Any folder location
Text Colour is blue = Compressed file or folder
Compress old files means that some files the windows system thinks you havnt accessed for a while (such as files in 'program files' or 'WINDOWS') gets compressed. this will not move the files to a 'zip' or '7zip' files. itll just be compressed in the folder it was in!!!!!!
On the hard drive with uncompressed files.
When you upgrade Windows it creates a folder called windows.old
\Windows
Run the disk cleanup wizard. The wizard can be found from start menu Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup Run the wizard and select the drive u want to cleanup If there are compressed old files in ur system, they can be removed at the end of the wizard.
yes, your old windows folder will be renamed to windows.old your program files, documents and settings folder will also be move to that folder as well.
for getting rid of that obscene check box for Compressed files in Disk Cleanup Wizard:FOR WIN 2000 / XP>1. Type Regedit in Start - Run>2. Navigate to>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Volume Caches>3. Open "Compress Old Files" folder>4. Delete all files in this folder>5. Reboot>6. Run Disk Cleanup'Export' the registry entries to a file before you delete them so you can restore this functionality if you ever need to. The export is available in Regedit
For doing this simply, select full clean install while Installing 7. This will enable you to first format your drives, create new partitions if you wish to and have a freshly installed Windows 7. Further, if you upgrade from Vista keeping your files and docs intact, the old Windows' folder will be replaced by new one. So you cannot then delete it.
Something in the folder is causing windows to crash. Try to copy the folder and see if the new folder has the same problem. If it still does, it means the old folder is fine and the contents of the folder are the problem. Try getting into the folder using the Command Prompt. If you can get in, try to save your files by copying them out of the folder to a different folder. You may be able to figure out which file or files are the problem from here. The problem file(s) will probably need to be deleted. If the bad file(s) are important to you, before deleting them, you can try to open them with Notepad or Wordpad and then save what you can.
it might increase the speed of the computer by a little. It is hardly noticable, but you would want to see what files are compressed.
Windows.Old folder
DOS Prompt, then Del Windows. Or manually. It depends on your OS.