WinDirStat
Encyclopedia
WinDirStat is a graphical disk usage analyzer for Microsoft Windows
, notable for presenting a sub-tree view with disk use percentage alongside a usage-sorted list of file extensions that is interactively integrated with a colorful graphical display (a treemap
). Created as an open source project released under the GNU GPL, it was developed using Visual C++
/MFC
7.0. The project was inspired by KDirStat (a KDE
application, since replaced by Filelight
) for Linux.
with over 30,000 downloads per week.
format.
WinDirStat is developed via Mercurial
revision control.
Steve Bass of PC World
provided a brief review of the 1.1.2 release of WinDirStat, summarizing its usefulness:
CNET
reviewed the most recent release of WinDirStat, giving it 5 of 5 stars and noting:
Gizmo's Freeware directory featured WinDirStat in a January 2010 list of best free disk analysis software with a 4 of 5 stars review, noting:
The German computer magazine c't (magazin für computertechnik)
published a review of WinDirStat with it bundled in a CD in October 2006.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, notable for presenting a sub-tree view with disk use percentage alongside a usage-sorted list of file extensions that is interactively integrated with a colorful graphical display (a treemap
Treemapping
In information visualization and computing, treemapping is a method for displaying hierarchical data by using nested rectangles.- Main idea :...
). Created as an open source project released under the GNU GPL, it was developed using Visual C++
Visual C++
Microsoft Visual C++ is a commercial , integrated development environment product from Microsoft for the C, C++, and C++/CLI programming languages...
/MFC
Microsoft Foundation Class Library
The Microsoft Foundation Class Library is a library that wraps portions of the Windows API in C++ classes, including functionality that enables them to use a default application framework...
7.0. The project was inspired by KDirStat (a KDE
KDE
KDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...
application, since replaced by Filelight
Filelight
Filelight is a KDE graphical disk-space analyzer with an innovative presentation technique. Instead of showing a tree view of the files on your disk, or even a columns-represent-directories view like xdiskusage, it shows a series of concentric pie charts representing the various directories on your...
) for Linux.
Popularity
WinDirStat has been downloaded more than 4.2 million times from the official source since the original release in October 2003. As of October 2011, it is the 6th most frequently downloaded "Storage" software on SourceForgeSourceForge
SourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...
with over 30,000 downloads per week.
Project status
The most recent release was in September 2007 and development stopped for some time after that. However, the project's blog noted that development resumed in May 2009.Source code
Source is provided for all released versions on the project SourceForge page in ZIPZIP (file format)
Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
format.
WinDirStat is developed via Mercurial
Mercurial
Mercurial is a cross-platform, distributed revision control tool for software developers. It is mainly implemented using the Python programming language, but includes a binary diff implementation written in C. It is supported on Windows and Unix-like systems, such as FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Linux...
revision control.
Version history
| Version | Date | Information |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1.2 (#2) | September 2007 | Added translations: Finnish, Dutch, Russian, Estonian |
| 1.1.2 (#1) | September 2006 | Spanish, Hungarian, Italian, and Czech translations. Minor optimization |
| 1.1.1 | January 2005 | "Christmas Release" Pacman replaces progress bar, Polish translation, localization tweaks, documentation updates, bugfixes |
| 1.1.0 | January 2004 | Added French translation, feature tweaks, bugfixes |
| 1.0.1 | December 2003 | Bugfixes, added more display columns, added drive selection dialog |
| 1.0.0 | October 2003 | First release. 1.0.0 README states: Design and many details are based on KDirStat (kdirstat.sourceforge.net). WinDirStat is "a KDirStat re-programmed for MS Windows". |
Media reception
Some notable reviews are highlighted below.Steve Bass of PC World
PC World (magazine)
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...
provided a brief review of the 1.1.2 release of WinDirStat, summarizing its usefulness:
CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
reviewed the most recent release of WinDirStat, giving it 5 of 5 stars and noting:
Gizmo's Freeware directory featured WinDirStat in a January 2010 list of best free disk analysis software with a 4 of 5 stars review, noting:
The German computer magazine c't (magazin für computertechnik)
C't
c't – Magazin für Computertechnik is a German computer magazine, published by the Heinz Heise publishing house. Originally a special section of the electronics magazine elrad, the magazine has been published monthly since December 1983 and biweekly since October 1997...
published a review of WinDirStat with it bundled in a CD in October 2006.