FOLDER SIZE REPORTING

Key Metric Software is proud to announce the release of FolderSizes 5.1 now with support for disk space analysis report delivery via email.

Specifically, any disk space analysis report generated by the FolderSizes command line or scheduler interfaces can now also be delivered to one or more email addresses. FolderSizes does this by communicating directly with your mail service provider (via SMTP). Here’s what the email configuration screen in FolderSizes looks like:

As you can see, FolderSizes email integration supports SMTP authentication, protocol-level security (SSL and TLS), SMTP connection logging, and much more.

Support for report delivery via has also been integrated directly into the FolderSizes report scheduler.

In the screen shot above, we’re analyzing the path “c:\temp” and exporting the resulting disk space analysis report in two formats – one HTML and one CSV. When we enable the “Email report file(s)” option, FolderSizes will deliver both export files to the specified email addresses. FolderSizes can schedule and delivery file reports and search operations in a similar manner.

FolderSizes 5.1 is a free upgrade for any existing v5 license holder, and is available for immediate download.

Yesterday, we published a bug-fix release of FolderSizes (version 5.0.84). It resolves a number of problems, and is a recommended upgrade for all users (download from here).

We also released a new build of Duplicate File Detective 4. If you haven’t yet had a chance to check out Duplicate File Detective 4, you’re missing out on an amazing release of a software product that complements FolderSizes very nicely (we even offer Duplicate File Detective at a promotional price to FolderSizes users – email us for details)!

Duplicate File Detective 4 is a major new release, and offers a wealth of new features, including support for finding duplicate songs (MP3, iTunes, and many others), file hash caching, zip file content analysis, a new media preview window, and tons more. Please download the free trial today and see for yourself.

FolderSizes introduces a powerful feature called calculated date/time fields that provides deeper insights into your folder contents. This innovative capability solves a fundamental limitation in how Windows handles folder timestamps.

The Problem with Standard Windows Timestamps

Windows maintains three primary timestamps for folders:

• Last modified
• Created
• Last accessed

However, these timestamps don’t always accurately reflect the actual contents of folders. Here’s why:

Windows only updates folder timestamps when:

• Files are added to or removed from a folder
• The folder itself is renamed or moved

Windows does NOT update folder timestamps when:

• Files inside the folder are modified
• Files in subfolders are changed
• Files are renamed without changing location

This creates a significant gap in understanding when the contents of a folder were truly last modified.

How Calculated Date/Time Fields Work

FolderSizes addresses this limitation by analyzing the timestamps of everything contained within each folder—including all files and subfolders—to calculate a more meaningful timestamp.

The Modified (calculated) date shows the most recent modification timestamp of any item within the entire folder hierarchy. This provides a much more accurate picture of when the folder’s contents were last changed.

Seeing the Difference in Action

To view calculated timestamps in FolderSizes:

1. Launch FolderSizes
2. Right-click on the column headers in the main window
3. Ensure the Modified (calculated) column is enabled
4. For comparison, position this column next to the standard Modified column

When analyzing folders, you’ll often notice significant differences between these values. The calculated date is typically more recent because it reflects changes to file contents that Windows folder timestamps miss.

Why This Matters

Calculated date/time fields deliver several important benefits:

• Accurate content tracking: Know when folder contents were truly last modified
• Better sorting capabilities: Sort folders by their actual recent activity
• Improved file management: Identify outdated content more reliably
• Enhanced archiving decisions: Make better choices about what to archive based on actual usage

Real-World Applications

This feature proves invaluable when:

• Looking for recently modified project files across complex folder structures
• Identifying which folders contain outdated content
• Determining which areas of your file system are most actively used
• Making data-driven decisions about archival and cleanup

By providing timestamps that truly reflect folder contents, FolderSizes gives you a more accurate understanding of your data landscape.

When Key Metric Software launched its Duplicate File Detective product in May of 2005, we had a simple goal in mind – produce a superior product for IT professionals and experienced computing users. Since then, Duplicate File Detective has experienced strong growth – helping thousands of customers manage and optimize their file systems by providing superior, scalable, and reliable file deduplication.

Our customers have also found that FolderSizes and Duplicate File Detective work very well together. Although FolderSizes does have a duplicate file report that can identify duplicates by a combination of file name, date, and size – Duplicate File Detective goes far beyond this capability with content comparison services, advanced duplicate file selection/marking features, extremely robust duplicate file processing (moving, deleting, and archiving) facilities, and much more.

When we first released Duplicate File Detective, we decided to make it available at a huge discount to anyone purchasing FolderSizes. Simply click any of the FolderSizes license purchase links on the order page, and you’ll be given the opportunity to purchase Duplicate File Detective at half its normal price point. You end up paying $20.00 US dollars for the most powerful duplicate file management software available!

We originally intended to run this promotion for a limited time only, but we’ve since decided to extend it indefinitely. After all, it just makes good sense and our customers love it.

Just another great reason to buy FolderSizes today.

P.S. If you missed the boat and purchased a FolderSizes license without taking advantage of this offer, you’re probably now living a life of profound regret, shame and sadness. Well, don’t worry – just email us, and we’ll make it right!

From a feature perspective, FolderSizes 5 is easily the most compelling version of our flagship disk space analysis and reporting software ever released. New features such as concurrent analysis of multiple file system paths, support for saving and re-loading XML file system analysis data, calculated date/time fields, and rules-based search are garnering rave reviews from our customers.

But the feature of which we’re most proud is perhaps a bit less flashy, and yet still critically important in the age of multi-terabyte storage subsystems. It’s a feature that required changes to every single aspect of FolderSizes – from the disk space visualization and reporting mechanisms down to the proprietary in-memory file system database that drives them.

That feature is native 64-bit support.

Earlier releases of FolderSizes would indeed run on 64-bit systems, and it did so through the magic of WoW64, a compatibility layer that allows 32-bit applications to operate in 64-bit environments. Which sort of begs the question – if FolderSizes has always worked in 64-bit environments, why does the new native 64-bit support matter at all?

There’s a one-word answer for that question: scalability. FolderSizes is designed from the ground up to store file system analysis data directly in system memory. This approach has a number of important benefits, the most important of which is performance – using system memory instead of a back-end database provides FolderSizes with serious performance advantages, allowing our customers to solve real-world storage analysis problems faster and with greater efficiency.

So how does the FolderSizes in-memory database design relate to scalability? The answer lies in a fundamental limit of all 32-bit processes – they can only address (access) around 2-3GB of system memory, regardless of how much memory is actually present in the host computer.

From a software perspective, this addressable memory cap represents an arbitrary limit to scalability. For enterprises with large, multi-terabyte storage systems, our customers need FolderSizes to scale without such limits. If the host computer running FolderSizes has 8 or 16 GB of system memory, then that memory should be usable by running applications (including FolderSizes) to solve real-world business problems. 64-bit systems have experienced massive gains in market share recently, precisely because memory is cheap and scalability is more critical than ever.

The 64-bit edition of FolderSizes 5 blows away the scalability limits of the 32-bit world. Current 64-bit system architectures allows access to 256 TB (yes, that’s terabytes) of memory address space, further positioning FolderSizes as the leader in enterprise-class storage analysis software.

If you’re ready to solve real-world storage analysis problems with amazing performance and without arbitrary limits, then FolderSizes 5 is waiting for you.