You’d probably agree with us if we’d say that it’s easier to fill up your storage space than to clean it up. After all, with plenty of files and folders on your drive, how can you tell what specific item is taking up much space?
Well, this is where WinDirStat comes in handy.
What is WinDirStat
WinDirStat is a freeware created for Windows devices. It scans your hard drives and displays a detailed report, indicating what files and folders are taking up space on your disk. It shows the data in a colorful graph.
So, what does WinDirStat do? With this tool, you can easily identify storage hogs, allowing you to delete them within the application folder.
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How to Use WinDirStat
We know how excited you are to try and use WinDirStat. So, here you go. Let these steps guide you in using WinDirStat:
- Download WinDirStat here and install it.
- Select the recommended installation.
- Once installed, launch WinDirStat.
- Choose the drive that you want to check and evaluate.
- Hit OK.
- Wait as the program scans your selected drive.
- Once the scan is complete, you will be shown a summary of the results on your screen. By default, the list is sorted by file size. If you click on an item, you can find out which files are taking up the most space.
- As soon as you identify the space-hoggers on your PC, right-click on them and select Delete to Recycle Bin for later disposal or Delete (no way to undelete) for permanent deletion.
Ideally, you should use this tool once a month to clean up any files that you no longer need. This works best with a PC repair tool that optimizes your PC and gets rid of unwanted files lurking on your system.
Pros and Cons of WinDirStat
There are many things that you’ll love about WinDirStat. But as with most software programs, it also has some downsides. We’ve listed them below:
Pros
- It installs quickly.
- It can support multiple file types of varying sizes.
- You can freely choose what specific hard drive to scan. This is very useful if you have multiple drives on your PC.
- It allows you to scan a single folder instead of the entire drive.
- It allows you to easily delete files from a certain application folder.
Cons
- It only works on Windows.
- Scans often take time to complete.
- It does not have a portable version.
- You cannot save the scan results for later use.
Other Things You Should Know About WinDirStat
Before you proceed with installing WinDirStat, here are more details that you might be interested in:
- It supports almost all Windows OS versions, from Windows 95 to Windows 10/11.
- You can scan multiple or individual hard drives.
- You can scan external hard drives, too!
- You can conveniently browse through files and folders the same way as you would in Windows Explorer. The only difference is that it sorts the folders by total size.
- It allows you to quickly copy the path of a file or folder.
- It has a cleanup menu that provides a way to access files and folders from within the tool.
- It displays up to 2 million subitems in a directory.
- You can change the colors for every directory listing within the tool’s settings.
- You can customize the height, style, and brightness of the utility.
Verdict
So, is WinDirStat worth it? For us, it definitely is, especially that we usually don’t have the luxury of time to organize our files and folders. At the end of the day, the decision to whether or not install it depends on your personal preferences and your system needs.
Here’s one final takeaway before ending this post. Make it a habit to run regular malware scans using an anti-malware tool. By doing so, you can reduce the chances of seeing suspicious files and folders as you browse through WinDirStat.
Have you used WinDirStat before? Share your experience in the comment section below.