Copyright: Copyright © 1998, Sanjay Kanade


Contents
Help Version 2.5
Copyright © 1998, Sanjay Kanade
Help authoring tool used: HelpHikes Pro

ShowSize
 See Space Usage by Folders & File Types
Copyright © 1994-1998, Sanjay Kanade

What's new in this version

Introduction to ShowSize

Introduction

Getting started

Ordering and support information

How to order ShowSize

What you get in the licensed version

Support information for licensed users

Other programs by the same author

A choice of three different views

Using the Normal Report View

Using the Tree View

Using the Extensions View

Help on various operations

Sorting the report in a different order

Changing the options

Going directly to another folder

Speed considerations

Turning off automatic processing

Viewing or removing the left pane

Installing ShowSize menu in Explorer

Getting the list of files in a folder

Getting a printed report

Copying the report to paste it in another document

Understanding wasted space in partial clusters

Specifying ShowSize options on the command line

Help on 16-bit command line versions

16-bit, command line version of ShowSize

16-bit, command line utility ShowExts


What's new in this version

New Features

•	You can switch between three different views: Normal Report View, Tree View and Extensions View.

•	The new Extensions View shows you the sizes occupied by various file extensions (types) in a folder.

•	Printing has been improved with proper headers/footers, date/time and page numbers appearing on the reports.

•	A new feature to estimate the wasted space in partial clusters has been added. This item always appears on the report but you get a choice to include or exclude it in the total size shown at the bottom.

•	If you don't like the automatic report processing on each folder selection change, you can turn off the automatic processing.

•	Right-click menu has been improved and a new "What's this?" item can be used to get information on any selected item of the report.

•	Command line interface has been implemented so that all the options can now be specified on the command line. This would give a better control on the choice of report for a batch printing operation.

•	Installation of Explorer menu has been improved. You get a new menu to print the report from Explorer. Also, now the installation uses your viewing preferences to set up the menus.

Bug fixes

•	Resizing of panes was not working properly. Fixed.

•	Very large files having a size greater than 4GB were not processed correctly. This has been fixed.

•	Some memory leaks have been fixed.


Introduction
Help Version 2.5
Copyright © 1998, Sanjay Kanade
Help authoring tool used: HelpHikes Pro

ShowSize
 See Space Usage by Folders & File Types
Copyright © 1994-1998, Sanjay Kanade

Introduction

What you can do with ShowSize

ShowSize helps you quickly find out how your disk space is distributed among various folders on your hard disk. An Explorer style interface shows you many different views of the folder sizes. You can see sizes taken up by folders, tree of folders, or even by file extensions (types). For instance, you might discover those big unused folders, wasting 600 MB of space on your disk! Or, you may discover that all those ZIP files you downloaded and forgot to delete, are taking up 250 MB of your precious space! With that knowledge, you are in a better position to make room for new software. What's more, you get many sorting options for the reports. ShowSize also reports the wasted space in the partially filled clusters.

 No disk is big enough!

OK, so you bought a new computer with a bigger hard disk. Do you think that ends all your problems of disk space shortage? The hard truth is NO. At one time, even a 20MB hard disk was thought to be a big one. But, the programs became bigger and bigger, and when Windows came, the whole scene changed. Windows itself needed lots of hard disk space. In the early days of Windows 3.1, computers with 200MB hard disks were common. Now, in the days of Windows 95, Internet downloads and CDs, you might install a number of really big programs on your hard disk. You will find that even 1.2 GB of hard disk is not enough! The point is that unless you get organized, your hard disk will have little space left out. By 'getting organized,' I mean, knowing the space usage on your hard disk in terms of the useful stuff and temporary, unused stuff. It also means, regularly deleting the unused stuff which may be taking lots of space on your hard disk.

 Explorer and its limitations

There is no utility built into Windows or DOS which gives you a report on the sizes occupied by various folders on your hard disk. Let's say, you need to create space for a new software. You know there are many unused programs and temporary folders on your hard disk. Can you quickly identify which ones are occupying the most space? If you were to get a report, it might turn up some big unused folders so that you can remove them and install your new software.

To take a concrete example, can you tell me which are the folders bigger than 2 MB on your C: drive? You can't find that easily in Explorer. If you were to use Explorer, you will need to do the following:

1.	Select the first folder on drive C:. Don't be mistaken into believing that what Explorer shows at the bottom, on its status line, is the size of the folder. It isn't! It's only the total size of the files at the top level and doesn't include files further down in the child folders. Also, no sizes are listed on the right for any child folders of the selected folder.

To get the total size of the selected folder in Explorer, you need to right-click on the menu item "Properties." The total size of the folder is only shown in the properties box.

