Some products recognize an already compressed file, and just add it to the archive with no compression. This speeds processing, and has very little effect on the compressed file size. Decompression Time Decompression time is the total amount of time it takes a user to decompress a set of files or folders. As is the case with compression time, this should include the time to launch the decompression tool, select the archives to decompress, perform the decompression operation, close the compressed file, and exit the application. Some applications give a variety of ways for a user to decompress a file, speeding up the process tremendously.
Some examples are drop boxes, contextual menu's, decompression via renaming and the like.
Additionally, some products can be scripted to run automatically or run at night. In these cases, the decompression time can be discounted as if it didn't exist, since the user isn't there. The default is set to maximum , which means StuffIt will compress as much as it can using the new algorithm. This is a Preference item that can be turned off. Results from fast will be faster to compress but will not be as small.