Compressing files and folders to save space

Windows XP has a built in compression utility which you can use to save valuable space on your hard disk. Working similarly to compression programs such as WinZip and WinRar, the built in software reduces the space your files take up on the disk at the penalty of increased disk access time for the compressed files. There are two ways that I know to compressing data on your system:

1. If you have a folder having you files in it and you would like to compress it, just right click on the folder, select properties -> ‘advanced' button at the bottom. There you can see two check boxes under 'Compress or Encrypt attributes'. Check the 'compress contents to save disk space' option and then click ‘OK’.

2. Similarly, if you wish to create a compressed folder for a file or folder separate from the one it is in now, right click on the item that you wish to compress and choose 'send to compressed (zipped) folder' This will create a new separate compressed folder in the same location as the original file or folder having less space than the original file or a folders.