2.	So to find the folders bigger than 2 MB, you will need to perform the above step one by one on all the folders on drive C:. Quite painful, isn't it?

Now, if I ask you which are the three biggest folders, your job becomes even more difficult as you need to note down all the sizes which you found above and then compare them. Finally, if you were to analyze several levels of sizes in a folder, it might become practically impossible.

Just finding folders bigger than 2 MB as shown above is an awful amount of work! No, to keep track of folders and their occupied sizes, you need a good reporting tool. That's where ShowSize comes in. Besides, ShowSize has extra features to report the wasted space and the space occupied by file extensions (types).

 See the sizes occupied by folders in a variety of report formats

ShowSize can show you the following information:

•	The total space occupied by a selected folder along with a report of how the space is divided between its top level child folders

For example, if you see the root folder of the drive C: with ShowSize, it will show you all the top level folders and their sizes, including the total size occupied on that drive. Please see a sample screen shot in the topic Getting started.

•	The above information, sorted by size in ascending or descending order. This will quickly let you identify the bigger folders

•	ShowSize can also show you a whole tree of folders and child folders and how much space each one is occupying. Further, even this information can be sorted on size at each level.

•	New! ShowSize can also show you a list of file extensions (types) present in a folder and its child folders and how much space files of a particular extension are taking.

•	New! ShowSize also reports the wasted space in partial clusters. This is explained in the topic Understanding wasted space in partial clusters.

Network administrators will also find ShowSize immensely useful as they have to manage the junk created by other users, a difficult task!

Start using ShowSize and get a better handle on your disk space usage. The program is pretty simple to use. Please see the topic Getting started.


Getting started

ShowSize is very simple to use. Start it and you should see a screen similar to the following.

The folder which I selected in this case is C:\CSERVE, where I have installed my CompuServe Information Manager program. As you can see, the total size occupied by this folder is shown at the bottom of the right pane as 40.94 MB. Actually, I had installed the 16 bit software earlier and then installed version 3 which is a 32 bit software. As you can see, CS3 which is version 3 is taking 10.4 MB of space. Now, I want to keep both my 16 and 32 bit versions of CompuServe software but want to get rid of any other stuff if I can. I can see that a child folder IE16 (Internet Explorer, 16 bit) occupies 3.70 MB of space. Now, I have the newer Internet Explorer which is a 32 bit version so I have little use for IE16. If I delete that child folder, I will get back 3.70 MB of disk space! I can also delete MOSAIC which is another browser, I don't use now.

Normally, to delete a folder, you need to go to the Explorer and delete it. But, ShowSize offers a quick way to open a folder window to do the same. If you just right-click in the left pane, you'll see a menu with the operation "Open folder window to view files." That will open a standard Windows 95 folder window where you can delete the folders IE16 and MOSAIC, just as in Explorer.

Also note the item labeled "Other non-folder files." This shows the total size of non-folder files in the selected folder, which is "C:\CSERVE." This is what Explorer would have shown you for C:\CSERVE in the bottom of its right pane. But, as I explained in Introduction, that is only one of the items to count for to get the real total that ShowSize shows.

There is another item in the report, labeled "Wasted space," which is explained in Understanding wasted space in partial clusters. Actually, this wasted space is included in the total of 40.94 MB at the bottom. You get an option to include or exclude this wasted space in the total.

To see another folder, you just need to click on it. You can also change to another drive at the bottom of the left pane. As you can see, using ShowSize is easy! Start using ShowSize straight away, and get rid of that junk occupying various folders. It might be some game or other software which you never use, and till now you never knew it wasted so much space! Now, with ShowSize, you can. So why not recover that precious disk space?

 Three different views of the report

ShowSize gives you three different views of the size report. What you saw above was an example of the Normal Report View which you get when you start ShowSize for the first time. After that, it remembers your viewing preferences if you change them to another view.

You can switch to two other views:

1	Tree View - Shows a complete tree of child folders and sizes.

2	Extensions View - Shows the file extensions (types) with their sizes.

Also see

Other operations


Other operations

You should read about the following ShowSize operations to get the maximum benefits from its reporting features.

Sorting the report in a different order

Changing the options

Going directly to another folder

Speed considerations

Turning off automatic processing

Viewing or removing the left pane

Installing ShowSize menu in Explorer

Getting the list of files in a folder

Getting a printed report

Copying the report to paste it in another document

Understanding wasted space in partial clusters

Specifying ShowSize options on the command line


How to order ShowSize

Price and ordering choices

The registered price of ShowSize licensed version is US$25 or £15.50 Sterling. You can order the licensed version on disk from Ensign Systems, UK, as given later in this topic. If you want to purchase multiple copies of ShowSize for your organization or want to share the program on a network, you need a Site License. Please see information on how to get a Site License later in this topic.

