Announcement: Wizard "Squeezer" Program

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edhaas

Senior Member
Feb 19, 2006
424
10
New York City
www.edwardhaas.com
Hi All,

Welcome to the Rom-Packer "Squeezer" module!


This was originally included with my Wizard Rom-Packer kitchen, but as the technology is applicable to most programs installed in the Wizard (or actually most devices), in either storage memory or SD card, I have decided to release it to the wider community of non-cookers.

This program uses the open source program UPX to compress .exe files. The compression is quite remarkable. Generally the files end up less than half their original size. I have tested the process on all the main Office programs, and they work fine. The loading speed of the programs is actually improved, because the storage memory is so much slower than ram memory, so the time gained by transferring a smaller amount of data from the storage memory to ram when you run the program is more than enough to make up for the time spent uncompressing in ram.

The larger programs really seem to "pop" in comparison. Besides the Office programs, I have tested it on apps such as: eWallet, iSilo, ListPro, and Skype and found it works well, speeding load times with a smaller storage and SD card footprint.

The process "may" work with some .dll files as well, but I haven't tested them as extensively. A few programs will not work well in this mode, or refuse to load, so keep the original copies as backups. You will also find a few programs (adobe reader, pocketXpdf) which have already been compressed with this technology!

So, here's what you do:

1) Make sure the original program is installed correctly.
2) Locate the .exe file which was installed in Program Files in your PDA or the SD card.
3) Save a copy of this file somewhere in case it doesn't work.
4) Copy all the .exe files you want to compress into the SqueezeRoom directory.
5) Run Squeezem.bat
6) Take the compressed files out of the SqueezeRoom directory and replace the originals with those.
7) Run the program in the usual way. If all is well, Great! you're done!
8) If there's a problem, you can try a soft-reset before undoing the experiment.
9) If that doesn't help, copy the copy you made in step 3 back to the original location, overwriting the compressed copy.

Of course, I strongly recommend that you run a good backup utility, such as SPB backup, before beginning, just in case you make a big mistake somewhere.

Rapidshare Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/33717970/Rom-Packer_Squeezer.rar

Have fun!
 
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freeyayo50

Senior Member
Aug 25, 2006
485
5
NY
Have you tried compressing dll files before?? I read the readme file...but since you wrote it, have you tested them.
 

freeyayo50

Senior Member
Aug 25, 2006
485
5
NY
This program is amazing!!! I can see a notable increase in performance on my device. I compressed about almost all my apps (about 25-30 exe's) and about 5-8 dll's. So far the dll's that I have compressed have been working.

You can see a huge increase in performance the bigger the exe file is. Apps like Wisbar/WAD start up about 3-4 sec faster,
Opera about 3 sec (4MB compressed down to 1.7MB)
AIM 2 sec faster
Camera.exe maybe 1 sec (I couldn't really tell the difference)
Verichat 2 sec
FoxitReader 2-3 sec
IM+ 3-4 sec
SPB Imageer 2-3 sec
Resco Radio 2 sec
Total Commander 1-2 sec
Midlet Manager(jmm.exe) 2 sec faster
and calculator.exe seems to pop open :).
When it comes to games, which usually are 2-4MB in size, they open 4-7 sec faster than normal. One of my games was 4MB than shrunk down to about 1.4MB after compressed.

This program also saves a crazy amount of space as well. My main memory free space before was 6.5MB, than after compression, increased to 11.8MB :)
It also seems like there is more free RAM than normal, but I'm still veiwing that. Posted some SS of compressed file sizes.
 

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freeyayo50

Senior Member
Aug 25, 2006
485
5
NY
I just discovered that .cpl(Control Panel Extension) files can also be compressed. I just compressed SoftKeyAppletEx.cpl and ThemeManager.cpl for those who know what they are. They still work after compression. There not that big but I get about 50-60% compression from them.
 

edhaas

Senior Member
Feb 19, 2006
424
10
New York City
www.edwardhaas.com
Great finds!

Wow, freeyayo50!

Great finds, and thanks for reporting them. It's great to see this little bugger being useful!

BTW, You're packing a lot into your machine! Do you use an sd card?

Best wishes,
 
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freeyayo50

Senior Member
Aug 25, 2006
485
5
NY
Wow, freeyayo50!

Great finds, and thanks for reporting them. It's great to see this little bugger being useful!

BTW, You're packing a lot into your machine! Do you use an sd card?

Best wishes,

Thanx, just tryin to help out the community :).

And yes, I am using a 1GB Mini SD card. I use it to hold most of my apps and all my music.
I dont understand why developers dont use this. So far everything that I have compressed has been working perfectly fine. I just luv how much space this thing saves.
 

ivanwinkel

Member
Aug 26, 2006
27
0
42
as of now i'am building an rom with all dll and exe and cpl upx-ed. Just finished packing and now Build os is building. then i will try if it will run
 

Andy Phillips

Senior Member
Nov 13, 2006
103
2
Derby
Email App?

Anybody know which app controls the email accounts?
I use the blackberry client and it takes forever to load up..even when in the background! Creating new mail also takes it's own sweet time!
Would love to squeeeeze a bit more performance out of my wizard!
;)
 

freeyayo50

Senior Member
Aug 25, 2006
485
5
NY
Anybody know which app controls the email accounts?
I use the blackberry client and it takes forever to load up..even when in the background! Creating new mail also takes it's own sweet time!
Would love to squeeeeze a bit more performance out of my wizard!
;)

I believe you may be talking about the tmail.exe in the \Windows folder.
 

edhaas

Senior Member
Feb 19, 2006
424
10
New York City
www.edwardhaas.com
main OS dlls and exe SOULD NOT be compressed with upx.....this was tested ages ago by rom cookers it will cause problems....true some files can be upx you should leave the OS files alone.

Thanks for the tip, faria!

(Translation: Avoid messing with the sys\os subdirectory, and be careful with the others. Most of these apps are small, so you wouldn't be gaining much anyway.)
 

kadooosh

Senior Member
Apr 1, 2007
106
2
wow nice program thanks!
doesnt work with tomtom btw crashes when I start it
 
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igalan

Senior Member
Jan 23, 2007
216
5
Barcelona
Tested and working with opera.dll from Opera 8.60u2. It's a huge 5 MB file that once compressed is less than 2 MB :) . There seems to be no side effects, besides saving over 3 MB of storage. Great program!
 

kadooosh

Senior Member
Apr 1, 2007
106
2
Hi, It worked with my TomTom!? I'm pretty sure I compressed it. Just the main .exe, not any of the supporting stuff. I'll double check it when I get home tonight, (or tomorrow to be honest, I have a big project for school right now)

oh I just noticed my old exe didnt work either.. must be cause I installed wm6 :(

moprhgear doesnt work either(emulator)
 
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