ShowSize for Windows--Forget your disk space usage worries with this fast, flexible disk space reporting tool
Manage your disk space better with ShowSize!
Display folder sizes for any disk location,
Display size and number of file types,
Display number of files and folders,
List or print folder contents,
Many more features...
Some examples of using ShowSize:
A disk F: is filling up fast. I want to quickly find the big-size folders and see if I can delete some. I can do that with "Folder Sizes report." Please see the screenshot and the flash demo showing this report, later on this page.
I have a big folder "F:\Photos and Travel docs" containing lots of JPG photographs in many subfolders and also some documents and zip files. I quickly want to see how much space the JPG files are taking so that I can put them on a CD. I can do that with "File Types report." Please see the screenshot later on this page.
I have a mixture of big and small files on a usb hard disk in many subfolders and just want to delete some large files to make space. I can do that with "Only Files report." Please see the screenshot later on this page.
With ShowSize for Windows you can do all of the above and much more
All you want to know is which are the biggest folders in a drive. Why is it difficult to find out? You've come across a common problem: Windows Explorer does not show folder sizes in its reports. Luckily, ShowSize lets you do exactly that and more. With the help of this useful tool, you can view folder sizes instantly, see how your disk space is distributed, get a list of the files grouped by file types - and it doesn't stop there.
Even if disk space has become cheaper, you still have to manage the space and remove unused stuff from there. Otherwise, all you are going to increase is the size of the garbage or junk files that you don't use. With more junk, it would be even more difficult to find the stuff that you really want to keep using. A tool like ShowSize will always be useful.
"There is no doubt that Showsize is a bargain! I have not been able to find another program at ANY price that does even half as much."
Patrick Stallings
Please see more comments from our customers at the end.
Use this report and get a breakdown of folder sizes, wasted space, number of files, etc.
Columns available: Folder Name, Size, Wasted Space (in partial clusters), Size on Disk (includes wasted space), Number of Files, Number of Folders, Modified Date, Backup Size (size of files with the archive bit set)
Since this is the main report in ShowSize, there is a whole tutorial devoted to it. In ShowSize, click on the menu Help--Tutorial and you will see a complete explanation of this report with all the features. Many features like column dragging and dropping also apply to other reports.
View Folder Sizes
Please click on the picture on the right to see a sample Folder Sizes report along with a detailed description.
With the Folder Sizes Report, you can see exactly how your disk space is taken up. You can view folder sizes, wasted space, number of files, number of folders, the date they were last modified and more. If you want, you can choose to view the report as a pie chart, enabling you to get an immediate grasp of the state of a hard disk on your computer.
An interesting feature: In the above report, you can press the Ctrl key and click on the folder names to select a few of them. A popup comes up showing the added size of only the selected folders. This can be very useful, for example, when you want to fit only some folders on a CD.
Many other reports that you won't find in Windows Explorer
And, that's not all! You can also see a pie chart in ShowSize and many other reports as described later on this page.
Why choose ShowSize over other such software?
Scans can take time: Scans for folder sizes take time, especially if you consider the new hard drives that can easily run into millions of files and hundreds of GBs. A software like ShowSize has to add up sizes of all these files and it takes time. Any software that performs such scans has to be cancelable. ShowSize has been designed carefully, taking into consideration all such issues. All the scan and report filling operations can be canceled in ShowSize.
Also see a Flash Demo Movie on Folder Sizes Report:
Managing disk space with ShowSize
This demo runs by itself. If you are a fast reader, click on the right arrow on a message any time to go forward quickly.
Use this report and get a breakdown of folder sizes, wasted space, number of files, etc.
Columns available: Folder Name, Size, Wasted Space (in partial clusters), Size on Disk (includes wasted space), Number of Files, Number of Folders, Modified Date, Backup Size (size of files with the archive bit set)
Since this is the main report in ShowSize, there is a whole tutorial devoted to it. In ShowSize, click on the menu Help--Tutorial and you will see a complete explanation of this report with all the features. Many features like column dragging and dropping also apply to other reports.
Please click to enlarge
Pie chart: A pie chart can be seen on the sorted column of many reports
See complete details: Please click on the picture on the right to read more about this report.
ShowSize can show a pie chart of many reports. For example, this is a pie chart of the Folder Sizes report that you already saw.
In order to see the pie chart, you must have sorted the report on a column on which the pie chart can be shown. For example, here we had sorted it on folder sizes column. Once you do that, clicking on the Pie Chart toolbar button produces this pie chart.