You can also purchase an email registration by CompuServe SWREG or by RegNet. When placing an order this way, you need to provide the Installation ID# from the About box or the trial reminder box of ShowSize evaluation version. The registration instructions are sent to you by email. After registering, the licensed copy of ShowSize will be created which you can use on any other system as well. For other ordering sources and for the latest ordering information, please visit the ShowSize web page.

You get many benefits when you purchase the licensed version. Purchasing the licensed version also entitles you to get FREE update notifications by email so that you can download the updates from a web site.

 Ordering a disk from Ensign Systems

Note from Ensign Systems: We will ship products anywhere in the world, but since we are in the United Kingdom, all our prices are quoted in Pounds GB (£'s Sterling). However, your credit card service provider will automatically convert the transaction to your native currency (i.e. as it now appears on your regular statement). We normally despatch goods within 3 days of receipt of the order, but please allow for delays which can arise from time to time through your country's Customs services. UK customers will receive their software via First Class Recorded Delivery (Inland), European and North American customers via International Recorded Delivery (AirMail).

Please don't call Ensign Systems for any technical questions. Technical support is only available from the author.

You can order a licensed version of ShowSize on disk for only £15.50 Sterling plus shipping & handling charges. The shipping & handling charges are £2.00 to North America and UK, £2.50 to rest of Europe, and £3.00 to the remainder of the world.

To place an order, please contact Ensign Systems, UK on any of the following addresses.

Please use the Order Form in the file SSORDER.TXT when ordering by FAX, Email or regular mail/post.

Mailing address:

Ensign Systems

21 Tredown Road

Sydenham

London SE26 5QQ

United Kingdom

Credit card order line: (44) (0) 0181-778-2871

Fax: (44) (0) 0181-776-8477

Email: ensignpub@aol.com

Order by Online Form on the web site

You may also visit the Ensign Systems Web Site to place your order using an Online Order Form. There, you may also get an option to get registration codes by email so that you don't have to pay shipping and handling charges.

 Site license

The single-user license of ShowSize as described above allows you to use ShowSize on any of your machines, provided you are the only user and it is not used simultaneously by many users. If that is not the case, you need to purchase a site license. You also need a site license if you want to share the program on a network. If you want to get a site license, please contact Ensign Systems on any of the addresses mentioned above.

 Purchasing an email registration on CompuServe

To order on CompuServe, GO SWREG and register ShowSize (#5535). To register you by email, the author needs an installation Id# from the About box or the trial reminder box of your ShowSize evaluation program. So, when you fill up your address in the SWREG, please don't forget to put that Id# after your name or company name. You will get the registration instructions by email within three business days. After registering, the licensed copy of ShowSize will be created which you can use on any other system as well.

 Purchasing an email registration on RegNet (The Registration Network)

On RegNet, the program number (RegNet#) for ShowSize is 1910. You can order online on WWW or by phone. But, in either case, the registration is only sent by email.

To order online on RegNet, please go to the page http://www.swregnet.com/1910p.htm and place an order. To register you by email, the author needs an installation Id# from the About box or the trial reminder box of your ShowSize evaluation program. So, please don't forget to put that Id# in the comments of the order form. You will get the registration instructions by email within three business days. After registering, the licensed copy of ShowSize will be created which you can use on any other system as well.

To order by phone, please call RegNet on one of the following numbers and place an order for ShowSize. Please don't forget to give your correct email address and the Installation Id# as described above.

RegNet phone numbers:

1-800-WWW2REG (1-800-999-2734)

(805)288-1827


What you get in the licensed version

Legality

You get a single user license for unlimited use of the software. You can purchase a site license allowing a copy of ShowSize to be shared by many users. Otherwise, your evaluation license for use of the software expires after 30 days from the date of the first install.

Delay screen removed

The initial evaluation reminder screen doesn't pop up to delay the starting of the program.

'Unlicensed' comment removed from the printouts

On your report printouts, the comment that the report was produced using a unlicensed copy of ShowSize, is removed.

Bonus 16-bit utilities

With the licensed version, you get bonus, 16-bit, command line utilities which includes the previous 16-bit command line version of ShowSize. You can use these utilities on Dos or Windows 3.1 as well.

•	16-bit, command line version of ShowSize

•	16-bit, command line utility ShowExts

More bonus utilities are coming! In order to promote ShowSize, the author may release more Bonus utilities for the licensed users of ShowSize. Licensed users will be able to download these bonus utilities from a password protected area of the product web site. For the latest details on the bonus utilities, please visit the ShowSize web page

Latest version

You get the most recent version of the program.

FREE updates

You can download FREE updates to the program from the ShowSize support web site.

