Windows starts on a small 3GB file and expands as it loads.
Windows starts on a small 3GB file and expands as it loads.
High compression quality wouldn't come unexpectedly if they handled it directly with binary.
Optimized for the file formats commonly used, with a high volume of generated documents and Windows Update driver files. Microsoft consistently invested effort to ensure the setup runs smoothly on a single disk and accelerates installation. Significant progress was made in this area starting with Vista (Windows 7 and later).
Compression was typically performed in real time, which is why Windows often takes a long time to install. Today’s Microsoft installers simply copy the compressed files and decompress them on the computer, making the process much quicker. This isn’t particularly surprising since you can shrink entire games like San Andreas to just 1 MB using KGB. While higher compression levels mean longer decompression times, it’s still manageable.