why are there blue txt files?

[apu95]

i was just browsing through my folder and i noticed that some text files i have (made entirely by notepad) have a blue file name. some do and some dont. if i highlight one of the blue ones, it tells me that it has "compressed" attribute. how do i turn this off? why did it happen?

thx, Apu

 

[NetRyder]

Windows will automatically compress certain very rarely used files (like logfiles) to save disk space. Nothing to worry about.

If you still want to decompress them, let me know.

 

[NetRyder]

Ok, to search for and decompress all the files on C:

Open command prompt, and go to your root directory (C:\)
Type "compact /u /s /a /q *.*" (without the quotes)

Windows will look for all compressed files on your disk, and decompress them.

 

[yoyo]

Remember however that you may loose several hundred megabytes of diskspace this way, because this global command will probably also decompress the dllcache folder and $uninstall$ folders.

 

[SPeedY_B]

Wouldn't it only do the C:\ base directory though? and not recurse further, ie into the dllcache and so on...
(just a thought )

 

[yoyo]

The /s switch includes all subdirectories.

 

[XP Abuser]

just leave them as they are as they are just text files and have no performance gains if you have them uncompressed and they might even open faster as there is less data for the disk to read as it has thrown out the useless stuff

so if it works dont fix it:happy:

 

[Enyo]

I agree with XP Abuser (starting to do that alot now)

The compression of text files isnt really going to make any differance what so ever. In terms of speed the impact is minimal because of the small size of file and in terms of space saving again its minimal and again becuase they are generally tiny!

If windows wants them compressed let it be, if you dont want them in blue you can change the option under folder options and you will never know the differance

 

[scriptasylum]

Originally posted by NetRyder
Ok, to search for and decompress all the files on C:

Open command prompt, and go to your root directory (C:\)
Type "compact /u /s /a /q *.*" (without the quotes)

Windows will look for all compressed files on your disk, and decompress them.

..or, you could just right-click the drive from explorer and select "Properties". Under the drive space pie chart, you'll see a checkbox labeled "Compress drive to save disk space". Just uncheck that box, and click the Apply button. A prompt will open up asking if you want the changes to apply to just the root folder of the drive or all subdirectories.

Yoyo is correct about how much space you'll lose though. I have about 10G used on my OS partition and I would gain ~750MB of space if I enable it. I personally do not care about space, so I leave it disabled. Plus, I figure if I do access the file, it will be faster uncompressed.

 

[NetRyder]

Yeah, that's why I said it's nothing to worry about. But people have asked me how to decompress in the past, so I just gave the info anyway.