Replacement of front Bilsteins

I've seen a post about replacement of the front shocks but I can't find it now. My question is instead of taking the front end apart can I just use a spring compressor to remove the coil and shock.

 

What?

are you just replacing the strut itself and keeping the old springs?
Or are you replacing the spring and strut all together?
If your keeping the spring then yes you have to take it off the truck and spring compress it off

 

Just changing the strut/shock, didn't want to disassemble the front end to do it.

 

Well,
tire comes off
sway bar end link comes off (both side)
push sway bar up and out of the way.
Then take the strut out.

 

Don't have to take apart the whole front end. Or what you may consider the front end. Pretty easy once you see how it is taken apart

 

Yep...what he said^^^