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[El Guru (Al)]

I have a family member who no longer wants to have the files compressed on their hard drive which were compressed by Windows XP Disk Cleanup utility.  The two reasons they give is they have enough space that they don't need to have compressed files and mainly Avast won't/cain't scan compressed files. Disk cleanup does not (by default) compress files that have not been accessed in the last 50 days.  I am thinking if something does manage to get past Avast Live protection, it is going to make changes to a file that is accessed far more frequently which the scanner would pick-up.

So this brings up two questions.  The first is my logic correct about what a virus would do and second how do you undo (or decompress) the files which were compressed.  Note: On their drive properties screen the box 'Compress drive to save space' is not checked, but they still have blue files in explorer.

[Nogg3r5]

I think you might wanna re-apply the compression, then remove it again. It takes ages, but then you would know that the compression is gone.

As for viruses, people tend to get too paranoid about them. As long as you use a sensible email client (preferrably webmail, one of the good ones that scans your files for you before you open them), you should be safe from viruses.

Also, if a file is compressed, it takes up less space, if windwos decides that it needs to be compressed cos its not used, then let it. Its taking up less space, hard drives lose effectiveness if they get over 50-60% full.

Im pretty tired atm, sorry if that doesnt make sense

[El Guru (Al)]

That's okay it makes sense to me.

[Ryan Wagner]

I've never done anything with the compression personally, but it has been a hassle to several people I know. It slows down the computer and when they want to undo it they can never figure out how. They've always just ended up reformatting the computer.

[tafkajp]

I found this posted in a forum

Goto Start|Run and type "cmd" to open a command prompt
Type "cd \" at the prompt to goto the root directory
Type "compact /u /s /a /q /i *.*" to uncompress all files in all directories

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119881

but I don't know if it works,  also from same thread but more tedious.

Right click on the folder and/or files that have been compressed (usually changed the text to blue) select properties, advanced, then uncheck the compress files box, apply to all subfolders, then apply.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119881

hope this helps

taf

[tafkajp]

after more searching found this

You could either follow the instructions in this MSKB article to resolve the
problem:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=812248
or d/load the fix from here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
(line 48, right-hand column -->Disk Cleanup-Compress Old Files Freezes-Undo)

http://www.mcse.ms/archive/index.php/t-501237.html

The microsoft support link doesn't seem to apply unless I am missing something, but the registry edit at kellys korner might be just what you need. 

taf

[Ryan Wagner]

I remember back in Windows 3.11 when disk space was very precious. My brother decided to use compression on our family computer and it ran so slow after doing that. The whole disk was essentially compressed and Windows had to uncompress the files before it could use them. At that time there was no known way to uncompress the disk other than to reformat the hard drive...and we didn't end up doing that for several months.

I actually don't know anyone that uses compression these days since hard drive space is so abundant now.

[El Guru (Al)]

I actually don't know anyone that uses compression these days since hard drive space is so abundant now.

I do only because I have 28 GB hard drive which has about 4 GB left compressed.