For some reason, I have blue arrows on the top right-hand corners of my taskbar icons now. I am on the latest Windows 10 build and I have Microsoft Office 2016 Professional (volume) installed. I've read somewhere that it has to do with compression of files...This machine is still basically factory default...I haven't even really changed any settings. Does anyone know what this is and if it should be a concern?
Hi That means that part or all of your drive is compressed "Blue text in Explorer = NTFS compression is enabled via the properties (this has been standard in Windows for many versions now)." "Two blue arrows is Windows 10's new way of showing the same thing, at the icon-level."
Thank you for the response. I did find that as well. Does this compression turn on by itself or something? If it's automatic that's fine...the arrows dont' necessarily bother me...I just want to make sure my computer isn't compressing stuff and messing with my files when I don't want it to. I have plenty of disk space.
Since disk space is not an issue, you may try disabling Windows file compression. In a command prompt: Code: fsutil behavior set disablecompression 1 If you change your mind: Code: fsutil behavior set disablecompression 0
You can have the disk marked as uncompressed and any file compressed inside it. Compression at disk or folder level means just that new files will be compressed if placed inside them. So, just enable the blue colouring from your general folder proprieties, to easily spot the compressed files. Alternatively you can just compare the single file proprieties (file size v.s. size on disk). If they are (rougly) the same your file is not compressed (or is an already compressed file, like a zip), if they are way different your file is compressed.
Ok so updating the graphics drivers did nothing. As I expected. The stupid blue arrows are there on various icons..not just office icons. Compression is off on everything (as far as I can tell) Microsoft has no idea now. I mean it's not hurting anything, it's just annoying. Any other ideas? Does anyone else even have this?
If you'd like to uncompress C drive... Run this on an elevated command prompt... compact /u /a /i /f /s C:\*.* Try this in safe mode...I'm getting a lot of "Access Denied" messages...
You need to do that from the recovery consolle or using a superelevated prompt, using nsudo or alike, not safe mode Or, as you experimented, you you will compress or decompress just a minority of the files.
When I right click on the C drive and review properties, it doesn't say it's compressed. I guess that's why I'm confused. Does Windows 10 just auto compress stuff that it won't let you uncompress? Do you also see these icons?
I've already explained above how it works. Surely XP compressed some less used files if the space was getting low, w/o asking. Possibly even Win nt and Win 2k did that, so no surprise if windows 10 does it now
I appreciate the response and I apologize if I'm not understanding properly. But how would ANY files be compressed if I didn't turn on this compression feature? I check properties of the icons that have the arrows...no compression...I check every single subfolder all the way back to the C drive..no compression. The only icons that seem to have the arrows are the shortcut links located here: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs Thanks again for your help...I'm just wondering why shortcuts would apparently (but also apparently not when checking properties) get compressed when they're 2 kb...I also have more than 400 GB of free storage space.
Well the shortcuts overlay could be just a gui glitch. That "feature" is pretty young and is possible that something is just broken. But the blue text for compressed files is there since win nt. Just enable the feature, then if a file has the blue text it should be compressed as well. At least I've never seen a wrong text color (green for encrypted, blue for compressed) in any windows version. But that said you can have a disk marked as uncompressed while all the files inside it are compressed. Compressed disk means only that any new file inside it will be stored as compressed. Te same logic is applicable to a folder a subfolder and so on. Just enable the blue text and experiment yourself compressing an decompressing some test folders and / or files to understand clearly how it works.
Thanks for the reply..I appreciate it. if you browse to that start menu programs folder, do any of your shortcut icons show the blue arrows that also show as NOT compressed? Just curious. Seems more likely that it's a GUI glitch like you mentioned.
Excellent point... Just did it with the same command and 161,025 files were decompressed... In regular mode, it was about 41,000 Remember that drive letters change in recovery... So, the correct drive has to be entered...