How to Disable Windows File Compression

This tutorial shows you how to disable the File Compression feature in Microsoft Windows.

Windows 10, 8, 7, and Vista Command

1. Select the “Start” button, then type “CMD“.
2. Right-click “Command Prompt“, then choose “Run as administrator“.
3. If prompted for a password, enter credentials for an account that has administrator rights.
4. Type the following then press “Enter“.
   • fsutil behavior set disablecompression 1

You should receive a message that says “NOTE: Changes to this setting require a reboot to take effect.” Restart the computer to make the change stick.

If you wish to enable it again, you can use the command fsutil behavior set disablecompression 0

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Windows Group Policy

1. From the Group Policy Editor, navigate to “Computer Configuration” > “Administrative Templates” > “System” > “Filesystem” > “NTFS“.
2. Open the “Do not allow compression on all NTFS volumes“.
3. Select the “Enabled” radio button, then select “OK“.

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Windows 2000 and XP NTFS Volumes

1. Hold down the “Windows key” , then press “R“.
2. Type “regedit” and select “OK“.
3. Navigate to the following:
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
   • SYSTEM
   • CurrentControlSet
   • Control
   • FileSystem.
4. Look for an entry on the right side for “NtfsDisableCompression“. If it doesn’t exist, you will need to create it. To do so, right-click on “FileSystem“, then select “New” > “DWORD Value“. Give the value a name of “NtfsDisableCompression“. Press the “Enter” key when you are done.
5. Right-click the “NtfsDisableCompression” entry and click “Modify“.
6. To disable compression set the “Value data” to “1“. (To enable compression again, set the Value data to 0 or delete NftsDisableCompression)
7. Restart the computer to apply changes.

Now when trying to compress a folder, the following error will be produced:

An error occurred applying attributes to the file:
{file path and filename}
Access is denied.