe
Dec 7 '18 at 20:35
So windows update automatically compressed my files to install updates? very bad idea!
– j doe
Dec 7 '18 at 20:35
That is understandably frustrating. On the other hand, you probably wouldn't want to miss installing critical operating system security patches, and maintaining an OS partition with only 4% free disk space is destined to be problematic.
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 20:47
That is understandably frustrating. On the other hand, you probably wouldn't want to miss installing critical operating system security patches, and maintaining an OS partition with only 4% free disk space is destined to be problematic.
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 20:47
NTFS compression is transparent. In all but very specific cases, the CPU time overhead is negligible.
– Daniel B
Jan 8 at 19:34
NTFS compression is transparent. In all but very specific cases, the CPU time overhead is negligible.
– Daniel B
Jan 8 at 19:34
|
show 1 more comment
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
I noticed this happening after my upgrade to Windows 10 version 1809 (the October 2018 update) on my 32GB SSD. I usually save my documents in progress on my Desktop before moving them to their permanent locations, and I saw all of my new files getting the two blue arrows. Checking these files' advanced properties revealed that they are indeed being automatically compressed by Windows. None of the policy settings or registry settings to disable compression are preventing this. If I look at the properties for the whole C: drive it shows that automatic compression is off. But if I look at the advanced properties for C:UsersmyaccountDesktop and C:UsersmyaccountDocuments I can see that they have been set to automatically compress files. If I uncheck this in the two folders (and choose to apply the change to all files and folders under these) then it does seem to stop this behavior, even after a restart.
I can not find documentation for Windows 10 version 1809 that describes the conditions under which Windows starts automatically compressing files without asking the user for permission to do this. It may have been necessary for the update to version 1809 to have enough space to complete the update, but at no point did Windows ASK me if this was OK. It just did it. Normally this would not bother me too much, but one of the identified flaws early in the release of version 1809 was that zipping of automatically compressed files (for example for the purpose of copying/upload files to other locations off of the computer) caused corruption in these files. So the Microsoft developers have obviously made mistakes in released code as far as compression goes.
I seem to recall a recent version of Mac OS X doing a similar thing in which it started encrypting files without asking after a particular update. This trend is not a good one. Again, at least if Windows had ASKED me before doing this then the sudden compression of my files would not have been a surprise requiring me to seek out answers on the Internet.
answered Dec 24 '18 at 9:43
BrianBrian
112
add a comment |
"128GB SSD and with 5GB free space."
That's why - the drive is choking.
It desperately needs more space so it's got to try to compress absolutely everything it can.
You really need to always have 10% free space, at minimum; preferably 15%.
I'm aim for never showing more than 110GB used, preferably 100GB.
answered Dec 7 '18 at 13:41
TetsujinTetsujin
15.7k53262
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "3"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: true,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: 10,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsuperuser.com%2fquestions%2f1381633%2fwhy-are-folders-and-files-automatically-being-compressed-in-windows-10%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
I noticed this happening after my upgrade to Windows 10 version 1809 (the October 2018 update) on my 32GB SSD. I usually save my documents in progress on my Desktop before moving them to their permanent locations, and I saw all of my new files getting the two blue arrows. Checking these files' advanced properties revealed that they are indeed being automatically compressed by Windows. None of the policy settings or registry settings to disable compression are preventing this. If I look at the properties for the whole C: drive it shows that automatic compression is off. But if I look at the advanced properties for C:UsersmyaccountDesktop and C:UsersmyaccountDocuments I can see that they have been set to automatically compress files. If I uncheck this in the two folders (and choose to apply the change to all files and folders under these) then it does seem to stop this behavior, even after a restart.
I can not find documentation for Windows 10 version 1809 that describes the conditions under which Windows starts automatically compressing files without asking the user for permission to do this. It may have been necessary for the update to version 1809 to have enough space to complete the update, but at no point did Windows ASK me if this was OK. It just did it. Normally this would not bother me too much, but one of the identified flaws early in the release of version 1809 was that zipping of automatically compressed files (for example for the purpose of copying/upload files to other locations off of the computer) caused corruption in these files. So the Microsoft developers have obviously made mistakes in released code as far as compression goes.
