With the aid of its AI coding assistant tools, Microsoft is promisingeasier legacy compatibilityandbetter performance on Windows 11. In the meantime, users can try some of the already-available utilities the OS offers, which can boost system performance, especially on weaker hardware. These includeoptimal configuration of startup appsand Smart App Control, which nolonger needs a clean installto work.
While those can help systems with a less-capable CPU or low memory, a fast drive can help with the I/O part, which can be just as important for a snappy system. In fact, perhaps surprisingly, thelatest performance data suggeststhat the fastest available NVMe SSDs may not have any notable advantage even over SATA. However, SSDs are very expensive these days alongside RAM, and as such, any amount of disk saved can be of great help to users.
Recently, a user was digging through Windows documentation and came to know about Compact OS, a built-in Windows feature that lets you run the OS on compressed system files.
As Microsoft explains, Compact OS essentially stores Windows system files in a compressed form rather than keeping them uncompressed on the drive. This can significantly reduce the operating system's disk footprint, making the feature pretty useful for devices with limited storage and memory. Microsoft designed Compact OS for precisely this kind of scenario, and the company says it can be used on both UEFI- and BIOS-based systems.
This is another useful built-in Windows tool that helps save space,similar to Disk Cleanup, except this one is aimed more towards the IT and power users.
Microsoft also provides Compact.exe for checking and changing the system's Compact OS state. For example, users can open an elevated Command Prompt and runCompact.exe /CompactOS:queryto check the current state. Microsoft also documentsCompact.exe /CompactOS:alwaysfor enabling Compact OS, while/CompactOS:nevercan be used to return the system to its normal state.
Microsoft's own older size comparisons show just how much space this can potentially save. On a Windows 10 x64 installation with 4GB of memory, the company recorded a footprint of around 15.06GB without Compact OS, compared with about 11.3GB when using Compact OS. With single-instancing enabled as well, the figure dropped to around 10.09GB.
Of course, Compact OS is not something every Windows 11 user necessarily needs. Modern PCs with large SSDs have plenty of storage, and compressing system files also means Windows has to handle those files differently, which may put additional strain elsewhere.
There is also a much easier way to take advantage of Microsoft's compression technology if the goal is simply to reclaim storage from applications. We previously coveredCompactGUI, a free utility based on Windows' official Compact OS and NTFS compression capabilities that provides a graphical interface for compressing installed games and applications. As such, you won't need to manually deal with commands, as CompactGUI lets users select folders and choose compression settings from a much simpler interface.
You can check out Microsoft's official documentation about CompactOS on itsLearn website(spotted by No-1nternet onReddit).