How to Use NTFS Compression Windows 10? Two Ways Are Here!

On Windows 10, the New Technology File System (NTFS) file system contains a lightweight NTFS compression performance which is designed to reduce the size of files and save space when necessary.

For some reasons, you may want to use this feature to free up space on your computer or use a drive to save files that you rarely use. But, do you know how to use NTFS compression Windows 10?

Actually, there are two ways which can be used to compress files using NTFS feature:

• Compress files using NTFS file compression
• Compress files using NTFS drive compression

How to compress files using NTFS file compression

This is the easiest way to make files smaller without compressing the whole drive or using additional steps to zip or unzip files every time when you need. Windows 10 automatically compressing files is possible.

To do this job, you can follow these steps:

Step 1: Open File Explorer and then enter the folder you want to save the compressed files. Next, click the Home button and New Folder button. Rename the folder to create it. Then, right-click on that new folder and choose Properties from the popup list.

Step 2: Go to General > Advanced. Then, check Compress contents to save disk space under the Compress or Encrypt attributes section. Then, click OK and Apply.

Step 3: Check Apply changes to this folder, subfolders, and files under the Confirm Attribute Changes dialog. Then, click OK to keep the change.

Then, you may want to know how to see how much space this method is saving for you. Now, right-click on that folder and then choose Properties. On the popup window, Size shows the item without compression, while Size on disk is the size after compression.

If you want to revert the changes, you can repeat the above steps except step 2 where you need to uncheck Compress contents to save disk space.

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How to Compress Files Using NTFS Drive Compression

Actually, you can also use the NTFS feature to compress an entire drive. You can also use this way to compress this drive to save disk space SSD.

Step 1: Open File Explorer and choose This PC from the left pane. Then, right-click on the drive you want to compress and choose Properties.

Step 2: Check Compress this drive to save disk space from the popup window and click Apply.

Step 3: Check Apply changes to drive (drive letter), subfolders and files under the Confirm Attribute Changes dialog. Then, click OK and another OK to keep the changes.

When you want to undo the changes, you can do the above 3 steps. But, in step 2, you need to clear the Compress this drive to save disk space option.

These are how to use NTFS compression Windows 10 using two ways. You can choose a suitable way accordingly.