[Question] Windows Compression

[hmaster10]

Is compressing the entire windows folder using the compression option that windows provide slows down the system?

Note: I'm refering to those colored blue after doing disk cleanup. (Compressed Old files)

[FAT64]

Yes it will slow down. Everytime you access a file it will need to be de-compressed and then re-compressed when you've finished with it.

[Jeremy]

Yes, never do that.

[Zxian]

I generally try to avoid using the "compress contents" feature in XP. Like Jeremy and FAT64 said, it generally slows down system performance to a noticable degree. Try to clean out temp files or get a larger hard drive to store your data on. If you have to compress something, do it on non-system files (i.e. NOT Program Files or Windows).