WinDirStat is a program that allows you to find drive space hogs at a glance. It achieves that by displaying a drive, drives or directories in a treemap that assigns bigger areas to bigger files and directories. Making those areas visually separate by coloring and other means allows you to see literally at a glance what the space hogs are and where to dig deeper.
The directory tree is simultaneously shown as a tree list and as a treemap. One can effortlessly gain an impression of the proportions on the drive(s).
Is WinDirStat safe to use?
Yes, it's safe and widely trusted. It doesn't modify files unless you manually delete them.
Can I delete files directly from WinDirStat?
Yes, You can right-click on any file or folder and choose to delete it directly within the interface. However, it's strongly recommended to review what you delete, as WinDirStat doesn't move files to the Recycle Bin - deletions are permanent.
Does WinDirStat support network drives and external disks?
Yes, WinDirStat can analyze local drives, network shares, and external storage devices as long as they're accessible via Windows Explorer. However, scans over a network may take longer due to transfer speed limits.
Why do some file sizes in WinDirStat differ from what Windows Explorer shows?
WinDirStat calculates actual disk usage, not just the logical file size shown in Explorer. It accounts for cluster sizes, NTFS compression, and hard links, which can make sizes appear slightly different from what Windows reports in folder properties.
Does WinDirStat detect duplicate files automatically?
No, WinDirStat identifies which files take up the most space but doesn't compare file contents for duplication. To remove duplicates, users often combine it with tools like dupeGuru, Auslogics Duplicate File Finder, or CCleaner.
Features
- Three views: Directory Tree, Treemap, and Extension
- Duplicate file detection
- Built-in cleanup actions including Open, Delete, Show Properties
- User-defined cleanup actions (command line based)
What's New
Enhancements
- Improved extension-checking performance during scan
- Improved icon-loading behavior to skip downloads for offline files
- Improved window flashing using non-interactive command line options
- Improved numeric display precision for percentages and sizes
- Improved security by preventing DLL sideloading
- Improved file select and document icons
- Improved Simplified Chinese translation
- Improved treemap rendering on low color depth Remote Desktop
Bug Fixes
- Corrected compression options not showing for a folder-based scan
- Corrected potential crash in file watcher component
- Corrected potential copy/paste path handling in the Select Drives dialog
- Corrected potential COM initialization to occur on the UI thread
- Corrected potential hang for unresponsive drive mappings
