Game Compressor news & patch notes

Game Compressor v0.9.9.4

This update is about trust. You told us the app wouldn't close properly, that progress looked frozen, and that savings numbers didn't match what Windows showed. You were right - all three are fixed, and every number the app shows is now measured from disk. And because so many of you wrote to us in your own language, the whole app now speaks 30 languages.

New

• Now available in 30 languages - the entire interface, every dialog and message, is fully translated into 30 languages (Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified & Traditional, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese BR & PT, Romanian, Russian, Spanish ES & LatAm, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese). No more stray English for non-English players. Set it in Settings.

• A friendly, optional review prompt - after you have compressed a few games, a small window invites an honest Steam review (good or bad - it helps us either way) and shows how much space you have reclaimed. You can pick "maybe later" or "don't ask again"; it never nags.

Fixes

• The app now exits properly - closing no longer leaves a hidden compact.exe running (the reason it showed as "Running" in Steam and needed Task Manager). If an operation is active, you choose: finish in the background or cancel safely and exit.

• Savings are measured, never guessed - sizes are re-measured from disk before and after every operation, including re-compressing after game updates. A background check also detects when a game update silently un-compressed your files, so the app never shows phantom savings.

• Real progress - no more frozen window during file counting, byte-weighted progress (a 50 GB pack file counts like 50 GB, not like 1 file), and the old "stuck at 99%" is now a visible "Verifying sizes on disk" step.

• Accurate on every Windows language - compressed sizes are read directly from the filesystem instead of parsing compact.exe text output.

• Interrupted operations self-heal - if the app is terminated mid-operation, the next launch re-checks the game's real state on disk and repairs the records.

• Rescans no longer wipe compression history, favorites or exclusions.

• Library survives early scans at Windows startup - if a scan ran before a drive or launcher was ready, games it couldn't see were dropped and their compression records lost, so everything later showed as "not compressed". Cached games are now preserved unless their folder is truly gone, unreadable databases are never overwritten, and games that are compressed on disk but lost their records heal themselves automatically.

• Queue status no longer vanishes - saving the library was silently resetting live Queued/Compressing states; that's why queued games disappeared from view and compression looked like it "did nothing" while it was actually running. Also, stale queued leftovers from a crashed session are cleaned at startup so games can't get stuck un-compressible.

• Custom folders can always be removed - manually added folders that looked like GOG/Steam installs could never be removed ("Custom folder was not found"). They are now tracked explicitly, always listed under Library Folders as Custom, and removable from Drives or Settings.

• Learn More in the Decompress tab now opens the in-app documentation (it previously did nothing).

• Autostart no longer drags Steam up - old registrations are repaired to start silently in the tray, and Start with Windows is now opt-in (disabled by default).

Improvements

• Honest estimates only - potential savings appear only when the community database has real reports for that exact game. No data? The app says "No community data yet" instead of showing a made-up percentage.

• Estimates come exclusively from GameCompressor users - the estimate database has been rebuilt to contain only results reported by GameCompressor itself, aggregated with medians and stricter validation.

• One-time sharing choice - new users decide during onboarding, existing users are asked once. Only game name + before/after sizes are shared, never personal data. Every shared result improves estimates for everyone.

• Decompress free-space check - the app verifies there is enough room before starting and tells you exactly how much is missing.

• Saved % is visible and sortable - compressed games show their savings percentage, and the library can be sorted by saved percent (community suggestion - thanks!).

Thank you for the honest reviews - they made this release better. Keep them coming.

The v0.9.9.2.1 hotfix is now available.

This update focuses on the issues reported after the v0.9.9.2 release. Thanks to everyone who took the time to report them.

Compression Queue

• Stuck compression jobs are now detected automatically.

• Failed jobs no longer block the rest of the queue.

• Failed jobs are now clearly shown in the queue and through notifications.

• If a compression fails because of a permission issue, the app will suggest restarting as administrator.

Closing the App

• “Minimize to tray” is now disabled by default.

• Clicking the X button now fully closes the app.

• Steam should no longer show Game Compressor as still running after it has been closed.

• “Exit” is now the default option in the close confirmation window.

Game Library

• Disabling “Scan all drives” now prevents Game Compressor from scanning every local drive.

• Steam, Epic Games, GOG, and manually added folders will still be detected.

• Games whose folders have been deleted are now removed from the library.

• Games stored on disconnected USB drives or temporarily unavailable network drives will remain in the library.

• GOG games should now be detected correctly.

• Manually added games without a detected platform will now appear as “Custom” instead of “Unknown.”

Interface Improvements

• The “Recently Completed — ALL” button now opens the Activity page.

• Window position, size, and maximized state are now remembered.

• The app will automatically reposition the window if it opens outside the visible screen area.

• The Game Library can now be sorted by name and potential savings.

• Your selected sorting option will be remembered.

• Scroll position and active filters are now preserved when switching between pages.

Localization

Seven new interface texts were added in English and Turkish.

The other supported languages will temporarily display these new texts in English until their translations are added.

