This post was published 7 months 27 days ago.
It\'s is possible that the information within this article is now out of date or updated.

Last night I was trying to figure out what was taking up so much memory in my pocket pc and my laptop hard-drive.  I used Windows Explorer and searched through all the files and folders for the culprits.  But it was very tedious because folders don’t show their size in the Windows Explorer columns.  Check out the screen shot below:

Find my solution after the break.

My work laptop has Windows XP, and through my search I found the free utility called Folder Size.  It is simple to use.  Just download and install, then open Windows Explorer in details view.  Then right click above a column, choose More, and choose Folder Size.

Then right click above any column and uncheck Size.  Then go to Tools, Folder Options, View Tab, and click on Make this the default option for all folders.  Then all your explorer windows will open up this way.

Now confirm your choice:

Now you have the folder sizes:

If you have Windows Vista you are out of luck.  At least with this software.  Though Vista allows you to hover your mouse over each folder to find the folder size, that is an inelegant solution.    But you do have another, free, excellent option called ExplorerXP.

It basically replaces Windows Explorer and does an excellent job.  It features:

Drag & Drop with Explorer, the tab bar and special folders on the main toolbar.

Multy rename tool – allows to rename multiple files in one step.

Displays folder size information and the real size of compressed files & folders.

Folder Size Cache – greatly improves the speed of the folder size calculations between sessions.

Merge   /   Split   /  Tools. 

Advanced copy/move.  

Unicode support.

USB devices support.

Clean – recursively removes files that match given list of extentions or wildcards. 

Groups – A group is a collection of folders, which users are able to access quickly or drag & drop files to them.  

Configurable keyboard shortcuts.  

Small download size – only 410 KB.

I installed this on my home Vista computer and enjoyed it’s utility and ease of use.  I’m even considering replacing Windows Explorer on my XP machine.

So next time you want to take a close look at your files and folders, use one of these two free utilities to help you finish your task quickly and efficiently.  If you have any other ideas, please share with the class.

Steve Laser (136 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook