Should I delete my compress old files

Question

I'm about to run a Disk Cleanup and I was wondering, what are "compress old files"? I'm trying to free up some space on my computer but I don't want to delete anything my parents or I will need.

Answer 1

Compressing old files takes files that haven't been touched in awhile and shrinks them to take up less space on the hard drive. They aren't deleted, but there is a trade off. Compressed files are slower to access.

Answer 2

I always delete mine coz I'm really desperate with space on my hard disk and up until now I am  not having any problems.