Reduce Size of AI Applications

How to reduce the disk space used by any AI application (Forge, ComfyUI, InvokeAI, Fooocus, SwarmUI, Kohya_SS, etc.) on Windows using real-time file compression.

1. Installation

  1. Download CompactGUI from its official GitHub page.

2. Usage

  1. Run CompactGUI.exe.
  2. Click "Select Target Folder" and choose the folder where your AI tool is installed.
  3. Select your preferred compression mode (LZX is a good default).
  4. (Optional but recommended) Check the box for "Watch folder for changes".
  5. Click the Compress Folder button and wait for it to finish.
CompactGUI interface showing a compressed folder

Popular Questions

Does it affect performance?
It can have a minor performance impact (less than 3%) on old, slow CPUs (e.g., dual-core). On most modern CPUs, the effect is negligible to non-existent.

Does it change or replace the original files?
No. It uses a built-in Windows compression algorithm (like LZX) to compress files on the fly, similar to how a ZIP file works, but you can still access them directly.

Is it possible to uncompress files to their original state?
Yes, you can uncompress the folder at any time using the same tool.

What if already compressed files are changing, like during an update?
When a file is replaced by an update, the new file will be uncompressed. You would need to run the compression process again to re-compress the new and updated files.