I seem to recall a recent version of Mac OS X doing a similar thing in which it started encrypting files without asking after a particular update. This trend is not a good one. Again, at least if Windows had ASKED me before doing this then the sudden compression of my files would not have been a surprise requiring me to seek out answers on the Internet.
answered Dec 24 '18 at 9:43
BrianBrian
112
add a comment |
I noticed this happening after my upgrade to Windows 10 version 1809 (the October 2018 update) on my 32GB SSD. I usually save my documents in progress on my Desktop before moving them to their permanent locations, and I saw all of my new files getting the two blue arrows. Checking these files' advanced properties revealed that they are indeed being automatically compressed by Windows. None of the policy settings or registry settings to disable compression are preventing this. If I look at the properties for the whole C: drive it shows that automatic compression is off. But if I look at the advanced properties for C:UsersmyaccountDesktop and C:UsersmyaccountDocuments I can see that they have been set to automatically compress files. If I uncheck this in the two folders (and choose to apply the change to all files and folders under these) then it does seem to stop this behavior, even after a restart.
I can not find documentation for Windows 10 version 1809 that describes the conditions under which Windows starts automatically compressing files without asking the user for permission to do this. It may have been necessary for the update to version 1809 to have enough space to complete the update, but at no point did Windows ASK me if this was OK. It just did it. Normally this would not bother me too much, but one of the identified flaws early in the release of version 1809 was that zipping of automatically compressed files (for example for the purpose of copying/upload files to other locations off of the computer) caused corruption in these files. So the Microsoft developers have obviously made mistakes in released code as far as compression goes.
I seem to recall a recent version of Mac OS X doing a similar thing in which it started encrypting files without asking after a particular update. This trend is not a good one. Again, at least if Windows had ASKED me before doing this then the sudden compression of my files would not have been a surprise requiring me to seek out answers on the Internet.
answered Dec 24 '18 at 9:43
BrianBrian
112
add a comment |
I noticed this happening after my upgrade to Windows 10 version 1809 (the October 2018 update) on my 32GB SSD. I usually save my documents in progress on my Desktop before moving them to their permanent locations, and I saw all of my new files getting the two blue arrows. Checking these files' advanced properties revealed that they are indeed being automatically compressed by Windows. None of the policy settings or registry settings to disable compression are preventing this. If I look at the properties for the whole C: drive it shows that automatic compression is off. But if I look at the advanced properties for C:UsersmyaccountDesktop and C:UsersmyaccountDocuments I can see that they have been set to automatically compress files. If I uncheck this in the two folders (and choose to apply the change to all files and folders under these) then it does seem to stop this behavior, even after a restart.
I can not find documentation for Windows 10 version 1809 that describes the conditions under which Windows starts automatically compressing files without asking the user for permission to do this. It may have been necessary for the update to version 1809 to have enough space to complete the update, but at no point did Windows ASK me if this was OK. It just did it. Normally this would not bother me too much, but one of the identified flaws early in the release of version 1809 was that zipping of automatically compressed files (for example for the purpose of copying/upload files to other locations off of the computer) caused corruption in these files. So the Microsoft developers have obviously made mistakes in released code as far as compression goes.
I seem to recall a recent version of Mac OS X doing a similar thing in which it started encrypting files without asking after a particular update. This trend is not a good one. Again, at least if Windows had ASKED me before doing this then the sudden compression of my files would not have been a surprise requiring me to seek out answers on the Internet.
answered Dec 24 '18 at 9:43
BrianBrian
112
I noticed this happening after my upgrade to Windows 10 version 1809 (the October 2018 update) on my 32GB SSD. I usually save my documents in progress on my Desktop before moving them to their permanent locations, and I saw all of my new files getting the two blue arrows. Checking these files' advanced properties revealed that they are indeed being automatically compressed by Windows. None of the policy settings or registry settings to disable compression are preventing this. If I look at the properties for the whole C: drive it shows that automatic compression is off. But if I look at the advanced properties for C:UsersmyaccountDesktop and C:UsersmyaccountDocuments I can see that they have been set to automatically compress files. If I uncheck this in the two folders (and choose to apply the change to all files and folders under these) then it does seem to stop this behavior, even after a restart.