Upgrade offers

In future, ShowSize is also likely to become a part of a utilities collection having more such utilities. As a licensed user of ShowSize, you will get special upgrade prices to buy this utility collection.

Support

Free Technical Support is available to the licensed users from the support web site and by email.

Also see

How to order ShowSize


Support information for licensed users
Help Version 2.5
Copyright © 1998, Sanjay Kanade
Help authoring tool used: HelpHikes Pro

Support information for licensed users

Only Online Support is available for this program through the ShowSize web page or by electronic mail. If you don't have access to these facilities, it's recommended that you get them as soon as possible. Otherwise, you are going to miss on the new features and documents which will be released by intermediate updates or upgrades and will only be available on the web page of the author.

Online Technical Support:

Technical support is only available to the licensed users.

It's recommended that you first access the following web page for the latest support information:

ShowSize web page

If you can't find an answer to your question on the web page, please send an email to the author:

email: skanade@superb.net

Usually the author will respond by email within a business day. But please allow three business days for a response. If you don't get a response, please consult the Author's web site for alternate ways to reach the author.

Do this before sending a message for technical support:

•	Consult online help by searching on keywords:

Special care has been taken to include all possible keywords in the online help so that you can search for the desired information quickly. Author will appreciate any suggestions on more keywords to be added for a help topic.

•	Consult the ShowSize web page

Please access the ShowSize web page to get the latest information.


Other programs by the same author
Help Version 2.5
Copyright © 1998, Sanjay Kanade
Help authoring tool used: HelpHikes Pro

Other programs by the same author

WhizFolders -- A HyperText Organizer for your notes

With WhizFolders, you can organize your notes into its special HyperText folders. What's more, you can drag & drop HyperText links [image] between your notes so that you can jump from a note to another note for easy reference! WhizFolders is an excellent writing & research tool and a free-format PIM. Use WhizFolders to create your own hypertext reference notes, to organize your tasks, to study any subject, to keep a journal, or simply to reorganize your thoughts. How you use this versatile tool is only limited by your imagination! Here is a picture of WhizFolders session.

For more details, or to download an evaluation version, please visit the Author's web site.

WhizNotes -- Turn your notes into Windows help!

WhizNotes is similar to WhizFolders. You get all the convenience of managing your notes into special HyperText folders as described [image] above. Plus, you get the ability to turn a folder of notes into a help file! You need to have a help compiler installed on your system to do that. Impress your friends and associates! Create help files for any types of notes, whether they are a collection of your recipes or a collection of your technical support FAQs.

For more details, or to download an evaluation version, please visit the Author's web site.

HelpHikes Pro -- A Windows Help Authoring System

Note that HelpHikes Pro was used to create this help file for ShowSize!

HelpHikes Pro is a more advanced Help Authoring System for Windows with full support for all the features of Windows 95. The user interface is similar to what you see above in WhizFolders so that you can [image] manage all your help topics easily as you get all the organizational features of WhizFolders mentioned above. In addition, you get full support for Windows 95 help features. You get an extensible markup language called HHML to give you more power to use features like different text fonts, styles, colors, bitmaps, Windows 95 Klink/Alink keywords, help macros, browsing sequences, secondary windows, mid-topic jumps, CNT files, conditional text inclusion (ifdef,endif) and so on.

HelpHikes Pro supports the new Microsoft Help Workshop compiler (HCW) for creating Windows 95 help files with version 4.0. It can also use the old DOS based Help Compilers to let you create Windows 3.1 help files.

For more details, or to download an evaluation version, please visit the Author's web site.


Using the Normal Report View
To view the basic or normal report

1	Click on the menu "View--Normal Report View" (or press Ctrl-R).

2	A report appears in the report pane on the right. From this report, you can find out how much space is occupied by each child folder of the selected folder. The total occupied size of the selected folder is also shown at the bottom.

See a sample screen shot of this Normal Report View.

Tip

•	To get more information on an item in the report, right-click on it to get a menu. Then click on the menu item "What's this?"

Also see

Sorting the report in a different order

Using the Tree View

Using the Extensions View

Other operations


Using the Tree View
To view the complete tree of sizes

1	Click on the menu "View--Tree View" (or press Ctrl-T).

2	A tree of folders and their sizes appears in the report pane on the right. Click on the boxes to collapse or expand the tree items.

See a sample screen shot of this Tree View.

Tip

•	To get more information on an item in the report, right-click on it to get a menu. Then click on the menu item "What's this?"

•	Using the Options dialog, you may sort this report by folder names, by sizes, by desending sizes or by the natural order of the folders.

•	Note that the above sorting occurs at each level, separately.

•	You can also limit the tree to a certain level on the Options dialog.

