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Make Smaller guide

Choose a Make Smaller Quality Profile

Understand Preserve quality, Balanced and Smallest size, then choose a suitable starting point for your file.

By Osenpa · Updated
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Short answer

Start with Preserve quality when content quality must stay unchanged. Try Balanced for everyday sharing when some quality reduction is acceptable. Smallest size prioritizes size and can reduce visible quality or resolution. Compare every output; a stronger profile does not guarantee a smaller file.

Before you start

  • Make Smaller on Windows 11 24H2 or later, x64, with an active license.
  • The original file and an app that can open it for comparison.

Start here

  1. Decide what must stay unchanged

    Keep the original for editing, archiving or high-quality playback. If no additional quality loss is acceptable, choose Preserve quality in File Explorer's Make Smaller menu.

  2. Try Balanced for sharing

    For a smaller viewing or listening copy, select the original again and choose Make Smaller, then Balanced. Depending on the format and content, the app may adjust images, audio or video within that profile's limits.

  3. Inspect the output

    Use Show in folder and compare fine detail, small text, colors, motion or sound as appropriate. Check any reported resizing or media adjustments.

  4. Try Smallest size only if needed

    Run Smallest size from the original when further quality or resolution reduction is acceptable. Avoid repeatedly processing already reduced copies, which can compound quality loss.

  5. Keep the suitable version

    Compare the achieved size and quality rather than choosing by the filename alone. There is no target-MB setting; check the resulting bytes yourself if an upload has a hard limit.

Check your result

  • The output preserves the detail and behavior needed for its intended use.
  • The file meets any upload limit after processing.
  • The original remains available for a different profile or future editing.

Why a stronger profile may preserve quality

A file can require a lossless method because of its format, metadata, animation, signature or other features. The result explains when its quality and content were preserved instead of applying the requested quality reduction.

ZIP and 7z archives are recompressed without changing the files inside. Choosing Smallest size does not resize pictures stored in an ordinary archive.

How much reduction is enough?

For a lossless result, the saving must reach both 4 KiB and 0.1% of the input size. A result that applies quality loss must save both 4 KiB and 5%. Otherwise no extra copy is published.

These are acceptance thresholds, not promised compression ratios. The method actually applied matters: a lossless fallback uses the lossless threshold even when you selected Balanced or Smallest size.

The app used in this guide

Make Smaller

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Related guides

Sources and further reading