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[Request] Looking for COMPRESS.EXE v1.3 or 1.4

SomeGuySomeGuy
edited November 2017 in Offers & Requests

Earlier version of Microsoft's compress.exe program support a different compression method, supposedly based on PKZip code, and hence kept mostly internal.

So far I have located the following versions:

Microsoft (R) File Compression Utility Version 1.00 - Found in Microsoft Windows 3.0 SDK, but looks a bit different.
Microsoft (R) Compression Utility - Version 1.02 - found in Foxpro Distribution Kit for Windows 2.5a.
Microsoft (R) Compression Utility - Version 1.11 - found in leaked MS-DOS 6 source code on Vetusware.

One comment mentions that 1.3 was floating around out there at one point, but doesn't seem to be out there now.

1.4 should exist, as matching version of DECOMP.EXE are on many Microsoft installation media.

Most of the versions out there are 2.0, which lack the older (and better!) compression method. It seems there is at least a slight difference between files created with 1.11 and 1.4.

Any ideas?

(Edit: Just realized this would be better in requests)

Comments

  • submix8csubmix8c
    edited November 2017

    I have Compress 1.3. Doesn't have anything different that v1.11, though.

    Edit: Hope the attached isn't inappropriate. You know what to do with it.

  • SomeGuySomeGuy

    Thanks!

    Interesting... I am trying to recompress a file on a distribution disk, but it keeps coming out larger than the original. I was expecting this version to have some difference in compression, but it does not.

    That means MS must have used some other utility to compress their distribution files.

  • BattlerBattler

    They used COMPRESS.EXE v1.4, which added KWAJ type 4 compression, which is the same MS-ZIP (ie. Microsoft's implementation of Phil Katz's DEFLATE) that was later used in .CAB's. Unforrtunately, v1.4 seems to be impossible to find. I've been looking for it for over a decade now, to no avail. I have v1.11, v1.2, and v1.3, and maybe even a v1.0x, but not v1.4.

  • sdgyuri08sdgyuri08
    I have managed to create a clone of compress.exe; so far, it supports SZDD, KWAJ 2, and KWAJ 3 compression, and I am currently working on the MSZIP compression added in compress 1.4.
  • roytam1roytam1
    for a python implementation it is not hard.
  • IoriIori
    I have my own clone I created nearly two decades ago. But the KWAJ type 4 files produced are not 100% identical. I use the MS-ZIP code from the Diamond source from the leaked NT 4.0 source code. Unfortunately, even the version in the later leaked NT 3.50.782 source code also already has the 32-bit adapted version, the original 16-bit version that was most likely used in COMPRESSS.EXE 1.4 is still hard to find.
  • IoriIori
    Also, ZLIB produces output that's even more different (but still compatible), which is why I abandoned it after originally trying it. Sadly, the original code used by Microsoft may remain unavailable alongside COMPRESS.EXE 1.4 itself until Microsoft finally decides to open-source the original version of Office 4.3 (not 4.3c which has CAB's).
  • IoriIori
    That said, open-source code for producing KWAJ type 3 files (LZSS+Huffman) would also be nice.
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