Suggestion to the author...

[FireOnMyHeart]

I packed all the total commander executable and dll with upx --best option and I guess that the final shareware installer could be 1.44 floppy storable without any problem.

[ghisler(Author)]

Hmm, which UPX version? I'm using UPX 1.24w. There seems to be a new 1.25 version, but I doubt that it brings so much improvement over 1.24w. Are you using the experimental version 1.9x?

[Flint]

AFAIK, it is not recommended to pack programs with EXE-packers under Windows. I've read some article about ways of compressing and decompressing EXEs and DLLs, it tells that when starting the same EXE (not packed) or using the same DLL from several applications, Windows loads its program code only once, because it is not changed. Only data memories are different for different instances. So, the memory is used more efficiently. But when someone uses EXE-packer, the program code is changed during startup. So, Windows cannot be sure that the result will be the same and it has to allocate another memory block for new application/DLL instance. Third run - third memory block for program code and so on.

Now only totalcmd.exe is packed with UPX, so only its code is duplicated in memory when several TC instances are running. If all DLLs will be packed, they all will also be duplicated. Not a good idea if you don't have much RAM on your computer...

BTW, the installer is packed by itself. So compressing DLLs and EXEs that are present in it, can hardly lead to significant decreasing of installer EXE file size...