Recovering disk space in Win7

[I.M.O.G.]

Ya thanks, I may try it.

For now treesize fits my needs - all I need is a list of what is taking up the most space in a table ordered by size - treesize does that very simply. I looked into windirstat via google, and its based on the same open source libraries as some linux equivalents (it appears), which I've used in the past. They do the same graphical presentation stuff.

 

[c627627]

I want to right click on a folder/drive and get a super-quick idea of what is going on.

Show me how windirstat can do what Treesize does for me:

1.

2.

 

[medo145]

there is an option to just scan a folder when you open up the application



Let's face it, when you are wondering about missing space, you are going to scan your entire drive, not just a certain folder.

Regardless, I don't think you would accept that as an answer and would say that takes extra clicks.

So with a couple of min of work, here is what you are looking for




To get that context menu, fire up regedit and go to

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell

create a new key called windirstat

set the (default) string on the right to what you want it to say when you right click

create a new key under windirstat called command

edit the (default) string to say one of the following depending on your OS

"C:\Program Files\WinDirStat\windirstat.exe" "%1"

or

"C:\Program Files (x86)\WinDirStat\windirstat.exe" "%1"


Tree and graphical representation of files


graphical representation disabled to look more like treesize (i like the visual representation, you can make you large files real quick)

 

[c627627]

Yeah, looks like it can, someone should tell them to enable that in options.


What are the advantages of this program?

 

[medo145]

I like it because of its visual feedback. I tend to download stuff extract it and forget to delete the archives. Just by looking at the colored rectangles, I can make out where I've done that. A lot of small rectangles followed by a large one. I just feel like i can find "lost" free space easier than I'd be able to with treesize. Give it a try, what's the worst that could happen? You might like it!

 

[c627627]

So the color rectangles is the difference? I actually tested competitors to Treesize way back and remeber this program and its rectangles which at the time I thought was headache inducing but that's just a personal thing.

So yeah, I fully understand and respect your reasoning, I just don't like the rectangles. BTW, Treesize actually does have different color pie charts and different things in settings of that nature, but I just wanted to quickly right click on a folder/drive. Once you single right click on a drive or folder, you continue one clicking to explore subfolders each displaying files by size so you can quickly see what is taking up space.


I am surprised they did not cover by default the basics: your regedit which lets you quickly right click to simply see what is taking up drive/folder space, displayed in MB or GB in order of size, so right at the top you see the main 'culprit' - its size, its number of sub folders, date created, etc.