Also see

Sorting the report in a different order

Using the Normal Report View

Using the Extensions View

Other operations


Using the Extensions View
To view the sizes occupied by files with various extensions (types)

1	Click on the menu "View--Extensions View" (or press Ctrl-E).

2	A report appears in the report pane on the right. From this report, you can find out how much space is occupied by the files having a certain file extension. For example, you can find out how much space is occupied by .ZIP files in that folder.

See a sample screen shot of this Extensions View.

Tip

•	To get more information on an item in the report, right-click on it to get a menu. Then click on the menu item "What's this?"

•	You may see two report items for a file extension, one at the top level and other for the inner levels. The top level size is the added size of the files with that extension which are at the top level in the folder which you selected. The inner level size is the total added size of the files with that extension which are in one or more child folders of the selected folder.

Also see

Sorting the report in a different order

Using the Normal Report View

Using the Tree View

Other operations


Sorting the report in a different order
To sort the report in a different order

1	Use the Options dialog to change the sorting options.

2	Or, use the following methods for columnized reports that you see in Normal Report View or in Extensions View.

•	Click on the first column-header "Folder Name" or "File Extension" to sort alphabetically by folder names or file extensions.

•	Click on the column-header "Occupied size" to sort by the sizes of the items. Each click reverses the order of the sort.

Tip

•	For Tree View, you can set a sorting option only by the Options dialog, and the sorting occurs at each level, separately.

Also see

Changing the options


Changing the options
To change the options

1	Click on the menu "View--Options" (or press F2), and the Options dialog appears.

2	On the Options dialog, click on one of the sorting options to sort the report in a different order. For example, you can sort by folder or extension names, by sizes, by desending sizes or by the natural order of the folders.

3	If you are Using the Tree View for the report, you also get an option to limit the tree to a certain level.

4	You also get an option to include the wasted space in partial clusters in the total size.

Tip

•	The Options dialog can also be accessed by right-clicking in the report pane.

Also see

Turning off automatic processing

Viewing or removing the left pane

Using the Normal Report View

Using the Tree View

Using the Extensions View


Going directly to another folder
To go to another folder

1	Select the folder in the left pane.

2	If the target folder is a child folder, double-click on its parent folder name to expand it.

3	If the target folder is on another drive, change the drive at the bottom.

4	Or, click on the menu "File--Go to Folder..." (or press Ctrl-O). Type in the folder name or click on the arrow to select a folder you have previously visited. Press OK.

Tip

If the folder you wish to go to is a child folder shown on the right in the report pane, you can also right-click on the pop up menu item "Show at this level."


Speed considerations
If you are accessing a slow or busy drive, such as a network drive, it may take more time to fill up the ShowSize panes. This includes the tree of folders in the left pane. ShowSize offers two solutions for you:

Turn off the automatic processing

You can turn off the automatic processing so that only the left pane is filled up. The processing doesn't start till you select the proper folder and perform refresh on it.

Turn off the view of the left pane

You can save on the time to fill up the left pane by switching off the view of the left pane of folders.

It is even better to install the ShowSize menu in Explorer. This gives you the best of both worlds. You can see the folder tree in the Explorer, and you can also right-click on a folder to get its size with ShowSize. In this case, ShowSize automatically starts up with the left pane off. The left pane is not needed as you already came from Explorer which has the folder tree.


Turning off automatic processing
To turn the automatic processing off or on

1	Click on the menu "View" and see the check mark on the menu item "Automatic Processing."

2	Click on the above menu item to turn the automatic processing off or on. See the tip at the end to find out why you may want to turn off the automatic processing.

3	If you turn off the automatic processing, ShowSize doesn't start processing when you select a new folder or change to another drive.

4	After selecting another folder, you can start the processing by right-clicking on it and performing Refresh on it.

5	You can also press Enter to start the processing.

Tip

Why would you like to turn off the automatic processing? It entirely depends on your personal preference. In general, if you often change to another drive or if most of your folders are big, you may want to hold off processing till you start it explicitly. Turning off automatic processing lets you select a folder without interrupting you with a find size operation for each folder change operation. This may be particularly helpful on slow network drives with very big folders.

Also see

Speed considerations


Viewing or removing the left pane
To view or remove the left pane

1	Click on the menu "View" and see the check mark on the menu item "Left Pane."

2	Click on the above menu item to remove or to restore the left pane of folders. See the tip at the end to find out why you may want to remove the left pane.

3	If you remove the left pane, the report pane occupies the entire ShowSize window.

4	You can still switch to another folder by the menu "File--Go to Folder..."

Tip

You may want to remove the left pane for better speed. For details, please see Speed considerations.

