Please may I have some help starting out?

[BobRogers21]

I think it's fair to say I know very little about compression and how it works. I am used to using using 7zip with LZMA2 selected at "Ultra" in order to get the archive as small as possible.

I am posting here because I would like to learn how to make my own compressed files that are smaller than what 7zip can offer and custom installers built with Inno Setup. I hope you guys can go easy on someone who knows very little.

I've learned so far that each type of file can be compressed using a different compressor, but which one do I use and when?

I've seen that external compressors are added to FreeArc through Arc.ini, but how do I know FreeArc will use these compressors?

Also through Inno Setup, how do you go about adding files for the installation so that the setup actually installs the files? I assume you pack the files first then embed the decompression command(s) inside the setup.exe so that the exe takes the archive accompanied with it and extracts it accordingly. How would you go about using an installer template taken from this website (.iss script) and adding the extra commands and files to compile it into an .exe that will decompress the archive? I have already managed to get my head around compiling scripts in Inno Setup.

I have downloaded several tools from this forum in the hope of figuring things out for myself, to no avail. I am only getting more confused. I've seen tools such as XTool, ZTool, srep, cls and others mentioned frequently. I have also looked at installer templates, such as Black Box, ASIS and CIU.

I'm not looking for anything crazy when I'm talking about this, I just wish to gain better compression than 7zip to reduce upload/download time. Install time is no big deal.

If anyone can link me any tutorials for compressing a file and creating a setup, that would be hugely appreciated.

Finally, I'd like to apologise if anything I've said here is horribly wrong. I'm very new to this, and only wish to learn.

Thank you all in advance.

I'm sorry Moderators if this side of the forum isn't designed for help needed style posts.