For example, if you want to compress all the files inside a directory (including sub directories): go to a "Command Prompt," change to the directory you want to compress, and type:
COMACT /C /S
To see which files and directories has been compressed so far, type:
COMPACT
Compressed files will be decompressed on the fly by Windows as necessary. But, if you want to remove compression for a particular file altogether (for example, to reduce the processing time required to decompress certain files) type:
COMPACT /U