Also see

Speed considerations

Installing ShowSize menu in Explorer

Turning off automatic processing


Installing ShowSize menu in Explorer
This feature adds two convenient menu items in Explorer so that you can quickly right-click on a folder and run ShowSize on it to get a size report or to print out a report.

To install ShowSize menu in Explorer

1	First select the proper viewing options which you want to use for this feature. For example, if you always prefer the Tree View with descending sizes, select those options before you install the menu.

2	Click on the menu "Setup--Install ShowSize menu item in Explorer."

3	A dialog comes up which reminds you to use proper viewing options before the install. You already did that in Step 1 above. So, just press OK.

4	A message comes up to show that the installation was successful.

5	To see how it works, start Explorer and right-click on a folder name. You will see new menu items "Get Size with ShowSize" and "Print ShowSize Report." Just click on one of them to start the proper ShowSize operation on that folder.

Tip

•	Each such click on any folder starts a separate copy of ShowSize specially for that folder. Note that in such ShowSize windows, only the report pane is shown. This is to ensure a better speed. For details, please see Speed considerations.

•	If you perform "Print ShowSize Report" on a folder from Explorer, ShowSize starts minimized and starts printing on the default printer. After printing, it automatically exits.

Also see

Speed considerations

Specifying ShowSize options on the command line


Getting the list of files in a folder
To view the files in a folder

Most often, you may want to view the file list when you want to delete a folder after confirming what it contains. See the tip on how to move to the parent folder window so that you can delete the current folder.

1	Select the folder in the report pane on the right or on the left pane.

2	Right-click on the pop up menu item "Open Folder Window to View Files". This menu item is also available on the File menu.

3	A standard Windows 95 folder window appears where you can view the files and perform more operations on them.

Tip

•	If you use the main File menu to perform the operation, the folder selected in the report pane is used. If none is selected, then the folder selected in the left pane is used.

•	To quickly move to the parent folder of the folder window, press Backspace key.

•	To quickly perform an operation such as rename, delete on a report item, it's better to open the folder window and then move to the parent folder as described in the previous tip.


Getting a printed report
To get a printed report

1	Click on the menu "File--Print Report..." or press Ctrl-P.

2	A printing options dialog comes up where you can select the proper options such as a title for the printout. Press OK.

3	The standard Print dialog comes up where you can change to another printer or select the pages to print. Press OK.

4	ShowSize prints the report which you are presently viewing on the screen.

Tip

You can also install a Print menu in the Explorer and start ShowSize printing from Explorer's right-click menu.

Also see

Copying the report to paste it in another document

Installing ShowSize menu in Explorer


Copying the report to paste it in another document
To copy the report to clipboard

(Only in the licensed version)

1	Click on the menu "Edit--Copy Report" (or press Ctrl-C).

2	Paste it in another document, such as, a word processor document for further formatting. However, please note that the report is properly formatted in a fixed type font only, such as, Courier.

Also see

Getting a printed report


Understanding wasted space in partial clusters
What is wasted space in partial clusters?

A file is made up of one or more clusters in the file system. All clusters are of a fixed size on a particular disk. Usually, the last cluster of a file is partially filled. That means, the remaining unused bytes of that last cluster are a waste. They can't be used for any other file.

ShowSize assumes that such a space wastage exists in the file system which is true for today's file systems. It estimates the wasted space on this assumption, and shows you a total of such wasted space for all the files in a folder. It appears as a separate report item called, "Wasted space in partial clusters."

You get an option on the Options dialog to include this wasted space in the total occupied size of that folder at the bottom. The bigger the cluster size on a disk, the more space is wasted in partial clusters. To know the cluster size on the disk of a folder, just right-click on the "Wasted space" report item and click on "What's this?"

Then, why do the file systems use the larger cluster sizes? It improves speed. A small cluster will save space but would make the file system slow. In future, the file systems might devise a cure for this problem. But, for now, there is little you can do about it except to know that such space wastage exists. Even if a configuration or setup program allows you to modify the cluster size for a disk, it is best to leave it untouched and let the Windows select the recommended size for you.

How accurate is this estimation?

Note that what ShowSize reports is an estimated wasted space which is quite close to the actual. But, it might not be accurate as ShowSize doesn't account for the wasted space in folder files (yes, folders are files too). But, then, it has its advantages too. No other utility gives you wasted space for a folder. You might find some utilities which scan all the clusters of a disk to get an accurate total of the wasted space for the whole disk. But, these utilities won't give you the total for a selected folder. Hence, for practical purposes, the estimated wasted space by ShowSize is more useful even if it is not exact. For instance, with ShowSize, if you include the wasted space in the total, you can find how much space you will actually get when you delete that folder.

