Built-in way to compress a file from the command line in Vista?

[Kadence]

Is there any way in Vista to compress files from the command line without installing extra software? I have Vista 64.

 

[Kadence]

Anyone know if Vista has this feature?

 

[Fardringle]

You can do it with WinZIP, WinRAR, 7-ZIP, and any of a plethora of other compression tools, but as far as I can tell there isn't a way to do it natively in Vista.

 

[bwatson283]

http://www.experts-exchange.co.../WinXP/Q_21678843.html

Scroll to the bottom of the page for the answers.

or

http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/

 

[Kadence]

Thanks Fardringle, I was hoping there was a native way to do it.

Originally posted by: bwatson283
http://www.experts-exchange.co.../WinXP/Q_21678843.html

Scroll to the bottom of the page for the answers.

or

http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/

It pretty much goes without saying that yes, obviously I googled before posting this thread. Clearly I didn't find what I would have considered a satisfactory answer from that.

I can't see the answer you're referring to because I don't have an account at that site. As far as I know dll's can't be used from the command line like that, and I couldn't find any reference to zipfldr.dll working in that fashion.

 

[GaryJohnson]

Is this what you're looking for?

C:\>compact /?
Displays or alters the compression of files on NTFS partitions.

COMPACT [/C | /U] [/S[:dir]] [/A] [/i] [/F] [/quote] [filename [...]]

/C Compresses the specified files. Directories will be marked so that files added afterward will be compressed.
/U Uncompresses the specified files. Directories will be marked so that files added afterward will not be compressed.
/S Performs the specified operation on files in the given directory and all subdirectories. Default "dir" is the current directory.
/A Displays files with the hidden or system attributes. These files are omitted by default.
/I Continues performing the specified operation even after errors have occurred. By default, COMPACT stops when an error is encountered.
/F Forces the compress operation on all specified files, even those which are already compressed. Already-compressed files are skipped by default.
/Q Reports only the most essential information.
filename Specifies a pattern, file, or directory.

Used without parameters, COMPACT displays the compression state of the current directory and any files it contains. You may use multiple filenames and wildcards. You must put spaces between multiple parameters.

 

[Kadence]

Sorry for not responding earlier. Compress is a neat thing, thanks. But I didn't properly word what I was looking for - I was actually more looking for something that can zip multiple files together into one file. Compact can compress files, but I don't think it can join them together into a single file like zipping does.

So am I right in saying that the basically the answer is no to what I'm looking for (a native way to compress files together), and you have to install WinZip or something?

 

[Peter Trend]

It seems so yes. And unfortunately 32bit shell extensions don't work in 64 bit explorer.exe so you won't be able to right click>"add to zip" (at least without some serious thought; I gave up trying).

FilZip does the job pretty well for free (but it was better in 32 bit because of the shell extension)