Blue files

All of a sudden some of my files in windows explorer have turned to a blue colour when they should be black.

Also if I look at the properties of a "Blue" file a box is ticked saying "Compress Contents to save disk space" I do not remember applying this setting.

Also in Disk Cleanup a new box has appeared called "Compress old files" showing approx 300mb can these be deleted.

It appears the 2 are related?

Anybody any ideas?

Paul

 

If you click on the Advanced button on the General tab of the Properties sheet for the file or folder, you can uncheck Compress contents to save disk space.

If you want to leave the files/folders compressed, but display them in black, open either TweakUI 1.33 or TweakUI XP, select Explorer, then Colors. Click on the one for Compressed files, select Black, and OK your way out.

Don't know about Disk Cleanup. I show the same box, but it indicates only 1 KB on my system.

Jim

 

compress

"If you click on the Advanced button on the General tab of the Properties sheet for the file or folder, you can uncheck Compress contents to save disk space."

I don't quite follow
Are you rite clicking 'My Computer' then 'properties' then 'advanced tab'? I did & compress contents ain't there on me xpp

 

Guess I should have been a bit more explicit.

Because I work mostly from within Windows Explorer, I sometimes forget that it's not the normal mode of operation for many other users.

Right-click on any file or folder in Explorer and select Properties from the context menu. On the General tab, click on the Advanced button to open the Advanced Attributes sheet. You should find checkboxes for both compression and encryption in the lower half of the sheet.

If they're not there, my best guess would be that those features may have been turned off in Group Policies.

Sorry for any confusion.

Jim

 

Right-click a drive in My Computer, properties. NTFS drives will have the option to compress or not.
To simply turn off the blue, go to Tools in My Computer, Folder Options, View and scroll down to "Show Encrypted or Compressed NTFS Files in Color" and uncheck it.

My experience is that compressing does not in the least slow access to a file, but because the compression is part of Disk Cleanup's repertoire, it makes cleaning much slower.

 

Thanks for the input, removed all "Blue" coloures by using the folder options/view and unchecked "Show Encrypted or Compressed NTFS Files in Color" although I do not have "Compress drive to save disk space" selected.

Can these files be deleted during "Disk Cleanup" and how did they get compressed in the first place?

Paul

 

Files are compressed when they have not been used for a while (I don't know how long), but they may still be needed for the apps they belong to. Don't just haphazardly delete them.
They won't ordinarily be deleted by Disk Cleanup, either, since they are not temp files without any further use.
If you have compression turned off, your files are the color you want, then I'd say you're finished and to leave the rest alone.

How did they get compressed in the first place? Good question. I could have sworn that I turned off compression the last time I installed, but I had compressed files anyway. Decided that it was a mystery not worth probing.