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As you know, some files cannot be compressed when your system is running.
How do I enable compression system-wide then? For every single file?

Can I enable it in the recovery console?

Ps.: For example, when you format a new drive in the Disk Management view, it lets you enable NTFS compression partition-wide.

Apache
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    I have successfully compressed system files by using a bootable CD, such as UBCD4Win (http://www.ubcd4win.com) or Hiren's Boot CD (http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd). These are both WinXP-based, but they should handle NTFS on 8.1: I am not aware of any changes to NTFS that post-date XP. I would not recommend compressing the page or hibernation files, though. – AFH Jul 30 '14 at 21:52
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    Make sure you know what you're doing. Buying a bigger drive may be a better option. Compression will affect CPU and I/O performance. – gronostaj Jul 30 '14 at 21:56
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    There have been many changes to NTFS that post-date XP. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff383236(v=WS.10).aspx Backup your data before trying this. – uSlackr Jul 30 '14 at 22:00
  • Used to be that compressing bootmgr would make the system unbootable. – David Marshall Jul 30 '14 at 22:11
  • @AFH: Thank you. You could post this as an answer. – Apache Aug 06 '14 at 13:33
  • Thanks, but because of @uSlackr's comment, I'd better leave it as it is. – AFH Aug 07 '14 at 09:27
  • [Are there any changes or additions to NTFS in Windows 8?](http://superuser.com/q/495923/241386) – phuclv Nov 26 '16 at 05:17

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Grab a Windows installation ISO, if you don't already have one. There are various legal ways to do that. After that you can choose to make a Windows install USB, or Windows To Go. Alternatively you can just use any bootable USBs based on Windows PE

  • If you have chosen to write an install USB, just boot from it and

    • Select Repair your computer > Troubleshoot > Command Prompt
      • or simply press Shift+F10 when the blue menu screen appears

    • Now you're in the console and can do anything you want. For example to compress all files in drive C, use this

      C:      %= Change to drive C =%
compact /C /I /A /S *

  • If you have Windows To Go or Windows PE then it might be far easier because you'll do things in GUI like in normal Windows. But it'll start (and possibly run) much slower than a command line app. You also need to mount the system drive first because it's offline by default.

Windows To Go is only officially supported on Enterprise Edition, so if you have Home or Pro version you can find the way to create Windows To Go USB here: How to Create a Windows To Go USB Drive Without the Enterprise Edition

Remember: boot files must not be compressed, or Windows will fail to start

However this is not quite a good idea. Only selected folders that contains files that are mainly read and easily compressible should be compressed

Anyway Windows 8.1 already supports WIMBoot for reducing system footprint

Windows 10 threw that away and used a much better solution named CompactOS

phuclv
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