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BDD 2007 - Tips and Tricks - Tuning SMS WIM compression

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When testing BDD in a Lab environment or even some customer sites I find that when I update an OSD package it takes a long time for the package to be distributed to the distribution points. This delay is usually due to the time it takes to compress the WIM image (or the network speed). Compressing the WIM strikes me as pointless as the WIM format is already compressed.

Did you know that you can exclude certain file extension types from being compressed by SMS?

You simply need to update the following registry key:

       HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\Compression\DontCompressExts

By default it contains the following extensions:

      ".cab;.zip;.arj;.rar;.jpg;.jpeg;.wma;.wmv;.mpg;.mpeg;.mov"

So just add the WIM extension:

      “cab;.zip;.arj;.rar;.jpg;.jpeg;.wma;.wmv;.mpg;.mpeg;.mov;.wim"

I have found this can make a big difference in lab environments and in those customer sites with overworked SMS servers.

This an extremely simple tip (my favourite type) but hopefully it will save you lots of time.

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Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Vu sur le blog de Ben Hunter (consultant MS en Nouvelle Zélande), voici un tips très utile permettant

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    See Ben's suggestion in his blog . It's really simple to do and will definitely speed things along.

  • Anonymous
    June 15, 2007
    Good tip!! Apparently the registry is only available on primary sites that have child sites hanging off of it.  In my lab, I have a single server environment and the registry key was not available.  But in my lab environment where I have multiple sites, with child sites, the registry key was available on the parent site server.