drive | Non quis, sed quid.

Curious Findings: WinDirStat

November 29th, 2008 | EvilSeph | Curious Findings

Program Description

Ever start up your PC, open up My Computer, notice that you have very little free space left and wonder what on earth is taking up all the space?

I have and always do, but thanks to WinDirStat I can easily find out what files on my system are taking up what space.

Even if you are like me and know about every little thing that happens on your computer, it is difficult to keep track of what files accumulate over time. Thanks to WinDirStat, all I have to do is run a program, let it index my harddrive(s) and wait for it to generate a report consisting of a tree-view listing of my drive as well as a graphical representation of it too.

So if you find yourself wondering what is taking up all the space on your system or just want to have a look at your harddrives in a cool way, WinDirStat is for you.

WinDirStat Screenshot

The image above shows an example of a report that WinDirStat generates.

Not only does it provide you with a graphical representation of your harddrive’s contents, but you can move your mouse over all the different colours and it will tell you what block is what file. Click on a file and it will select it in the tree.

One of the most important features, in my opinion, is that WinDirStat is smart when it comes to refreshing the data it has on your drive – if you use WinDirStat to remove or modify a file, only the areas affected will be re-indexed, not your whole drive.

Give it a try, it’s pretty cool to see at least once. I use this program a lot to remind myself of the many different files I accumulate over time that I have forgotten about.

License Type

WinDirStat is completely free and open source.