Please click to enlarge
File Types Report: Files grouped by file types with size of the group
See complete details: Please click on the picture on the right to read more about this report.
Use this report and find out how much space is occupied by the files of a certain type (having a certain file extension). You can also see a complete list of files of a particular type by simply clicking on the + button next to a file type item.
For example, this report makes it easy to see how much space all those photo files (*.JPG) are taking up in a folder, including the subfolders.
Columns available: Type/File Name, Number of Files, Modified Date, Parent Folder, Wasted Space (in partial clusters), Size on Disk (includes wasted space).
For example, in the picture I can see various file types present in the Eudora folder, at a glance, irrespective of their exact location within subfolders. I have expanded the GIF files to see the actual file names present and in which parent folder (subfolder of Eudora). I can also see that lot of TMP files exist which I can delete to free the space occupied by them.
Please click to enlarge
Folders and Files Report: All the folders and files in a single list
See complete details: Please click on the picture on the right to read more about this report.
Use this report and get an Explorer like view but with a difference. It is more like the left pane of Windows Explorer but the difference is that it lists the files too. So if you ever need to look at or print the folders and the files in one screen, this is the way to go. It also lists folder sizes but doesn't have all the features of Folder Sizes report. It can be useful when you want to quickly drill down a folder to see various sizes of files and folders.
Columns available: Folder/File Name, Size, Modified Date
For example, this is the Folders and Files report for a location where Nero software is installed. It shows all the folders and files in a hierarchical list. I have used Natural order for sorting here.
I will attempt to explain why we had to discontinue the "Unused files report" on Windows Vista and why I advise not to use it even on earlier Windows systems now.
On Vista, by default the “last access date” of the files are not updated on NTFS file systems. Microsoft did this to improve Vista performance on NTFS systems.
This means that the above information is useless for all the files on NTFS volumes. There is a registry tweak possible so that Vista starts updating the “last access date” of files. But even then the information won’t be useful for quite some time. For example, if you switch on this feature now you will have to wait for at least 30 days of use to get a report that shows files not used in last 30 days. Hence, it’s not a good solution as there is no way for ShowSize to determine when the tweak was made. In other words, one can never rely on Unused column or the Unused Files report. Besides this tweak might run into performance issues on Vista.
Corporate/LAN users, beware: Moreover, if many Vista systems are using files on a shared NTFS volume, some will update the last access date and some won’t depending on whether they were fixed with the registry tweak. So on a shared volume you can never be sure if the Unused Files report is useful at all.
THE HARD DECISION THAT WE MADE: Hence, it’s not possible to find a decent solution to this problem. We can at most give warning messages on Vista for NTFS volumes. But we can never be sure on shared volumes. Hence, in the newer ShowSize 5, we have entirely dropped this Unused Files report and the Used column in all the reports on Windows Vista.
(discontinued on Windows Vista)
Use this report and see a list of files not used in last so many days. To change the number of days to look for, click on the days box and type a new value. Then, click on the button Change next to it.
Columns available: File Name, Size, Not Used Days, Used Date, Parent Folder, Modified Date
The partial header on column "Not Use.." is actually "Not Used Days." For example, in this report I can see that I have not used the help file vspeller.hlp at all in last 548 days. In fact, that is how discovered this help file.
Caution! The Not Used Days column is based on the Last Access Date of files. It is very important to understand the concept of Used Date before you go and delete some files. You must use your own judgement in using this information, especially when making a decision to delete some files or to perform other critical operations based on the report. In particular, do not delete any files from Windows or other system folders.
Please click to enlarge
ShowSize Edition produces these additional reports and features:
Only Files Report (not available in ShowSize PE)
A single list of all the files contained in the target disk location
See complete details: Please click on the picture on the right to read more about this report.
Lists all the files, even those in subfolders. This gives you new ways to explore your file system. For example, you can sort on file sizes and find the largest files contained on a drive or a folder. Or, you can sort on date and see the oldest files. This is a unique report unlikely to be found in any other product. Why? Because it can easily run into millions of entries in the list that would choke ordinary software. But the virtual listing technology in ShowSize can handle it very well.
For example, I have sorted this Only Files report on file sizes, descending, and I can see that the largest file in this folder is dapoli.avi. There is no way I could have found that out with Windows Explorer.