Thanks again to everyone who reported these issues. Please let us know if you still experience any of them after installing the hotfix.

🐛 Fixes

• CRITICAL: Fixed high CPU and RAM usage while the application was idle, especially during the first launch after an update.

• Fixed an issue where recompression tasks from the Updates tab could become stuck in the queue. Unresponsive processes are now terminated with a safe timeout, preventing the queue from locking up.

• The “Auto Detect Game Libraries” setting is now saved correctly and works as intended. When disabled, existing and compressed games remain preserved.

• Fixed an issue where the application could continue running after the window was closed. When minimizing to the system tray is disabled, closing the window now fully terminates the application.

🎮 Game Compressor v0.9.9 — Major Update

Game Compressor v0.9.9 is now available.

This update is the most comprehensive version of Game Compressor to date. The application’s interface, game analysis system, compression queue, update management, decompression tools, and localization infrastructure have all been rebuilt from the ground up.

The main goal of the new version is not merely to compress games, but to show you which games may be worth compressing before the process begins, manage multiple games in a controlled manner, and easily recover disk space lost after game updates.

✨ New Features

• Potential Space Savings Estimate: Before compressing a game, you can see approximately how much disk space you may save based on community data. By analyzing your library, you can easily identify the games with the highest potential.

• Compress All: You can add all uncompressed games to the queue with a single click. To keep system usage more controlled, tasks are processed sequentially, starting with smaller games.

• Updates Tab: Games that have received an update or patch since their last compression are detected automatically. You can recompress changed games individually or in bulk.

• Smart Recompression: After a game update, only newly added or modified files are processed. This means only the necessary data is optimized instead of recompressing the entire game.

• Add to Queue System: Other games can be added to the queue while a compression task is in progress. Games are processed in the order in which you add them.

• Automatic Shutdown After Completion: With the “Shut down when finished” option on the Queue screen, you can have your computer shut down automatically once all tasks have been completed. The shutdown can be cancelled before it begins.

• Compression History: Compression and recompression tasks performed for each game can be viewed on a chronological timeline.

• First-Launch Introduction Tour: A step-by-step onboarding guide has been added to help new users quickly learn the basic workflow.

• How to Use Tab: A comprehensive user guide has been added, explaining the application’s screens, buttons, indicators, and basic usage flow.

• Support for More Than 30 Languages: The application interface and essential usage text have been localized into more than 30 languages.

🛠️ Improvements

• Completely Redesigned Interface: Game Compressor has been redesigned with a modern, animated, and easier-to-understand interface. Light, dark, and system themes have been added.

• Drives Screen: Library capacity bars are now calculated according to the folders’ actual data size rather than the number of games.

• Queue Screen: A true FIFO processing order, live CPU, disk, and memory usage, recently completed tasks, and a library summary have been added.

• Decompress Screen: Live progress, elapsed time, estimated remaining time, and a scrollable game list have been added.

• Settings Screen: The selected theme is now highlighted more clearly. New menus containing options to open game-library folders and remove them from the list have been added.

• Overview Screen: The disk list is now scrollable for users with multiple drives.

• Improved Estimation Infrastructure: Matching accuracy has been improved for game names containing accented, Cyrillic, CJK, and other character sets. The downloading and processing of estimation data have also been accelerated.

• General Performance and Visual Improvements: Numerous improvements have been made to screen alignment, animations, scrolling, and the overall user experience.

🐛 Critical Fixes

• Compression Status Loss Issue Resolved: In previous versions, some compressed games could appear as “uncompressed” after the application was closed and reopened. This issue has been fully resolved.

• Accurate LZX Size Measurement: The actual disk usage of files compressed with LZX and CompactOS is now measured correctly. Compression status is retained when the application restarts and when a game receives an update.

• Automatic Repair: Games that appeared uncompressed because their record information was lost in the previous version are automatically recognized again during the first scan after the update. These games were already compressed on disk; only their status information within the application had been lost.

• Activity Text Overflow: Text overflow occurring on the Activity screen at small window sizes has been fixed.

• Interface Fixes: Various alignment, scrolling, visibility, and visual consistency issues have been resolved.

⚠️ About Early Access and the Estimation System

Game Compressor is still in Early Access. Although the application’s core structure has been substantially renewed with v0.9.9, some features are still being developed and improved using real user data.

The Potential Space Savings Estimate is a preliminary assessment, not a definitive result. The displayed values are calculated using compression results shared by the community, game-name matches, and currently available analysis data.

The actual compression result may differ from the estimate depending on the following factors:

• The installed version of the game and the updates it has received

• Downloaded language packs, DLC, and additional content

• The game’s file structure and the existing compression methods used by the developer

• User-specific or subsequently added files within the game folder

• Community data not yet being available or belonging to a different version of the game

For some games, a potential value may not be displayed, may have low accuracy, or may differ from the actual result. The final space saved is measured by the application using actual disk usage after compression has been completed.

You can choose to share anonymous compression data to help improve the accuracy of the estimation system. Shared data helps other users of the same game see more accurate estimates in the future.

