Version 1.0.3.0 Released

Thanks once again to everyone who's contacted me recently with ideas, suggestions, and bug reports. Here are the release notes for version 1.0.3.0:

• No longer showing "control panel" in the folder browser tree. This was extraneous from a folder browsing perspective.


• Slight improvements to the "no items to display" text that shows within empty controls.


• Report path history is now saved between application instances.


• Report path combo box will now accept the direct entry of a folder path.


• The "view folder files" option is now switched on by default. Folder files will be displayed in the detail view (top right pane), but the graph view (bottom right) will just display folders.


• Detail list view sort column and sort direction are now remembered between program launches. Since the lower-right graph is automatically sorted in sync with the detail list view, it's sort properties are retained as well.


• Now sorting the directories presented in the Folder Browser panel. It seems that on 9x platforms these weren't being naturally populated in a sorted order (as they are on 2k/XP).


• Added the ability to choose the fonts used to draw the lower-right hand graph.


• Added some missing tool tips to the graph display properties window, and resolved a defect that prevented their display.


• Modified the graph display logic so that folders containing only files will still report an overall size within the graph label / title.


• Made several other improvements to the graph drawing code. Eliminated a couple of computational artifacts, improved the graph bordering logic, improved use of anti-aliasing, and made a few other minor tweaks. It's lookin' pretty groovy, I think. ;-)


• Several minor defect resolutions.

Click here to download the latest version!

Great FolderSizes Review

I see lots of mentions of FolderSizes around the web these days and I enjoy them all, but here's one that stands out:

Identify Space Hogs: Which Are The Largest Files/Folders In Your Hard Disk?

Written by Robin Good of Mast New Media, this is a very well-written article that does a great job of communicating exactly what FolderSizes does. In fact, several of his articles caught my eye - he has a strong, practical perspective on technology that might interest you as well. Check out his site - highly recommended.

Keep up the great work, Robin!

Version 1.0.2.0 Released

This version of FolderSizes adds an entirely new report type to the mix - the Temp Files Report. Thanks for those FolderSizes users who have filled my mailbox with suggestions and comments - don't hesitate to keep them coming!

Also, I've had a couple people ask me recently why they can't sort the order of the main FolderSizes graph. The answer is, of course, that you can! Just sort the detail view above it, and the graph will be sorted the same way. FolderSizes can even sort results displayed as the scan is in progress - and as new entries are added to the detail/graph views, the sort order is retained! All done through careful thread management via synchronization primitives, along with lightning-fast scan result sorting algorithms - it's so fast, you don't even notice (just the way it should be).

Version 1.0.2.0 Release Notes:

• Added a "% of parent" column to the detail list view.


• Added a brand new file report type called "Temporary Files". This new report will provide you with insight as to location of temp files on your system, as well as their size. This is done via a temp filename "mask" which is compared against each scanned filename; those that match the mask are included in the report. Since the temp report list can be burdened by a very large number of files (for example, if you scan your entire C drive, you may found many thousands of temp files), the list sorting and containment algorithms for this report have been highly optimized.


• Many new memory and performance optimizations.


• Increased horizontal size of file reporting window slightly to accommodate plans for future capabilities.


• Changed default control focus of the report generator dialog to the path combo box. Also changed default button to the "start scan" button.


• The FolderSizes graph view can now be used to navigate child folders, just as the list view can. Click a graph bar to highlight the corresponding entry in the list above. Double-click a graph bar to drill into the corresponding subfolder.


• Extended the online help, as required, to accommodate the changes to this build.

Click here to download the latest version!

Version 1.0.1.0 Released

Version 1.0.1.0 (Released August 16th, 2003)

• Now when a folder scan completes, the result graph shows the total size of the scanned folder as part of the graph label.


• Plugged a system handle leak that occured during file report generation.


• Modified the formatting of the "files" and "folders" columns in the main folder/file list to use thousands separators.


• Numerous memory optimizations.


• Added keyboard scroll support to the graph pane. Now supports up/down arrows, page up/down, and home/end.


• Revised the help files to bring them up to date with the current build.


• The uninstaller now cleans up registry entries created by FolderSizes.

Click here to download the latest version!

Build 1.0.0.9 Released

Quite a long list of changes and improvements in this one, folks. What can I say, I had a productive weekend. ;-)

Also a fairly critical fix for the Win9x/ME platform, so those users are strongly encouraged to upgrade.

Version 1.0.0.9 (Released August 10th, 2003)

• Added new text export capability. The primary folder list contents can now be exported as either comma or tab separated values (.csv and .txt file formats, respectively).
  
• Added new export options (see tools | options | export) for text exports. User can choose whether or not folder list headers are included in export, as well as whether exported list fields are quoted.
  
• Added text export capability to all of the report types contained with the report generation system (e.g. "largest files", "oldest files", etc.). Reports can be exported as either comma or tab separated values.
  
• Minor changes to the arrangement of certain top-level menu items.
  
• Added ability to export the list view contents to the clipboard (as comma separated values).
  
• Graph / list view splitter position now restores correctly when the application re-starts.
  
• Added new graph display section to options dialog. Can now determine whether gradient effect is used for the background, and can choose which colors are used.
  
• Altered the behavior of the banding graph in the "largest files report". Previously, hovering over a specific band would reveal the corresponding file name in a read-only edit box just beneath it. In this version, the edit box has been removed. To replace it, you can now hover over a band graph to get a tool tip which reveals the file name. As before, a band can still be clicked to find the corresponding entry in the tabular list.
  
• Graph display options now allow user to select the direction of the gradient graph background. Choose from "vertical", "horizontal", "forward diagonal", or "backward diagonal".
  
• Numerous improvements (speed optimizations, color cycling algorithm tweaks, etc.) within the banding graph drawing code.
  
• Resolved a problem with initiating reporting scans on Win9x/ME in certain environments.
  

Click here to download the latest version!

Build 1.0.0.8 Released

FolderSizes Release Notes

Version 1.0.0.8 (Released August 6th, 2003)

• Resolved minor defect relating to the folder explorer history buffer.
  
• Now highlighting the selected banding graph item in the "largest files" report when clicked.
  
• Several performance enhancements and memory optimizations.
  
• Normalized the color palette used across the various graphing objects.
  
• Added new toolbar button for quick access to report generator.
  
• Added ability to save the "folder tree" (as a text file) that's created during report generation scans. It seems that people really like these. :-)
  
• Added a few more tool tips here and there.

Click here to download the latest version!

Strong early response

Well, I have to admit to being a bit surprised by the interest FolderSizes appears to be generating already. The FolderSizes.com website is already attracting hundreds of unique visitors (thousands of "hits") every day, and it hasn't even been indexed by a search engine yet (as far as I can tell).

I'm also getting quite a few emails from users that feel strongly about FolderSizes. Clearly it solves a very real problem that many users have, and people are adding FolderSizes to their bags of software tricks for maintaining their computers and managing their hard disk space utilization.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who's taken the time to email me with their comments. Please keep in mind that I love to get feedback of any kind (yes, even criticism), so email me if you're using FolderSizes. I look forward to hearing from you.