This all-encompassing view also gives you interesting possibilities for file operations, such as, zipping up only older files (older than a certain date) on your hard disk. What is more, ShowSize is able to print these huge reports with features to restart printing from a particular page.
We are not saying ShowSize is a replacement for Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer is still useful as a File Manager. But you can consider ShowSize Only Files feature as an additional disk utility that can show you some reports that Windows Explorer does not handle. Here, ShowSize scans and lists all the children and grandchildren of a folder. This is unlike Windows Explorer that lists only the top level children of a folder.
Please click to enlarge
Only Folders Report (not available in ShowSize PE)
A single list of all the folders contained in the target disk location
See complete details: Please click on the picture on the right to read more about this report.
This is different from other Folder reports in ShowSize because the folders are not shown in a hierarchical manner. Rather, they all appear in a straight list, quite like the Only Files Report. This gives you new ways to explore your file system. For example, you can sort on folder sizes and find the largest folders contained on a drive or a folder. It doesn't matter at which level it exists. It always appears at the top on a report reverse sorted on folder sizes. Or, you can sort on dates and see the oldest folders. Similarly, you can find all the folders with the same name as in the following example screenshot
For example, I have sorted this Only Folders report on names and I can see all the same named folders at a glance irrespective of how deep they are located. This is different from the Folder Sizes or Folders and Files report where such a sorting is not possible due to hierarchical display.
Please click to enlarge
Owners Report (available only in ShowSize 5-user-license or more)
List of owners
See complete details: Please click on the picture on the right to read more about this report.
Available only in minimum 5-user-license of ShowSize
Use this report and find out how much space is occupied by the files belonging to an owner. You can also see a complete list of files of a particular owner by simply clicking on the + button next to an owner item.
In this example, I can see files of the owner SYSTEM.
Please click to enlarge
Saving and Sharing of Reports (available only in ShowSize 5-user-license or more)
You can save a ShowSize report by using the menu Tools--Save Report. Other users can view such a report by opening it with the menu Tools--View Report. A report can be viewed this way even on a system where that drive location is not present.
See complete details: Please click on the picture on the right to read more about this report.
Available only in minimum 5-user-license of ShowSize
You can save a ShowSize report by using the menu Tools--Save Report. Other users can view such a report by opening it with the menu Tools--View Report. A report can be viewed this way even on a system where that drive location is not present.
The picture shows a report being viewed. This looks quite the same as a live report except that the left pane is not there. Also, you CAN NOT do any LIVE operations on the files or folders of a report being viewed. For example, you can not open those folders in explorer, start a command prompt on them, delete folders and files, etc. Other than that, all the report viewing features, printing options and filters work on the saved report.
Please click to enlarge
Other "ShowSize Only" features (not available in ShowSize PE)
Powerful command line features
Export data to CSV format
Skip symbolic links
Many more power features in both editions
Multiple copies running on different locations
Customize the report columns by drag and drop
See pie chart on many of the reports
See wasted space in partial clusters
Install a ShowSize menu in Explorer
Nice printing features to print the lists
UNC path support
Filters and filter testing
Coloring of system and hidden items
Auto refresh to monitor a location
Easy to use: In spite of all the powerful features, ShowSize is easy to use.
We do our own innovation
We don't follow other software. That's why you will find unique features in ShowSize that you won't find elsewhere. ShowSize is an innovative product in a class of its own. It uses a virtual listing technology that can process and display terabytes of disk space and millions of files. Ordinary software will break on such large data. Scanning a big disk full of millions of files may take a lot of time, especially on network drives. In ShowSize all such scan operations are cancelable so that you avoid irritating waits or hangs which are quite common with many disk utilities.
What our customers have to say
"There is no doubt that ShowSize is a bargain! I have not been able to find another program at ANY price that does even half as much."
Patrick Stallings
"I just wanted to let you know what a great product ShowSize is. I have been looking for this type of utility for months and finally came across your program. You have made my life so much easier as I now can produce the reports I need for users at our company."
Scott Abel
"Excellent program ... absolutely every option one could possibly think of!"
Chris Goodliffe
To see more comments, please click on the Testimonials button below.
Manage your disk space better with ShowSize!
All you want to know is which are the biggest folders in a drive. Why is it difficult to find out? You've come across a common problem: Windows Explorer does not show folder sizes in its reports. Luckily, ShowSize lets you do exactly that and more. With the help of this useful tool, you can view folder sizes instantly, see how your disk space is distributed, get a list of the files grouped by file types - and it doesn't stop there.