🔄 Recommended Usage Flow

• Open Game Compressor and scan your game library.

• Review the potential space savings.

• Select the games worth compressing or add all of them to the queue.

• Continue using your games normally.

• Check the Updates tab after major game updates.

• When necessary, completely undo compression from the Decompress screen.

💚 Thank You

We would like to thank everyone who uses Game Compressor, reports bugs, shares suggestions, and contributes to the project with compression data.

v0.9.9 is the biggest step yet toward turning Game Compressor into a more reliable, easier-to-understand, and more sustainable game-storage tool. We will continue improving the application throughout Early Access by taking your feedback into account.

Hey guys! first of all, a massive thank you for all the feedback and bug reports over the last few days. ive been working non-stop to fix the most annoying issues u guys mentioned, and here is patch 0.9.1!

here is what we got in this update:

✨ New features & library support

• Massive library detection:

game compressor now automatically detects almost everything! we added full support for xbox (game pass), ubisoft connect, ea app, battle.net, riot games, rockstar games, and amazon games alongside steam, epic, and gog.

• Cancel Button: You asked for it, and its finally here. u can now cancel an ongoing compression process anytime u want.

• Custom Folders: The custom folders u added manually will now actually stay saved and visible in the app even after u close it.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• The "amnesia" bug is dead: the annoying issue where the app would forget which games u already compressed and show them as "compress" again after a restart? completely fixed. it remembers everything properly now.

• The "ghost app" fix: Fixed the bug where the app wouldnt close properly and kept running in the background, forcing u to kill it from the task manager or steam. it closes normally now.

thanks again for all your patience and support. keep the feedback coming, im reading all of it and planning the next updates. take care!

Hello everyone,

I would like to sincerely thank you for your interest in Game Compressor and for all your feedback. Every comment, whether positive or negative, is crucial for steering the project in the right direction.

I am aware of the stability issues you have experienced. Based on your suggestions and reports, the application is being thoroughly reviewed from start to finish; it is being prepared for the full release with a more stable and reliable architecture.

At the same time, we are in the process of developing two new products:

🎮 Game Frame

We are focusing on a model that can operate consistently across all hardware configurations in the frame generation field. Development is progressing well.

🧠 Game Memory

R&D efforts are ongoing to use existing memory more intelligently and improve game performance, taking into account the rising costs of RAM.

📅 6-Month Roadmap

① Game Compressor — Stable version update with comprehensive bug fixes and new features

② Game Frame — Early access launch and analysis of performance data

③ Game Memory — Early access launch following completion of the R&D phase

④ Game Compressor — Full release

⑤ Game Frame — Full release

⑥ Game Memory — Full release

Since I’m trying to keep up with three projects at the same time, some of your questions may have gone unanswered; I apologize for that.

My goal is to ensure that every player can access their games seamlessly, regardless of hardware limitations. I’m continuing to work toward this goal.

Thank you all for your support.

Hello everyone! Thanks to your amazing feedback, we are thrilled to release Update v0.9. This patch completely overhauls the UI for a more premium feel, adds highly requested features, and fixes critical bugs. We are now one step closer to the Full Release!

Here is everything new in this update:

✨ New Features

• Light Theme Added: You can now switch between Dark and Light themes from the Settings page. All UI components are fully optimized for both.

• Advanced Library Sorting: You can now sort your Game Library by Activity, Name (A-Z), Size, Last Played, Compression Ratio, and Platform.

• High-Resolution Game Icons: We’ve integrated native Win32 Shell APIs (IShellItemImageFactory) to fetch crystal-clear, HD icons (up to 256x256) for all your games.

🖥️ Window & UI Improvements

• Native Windows 11 Behavior: Integrated WindowChrome + DWM. Minimizing, maximizing, and restoring now feature the smooth, native Windows animations (just like File Explorer or Chrome).

• Snap Layouts Support: Hovering over the maximize button now properly triggers the Windows 11 Snap panel.

• Improved Resizing: Dragging from the edges to resize the window is now much easier and more responsive.

• Scrollbar Overhaul: Updated the scrollbar design in Filter/Sort dropdowns to match the overall sleek aesthetic.

🔧 Bug Fixes

• Decompress Fix: Uncompressing now works flawlessly!

• Theme Saving Fix: Fixed a bug where the app would forcefully revert to the Dark Theme every time you entered the Settings page.

• Icon Mix-ups Resolved: Completely rewrote the cache key system. Fixed an issue where VALORANT would show the League of Legends icon. Added custom .exe paths for popular titles like CS2, LoL, Overwatch, and GTA V.

• Fullscreen Gap Fix: Removed the transparent gaps that appeared in the corners when the app was maximized.

• Tooltip Fix: Removed the annoying "Welcome \" tooltip that constantly popped up while hovering.

• Text Overflow Fix: Fixed translation text overflowing in the dashboard's pie chart.

⚙️ System & Game Detection

• Cleaned Game List: Utility tools like "Game Compressor" itself and "Steamworks Common Redistributables" are now hidden from the game library.

Thank you for your continuous support. Enjoy the update! 🚀