João has been covering the tech world for over 7 years, with a heavy focus on laptops and the Windows ecosystem. I also love all things tech and videogames, especially Nintendo, which he's always happy to talk about.
Prior to joining XDA in 2021, he worked at Neowin: https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/jo%C3%A3o-carrasqueira/
Running out of space on your PC is one of the most frustrating parts of using a computer, and it's bound to happen when you opt for the cheaper tiers of a given laptop. Especially in 2026, with the insane costs of storage and RAM, those savings can be all the more tempting, but it comes with some sacrifices down the line.
However, Windows 11 has a feature that can help with this, and unless you're paying attention, you might not have known it was even there. You can compress the majority of files on your drive to save space without sacrificing usability. I did just that, and it allowed my laptop to get back X GB of space without much of a downside.
NTFS drive compression can save a lot of space
You can just make files smaller
You're probably familiar with compressing files into archives, which can make them easier to share. Windows 11's NTFS compression doesn't work exactly like that because, to you, all the files look and function exactly the same. You're not going to be extracting and archiving files manually every time.
However, NTFS compression can save a lot of space by compressing files behind the scenes. All your data is stored in a more compact way until you need to access a specific file, at which point it gets decompressed on the fly for you to use. However, the file itself doesn't change in terms of how it looks or functions. It takes up less space, but it works just the same.
You can enable compression for a drive relatively easily by opening File Explorer, going to This PC, right-clicking the drive of your choice, and choosing Properties. If you drive is using the NTFS file system, you should see the option to compress files on the drive to save space near the bottom of the Properties window.
Depending on how much data you already have on the PC, this can take quite a while. When I tried enabling it for my laptop with 333GB of data in use, Windows predicted it would take over 9 hours to compress every file, though it ended up only taking around two hours. Still, it takes a bit of time if you have a lot of data. Some files may also be unable to be compressed if they're somehow important for the system to function.
By the end of the compression work, my PC had gained back 68GB of free space on that drive, which is nothing short of impressive. A lot of documents can fit in that much space. Of course, once compression is enabled, files written to the drive in the future are automatically compressed, too.
It's not without downsides
But they should be minimal on modern PCs
Drive compression has a pretty clear advantage, but as with most technologies, no benefit comes without some kind of drawback. Compression can save space, but it also means every file on your PC will have to be compressed before being written and then decompressed before being used again.
That compression and decompression is typically done by your CPU, and it can use up some of your processor cycles, taking slightly longer to open the file than you otherwise would.
It may sound like a problem, but on most modern computers and with most files, this is actually completely fine. Compressing and decompressing files is done fast enough that you won't notice much of a difference in loading times, and once a file is loaded, it doesn't need to be decompressed again while you're using it. If you have a slower or older PC, however, it may be worth it to think about whether compression will make things feel slower.
You can compress select files or folders
It doesn't have to be the whole drive
If you find that compressing an entire drive has negative effects on performance with your particular PC, you can always opt not to compress the entire drive and instead focus on files that don't require particularly high access speeds. Just compressing some documents or your downloads folder can save you a good bit of space without hurting the overall experience.
Compressing a folder instead of the whole drive requires a couple of extra seconds since you need to first open the Advanced options window after getting into the properties dialog. Otherwise, it works similarly.
When you choose to compress a folder or a drive, you can also choose whether compression applies to its subfolders, so you have more control over what gets compressed and what doesn't. If you want specific data to be compressed, you can always create the folder first, enable compression for it, and start using it for any files and folders you want to compress in the future. That way, the initial setup is instant and the benefits show up more over time.
Take back your storage
In the current era of ridiculous storage costs, saving storage space on your PC is more important than ever, and Windows 11's drive compression is an easy way to go about it that has minimal impact on your experience. Yes, technically, compressing and decompressing files can take some time, but most modern computers aren't starved for processing power, and you'll barely notice a difference.