I can not find documentation for Windows 10 version 1809 that describes the conditions under which Windows starts automatically compressing files without asking the user for permission to do this. It may have been necessary for the update to version 1809 to have enough space to complete the update, but at no point did Windows ASK me if this was OK. It just did it. Normally this would not bother me too much, but one of the identified flaws early in the release of version 1809 was that zipping of automatically compressed files (for example for the purpose of copying/upload files to other locations off of the computer) caused corruption in these files. So the Microsoft developers have obviously made mistakes in released code as far as compression goes.
I seem to recall a recent version of Mac OS X doing a similar thing in which it started encrypting files without asking after a particular update. This trend is not a good one. Again, at least if Windows had ASKED me before doing this then the sudden compression of my files would not have been a surprise requiring me to seek out answers on the Internet.
answered Dec 24 '18 at 9:43
BrianBrian
112
answered Dec 24 '18 at 9:43
BrianBrian
112
answered Dec 24 '18 at 9:43
BrianBrian
112
answered Dec 24 '18 at 9:43
BrianBrian
112
112
add a comment |
add a comment |
"128GB SSD and with 5GB free space."
That's why - the drive is choking.
It desperately needs more space so it's got to try to compress absolutely everything it can.
You really need to always have 10% free space, at minimum; preferably 15%.
I'm aim for never showing more than 110GB used, preferably 100GB.
answered Dec 7 '18 at 13:41
TetsujinTetsujin
15.7k53262
add a comment |
"128GB SSD and with 5GB free space."
That's why - the drive is choking.
It desperately needs more space so it's got to try to compress absolutely everything it can.
You really need to always have 10% free space, at minimum; preferably 15%.
I'm aim for never showing more than 110GB used, preferably 100GB.
answered Dec 7 '18 at 13:41
TetsujinTetsujin
15.7k53262
add a comment |
"128GB SSD and with 5GB free space."
That's why - the drive is choking.
It desperately needs more space so it's got to try to compress absolutely everything it can.
You really need to always have 10% free space, at minimum; preferably 15%.
I'm aim for never showing more than 110GB used, preferably 100GB.
answered Dec 7 '18 at 13:41
TetsujinTetsujin
15.7k53262
"128GB SSD and with 5GB free space."
That's why - the drive is choking.
It desperately needs more space so it's got to try to compress absolutely everything it can.
You really need to always have 10% free space, at minimum; preferably 15%.
I'm aim for never showing more than 110GB used, preferably 100GB.
answered Dec 7 '18 at 13:41
TetsujinTetsujin
15.7k53262
answered Dec 7 '18 at 13:41
TetsujinTetsujin
15.7k53262
answered Dec 7 '18 at 13:41
TetsujinTetsujin
15.7k53262
answered Dec 7 '18 at 13:41
TetsujinTetsujin
15.7k53262
15.7k53262
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Super User!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsuperuser.com%2fquestions%2f1381633%2fwhy-are-folders-and-files-automatically-being-compressed-in-windows-10%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
1
Possible duplicate of Two blue arrows at top right of icons
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 14:46
Please take a look at this answer. It is probably being caused by Windows Updates.
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 14:47
So windows update automatically compressed my files to install updates? very bad idea!
– j doe
Dec 7 '18 at 20:35
That is understandably frustrating. On the other hand, you probably wouldn't want to miss installing critical operating system security patches, and maintaining an OS partition with only 4% free disk space is destined to be problematic.
– Run5k
Dec 7 '18 at 20:47
NTFS compression is transparent. In all but very specific cases, the CPU time overhead is negligible.
– Daniel B
Jan 8 at 19:34