An interesting question

Question: Let's turn off the wasted space feature for a moment. If I see the size of a folder with Explorer by right-clicking on its properties menu, what it reports exactly matches the size given by ShowSize. But, if I do the same for a root folder, the size reported by Explorer is much higher. Why?

This is a sort of inconsistency in Explorer operation. When finding the size of a folder, Explorer does exactly what ShowSize does. It adds up all the files in that folder and its child folders. It does not include the wasted space in this total. Neither does it include the size of the child folder files or their wasted space. But, when Explorer finds the size of a root folder, it simply calculates the total allocated space by finding the number of clusters allocated on that disk multiplied by the cluster size. This, of course, includes all of the items mentioned above, including the wasted space. Hence, the difference. You will see that if you turn on the option to include the wasted space in the total, ShowSize reported size of the root folder will be much closer to that reported by the Explorer. But, then it won't match the size reported by Explorer for the individual folders. Now, tell me who is inconsistent?


Specifying ShowSize options on the command line
ShowSize also supports specification of options on the command line. This is mainly useful for using it in batch operations to print out reports on selected folders.

Usage on command line:

ShowSize [options] "folder-name"

Options:

/p - Print the report and exit.

/vr - Use the Normal Report View.

/vt[:n] - Use the Tree View. If n is present, then limit the tree to n levels.

/ve - Use the Extensions View.

/ss - Sort the report in ascending order of sizes.

/ds - Sort the report in descending order of sizes.

/sn - Sort the report alphabetically by folder names.

/snat - Sort the report by natural order of folders.

/iw - Include wasted space in the total reported.

/niw - Don't include wasted space in the total reported.

/min - Run minimized.

/h - Hide the left pane (used mainly for the menu command installed in Explorer)

Note that if an option is not given, the default is taken from the last saved preferences of a ShowSize session. ShowSize automatically saves your preferences when it exits. The only exception is when you invoke it from the command line with the '/p' switch or with the 'h' switch.


16-bit, command line version of ShowSize

This program is only available with the licensed version. The file name is SS16.EXE. This is a 16 bit program so that you can run it on DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or Windows NT. That means, you can even use it on old DOS machines. On Windows 95, it even supports long file names. However, being a 16-bit program, it has its own limitations. It can't work properly with very big disks or files having more than 2GB sizes.

Important Note: Now ShowSize, itself, supports options on command line. Hence, this 16-bit program may not be needed on 32-bit versions of Windows. However, you may still find it useful on DOS or Windows 3.1.

Here are the details on using the 16-bit command line version of ShowSize. You may print this topic for your reference.

SS16.EXE -- ShowSize - 16-bit, command line version

Copy SS16.EXE to a directory on your path so that you can use it on DOS command line from anywhere. You may also rename the EXE file to any other name that you like.

Just type "ss16 ?" to get the tips on the usage of the program. To see space usage of a directory, you need to give the directory name to the program. For example, to see the space usage on drive C:, type the following command on the DOS prompt:

ss16 C:\

Or, you could also change directory (CHDIR) to C:\ and just type:

ss16

In this case, the program uses the current directory.

Options available

You can use the following options on the command SS16.

/ss -- Sort by size

When you quickly want to find out the directories which are taking maximum space on your hard disk, it's better to use this sort option '/SS'. For example, type:

ss16 /ss c:\

At the end of the list you'll find all the directories which occupy more space.

/ds -- Descending or reverse sort

If you want the list in the reverse order, so that larger directories come first, add the option /ds for descendng sort:

ss16 /ss /ds c:\

/sn -- Sort by name

Similarly, the /sn option allows you to sort the directories alphabetically on their names:

ss /sn

/st -- Show tree of subdirs

If you want to look at the whole tree of subdirs with their subdirectories and sizes, you'll love this command. What's more, you can even sort the list at each level of the TREE by name or by size. For example, if you want to see subdirs under Windows directory sorted by size then type the following command on the DOS prompt:

ss16 /st /ss c:\windows

You can also use DOS redirection as given earlier to capture the output to a disk file and view it with a text editor. If you want to view it in a Windows text editor like Notepad, it's better to use the option '/UT' so that the tree lines are made up with dash and plus characters. If you don't do that, DOS graphics characters are used which are not visible in a Windows text editor unless you use the "Terminal font" and even that may not work if you have multi-lingual font installed. Example of using /UT:

ss16 /st /ss /ut c:\ >tree.txt

You may want to limit the tree to a certain level. In that case, use the option "/st:n" where n is a level number, 2 or above.

ss16 /st:3 c:\

Getting the report in a text file

If you want to repeatedly look at the list produced by SS16, say when cleaning up, it's better to use DOS redirection to put the result of SS16 to a text file so that you don't have to run SS16 again and again for looking at the directories. For example, to use redirection, type this on the DOS prompt:

ss16 /ss /ds C:\ >SIZES.TXT

This will collect the list in SIZES.TXT file which you can view with a DOS MORE command for quick reference (or you can view it in a text editor in DOS or Windows)

more <SIZES.TXT

Please look at all the tips:

Please don't forget to look at all the tips shown with "SS16 ?"


