XP turn off compress old files feature when doing disc cleanup?

[rive22]

Does anybody know how to disable this function? With NTFS volumes, when I go into disc cleanup it calculates how much space I can gain from compressing files. That takes up too much time, so I want to disable it. Anybody know how I can do it? I'm talking about disabling the actual scan of the files it wants to compress, not the actual checking of the box that compresses them. Know what I mean? Thanks :)

[rive22]

anybody know how to do this?

[Phoenix86]

Turn the feature off. It's the number on reason I don't recommend anyone use the disk cleanup w/o knowing about this option.

You do not need to compress old files, and it will slow the system down to a degree. If you need more disk space, buy a larger HDD.

edit: reading comp. - - :(

Sorry I don't know a specific place to disable this part of the scan. Now that I think about it, let me ask a better question. Why? Is this for 'users' and not for you?

[rive22]

Turn the feature off. It's the number on reason I don't recommend anyone use the disk cleanup w/o knowing about this option.

that's what i'm trying to figure out how to do?

[OldMX]

Why use disk cleanup when you can use Crap Cleaner (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4191.html) which does a great job? :D

OldMX

[Phoenix86]

OK, forget why, lets just look at what this useless app does and go from there...

1. Downloaded program files. You probably want to keep these if you use them, or they will have to download again, also on my work machine, it's gathered a whole 624k in downloaded program files with about 1.5 years on the load.

2. Temporary internet files. Why delete your cache? save space? no, it's just going to refill as soon as you surf the web. The only reason to clear you cache is to clear BAD cached files. If you want to limit the space of cached files, fine, but that's not done here.

3. Recycle Bin. No thanks, I'll clean that on my own.

4. Temporary remote desktop files. OK, slight use here.... IF you use RD, I do, and have about 24MB I could recover.

5. Setup log files. WOW a whole 2k there...

See where I'm going with this? Your either NOT recovering space, or the space you recover will just get filled back up because it's cache. At best, you recover a little disk space. At worse, you lose important data (recycle bin), or you compress old files and slow the machine down.

The one or two locations it actually does clean can be done manually (temp folder), but even these are not set by default, requiring the user to make changes anyways.

[PsycoGeek]

anybody know how to do this?

Open regedit. Go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress Old Files

Delete the default data.

[rive22]

Thanks psychogeek, it works wonders now. opens fast and like a charm without that slow feature in the way :)

Thanks Phoenix for you input, very helpful. Though, I only wanted to know how to disable this feature because I like to go into the disk cleanup utility just to occassionally monitor my cache sizes and see where they are at. I never delete any of that stuff except for maybe the windows temp folder. It's just a pain having that compress files scan feature turned on because it would take like a full minute to load sometimes before going into the utility and that just sucks. Other than that, if I really want to clean out my crap, I'll use System Mechanic 4.

Thanks guys :)