WizTree - A Very Fast Disk Space Analyzer

Version reviewed: WizTree 1.05 WizTree is a lightweight application that scans your hard drive's MFT section and displays information about the size of every file and folder on your PC. Download WizTree

Features: Finds the files and folders using the most space on your hard drive Works very fast Finds the top 1000 largest files on your hard drive Sort the contents of your entire hard drive by folder size and optionally delete files and folders

It is always good to know what files or folders take the most space on your computer. This sort of detail is not difficult to find out, since all respectable file managers offer the possibility to sort the items in a location according to their size.

However, for a detailed perspective that involves learning the exact size of the largest file along with additional info, you have to rely on a software solution. WizTree can be a simple alternative for this sort of job, and it is available as a portable download, too.

Keeping an eye on the fill-level of a drive and the largest items can help you identify potential space hogs and claim some gigabytes back.

The application is free of charge and does not require any technical knowledge to work with. Furthermore, it is perfectly suitable for beginner users who try to avoid complex professional tools that bring to the table all the whatnot they don’t need.

WizTree can be used freely, but the developer accepts donations in order to keep the project going and improve it. As such, a donation button is visible in the main window of the application.

The interface is quite simple and seems to be designed to provide only relevant options and sparing no space to offer information about the selected disk or scan time. In the upper part of the screen you can see the total size of the scanned target, along with the amount of free and used space.

Despite having a scan button available in the upper part of the application window, WizTree triggers the drive assessment procedure as soon as a target is selected. Simply pick a partition and it automatically starts checking for the largest items on it.

The list of results comprises info about both files and folders and shows the hidden items as well. Everything is well laid down, offering a complete picture of the data that occupies the drive.

The application displays the total amount of the partition and then runs down the files and folders taking the most. These results are shown both in percentile and in GB.

Furthermore, WizTree includes in the results data such as the number of items present in a directory (files and folders), the last modification date and the attributes.

The tree structure of the results allows you to go inside folders down to file level, and the application has absolutely no problem displaying the details for the substructures too. The interesting part is that all the info is shown on the spot and no additional scanning is necessary.

Another section is designed strictly for files and provides a top 1,000 of the largest ones; for each entry, WizTree calculates the percentage of the drive it occupies.

Right clicking on an item shows a modified Windows Explorer context menu, which features the possibility to copy the location path, start Command Prompt console or open up the containing folder.

Although WizTree does not seem to be much different from other disk space analyzers on the market, it comes with the advantage that it works extremely fast, which is explained by the fact that it reads the partition’s MFT (Master File Table), which contains all the information about the files stored. This way, the performance drag caused by the operating system is completely eliminated.

During our testing, according to its own calculations, it managed to completely assess a 300GB drive with about 22% of free space (occupation percentage was around 235GB or 78%) in under three seconds.

However, our timing for the job showed a slightly higher value, of 3.6 seconds, albeit the difference was quite negligible.

We also noticed that in some cases it may take longer to complete the assessment of a target, even if it is of a smaller size. A 200GB partition took about six seconds to evaluate but this happened because of the large number of items available (more than 264k, compared to about 24k on the larger drive).

WizTree does not offer any type of graphical representation of the data distribution on a drive. It just makes available the raw data.

There isn’t too much to configure in the program, as the developer only makes available the possibility to change the way values are displayed (dynamic, byte, kilobyte, megabyte or gigabyte) and to enable or disable access to the Windows Explorer context menu from the interface.

The Good

The main advantage of WizTree is that it works lightning-fast. It makes a complete assessment of the target, thus allowing you to browse the data freely and not have to wait for new scans in order to learn about storage details.

The Bad

At the moment, it only works with NTFS drives, but there may be support for other types in the future. There is no support for network drives.

The Truth

WizTree is simple, moves fast and fulfills its purpose. There are no complicated settings to tinker with and it does not waste time with creating graphical representations of the file distribution on the drive.

Running the portable version ensures that Windows Registry stays clean and you can use it from a USB drive.

التصنيف : Software