16-bit, command line utility ShowExts

This program is a bonus program, only available with the licensed version. The file name is SHOWEXTS.EXE. This is a 16 bit program so that you can run it on DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or Windows NT. That means, you can even use it on old DOS machines. However, being a 16-bit program, it has its own limitations. It can't work properly with very big disks or files having more than 2GB sizes.

Important Note: Now ShowSize, itself, supports an Extensions View. Hence, this 16-bit program may not be needed on 32-bit versions of Windows. However, you may still find it useful on DOS or Windows 3.1.

Here are the details on using this bonus utility. You may print this topic for your reference.

ShowExts (16-bit) -- See file extensions in a new way

A command line utility for DOS and Windows 3.1. Get a big picture of the extensions present in a directory and its subdirectories. Ever wished for a command line utility that can quickly show you the various extensions present in a directory? ShowExts can help you do that and more. It can also show you disk-space occupied by these extensions. A real help if you want to keep your disk space under control. For example, you can see how much space is eaten by backup files .BAK on your disk.

Basic tips on the program usage

Copy SHOWEXTS.EXE to a directory on your path so that you can use it on DOS command line from anywhere. You may also rename the EXE file to any other name that you like.

Just type "Showexts ?" to get the basic tips on the usage of the program. This is a unique utility which lets you see the space on your hard disk in a new way. To see the extensions in a directory, you need to give the directory name to the program. For example, to see the extensions present in a directory C:\MYDOCS, type the following command on the DOS prompt:

showexts C:\MYDOCS

Or, you could also change directory (CHDIR) to C:\MYDOCS and just type:

showexts

You can quickly find all the extensions present in a directory by going to that directory by CHDIR and then typing 'ShowExts' on the DOS prompt. This can be useful if say, you want to keep only a few extensions and delete the rest to save space. For example, I am a programmer and normally I just want to preserve a few extension files in a program directory which contain my program: .C, .CPP, .RC etc. I want to delete all the temporary extensions like .SYM, .CSM, .MAP, .OBJ from time to time. ShowExts helps me identify which extensions are present so that I can quickly give 'del *.ext' commands to remove the unwanted extensions or can even create permanent BAT files to do the job.

Options available

You can use the following options on the command ShowExts.

/sz -- Quickly see the sizes taken by extensions

This can be even more useful. For example, I type:

showexts /sz

to get a list of extensions with their occupied sizes. This way I know that .CSM and .OBJ files are occupying maximum space in my program directory and how much space I'll get if I delete them. FYI, this list is in the order of extension names.

/sbs or /ss -- Sort the list by size

If you want to sort the above list by occupied sizes of extensions, use the option '/sbs' or '/ss'.

showexts /ss

/sbc -- Sort the list by count

Use the option '/sbc' instead of the above '/S..' options.

showexts /sbc

/is -- Include extensions in all the subdirectories as well

You can use the option /is with any list so that the list is created by also looking at the extensions in all the subdirectories all the way down. For example, change to the root of C: drive by DOS commands:

C:

CD C:\

Now get a list of all the extensions present on your disk by typing:

showexts /is

Or, get a count of all extensions on the hard disk:

showexts /is /sc

Or, see sizes occupied by all extensions on the hard disk:

showexts /is /sz

You're sure to see some interesting results which you never knew about before.

Getting the report in a text file

If you want to repeatedly look at the list, say when cleaning up, it's better to use DOS redirection to put the result of ShowExts to a text file so that you don't have to run it again and again. For example, to use redirection, type this on the DOS prompt:

showexts /sz c:\ >EXTS.TXT

This will collect the list in EXTS.TXT file which you can view with a DOS MORE command for quick reference (or you can view it in a text editor in DOS or Windows)

more <EXTS.TXT

Please look at all the tips:

Please don't forget to look at all the tips shown with "showexts ?" For example, it makes sense to rename SHOWEXTS.EXE to SE.EXE so that you can type and run it quicker.


ShowSize web page
http://skanade.simplenet.com/showsize/


Ensign Systems Web Site
http://www.ensignpub.com


Author's web site
http://skanade.simplenet.com/


Tree View Screen Shot
Sample Tree View Screen shot


Extensions View Screen Shot
Sample Extensions View Screen shot


Normal Report View Screen Shot
Sample Normal Report View Screen shot