Folder size in windows explorer?

Energize · 14 Jan 2011 at 02:20

How do I get the size of a folder to show up in windows explorer in the detail view? I have selected it to display the size but nothing shows up under the column? I'm sure I could do this with xp.

asim18 · 14 Jan 2011 at 02:38

It's normal. You can do it for XP with some third-party software, but I don't think any software exists for Win7.

You can use something like this though: TreeSize

Energize · 14 Jan 2011 at 02:43

Shocking that such an oversight has been made with regards to basic functionality. In 2011 this should be a standard feature.

EirePlane · 14 Jan 2011 at 07:29

Energize said:
Shocking that such an oversight has been made with regards to basic functionality. In 2011 this should be a standard feature.

IIRC, Microsoft deliberately don't display it. It takes a lot longer to calculate the size of a folder since it would have to include all sub folders and files.

lurkio · 14 Jan 2011 at 10:05

Yeah , but this is windows 7 , the pinnacle of Operating Systems on the Planet earth
It is faster , better , stronger than any previous version and it still cant manage this .....

I have to use windirstat for this functionality when trying to track down where
hard drive space is being used

asim18 · 14 Jan 2011 at 12:07

It would just make it extremely slow while browsing. Directories could be dozens of folders deep, with thousands of files in them. It would take ages querying the index or whatever trying to get folder sizes.

SiriusB · 14 Jan 2011 at 13:18

lurkio said:
Yeah , but this is windows 7 , the pinnacle of Operating Systems on the Planet earth
It is faster , better , stronger than any previous version and it still cant manage this .....

As has been said it takes time to drill down through all the possible folders, sub folders, files and whatnot. I am sure plenty more people would be bitching about how slow Explorer is if MS made it a feature to display folder sizes.

WinDirStat is fantastic but even that takes time to calculate just one folder sometimes.

OCdude · 14 Jan 2011 at 13:53

It does take a while. I use an explorer replacement (Directory Opus) that gives you the option to pre-calculate all the sizes (takes ages) or it can tell you the folder size simply by hovering the cursor over the folder for a second, as you can see in this pic:

Very handy!

lurkio · 14 Jan 2011 at 14:05

SiriusB said:
As has been said it takes time to drill down through all the possible folders, sub folders, files and whatnot. I am sure plenty more people would be bitching about how slow Explorer is if MS made it a feature to display folder sizes.

WinDirStat is fantastic but even that takes time to calculate just one folder sometimes.

Yeah I get that, but then it makes me wonder what is the point having a service
that indexes your files but yet wont make it faster to see how big ur dirs are ?

Energize · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:03

EirePlane said:
IIRC, Microsoft deliberately don't display it. It takes a lot longer to calculate the size of a folder since it would have to include all sub folders and files.

It doesn't need to be calculated on the fly, it can be pre calculated in the background in exactly the same way that directories are indexed for searching. Lots of people only need the feature for a few directories with a couple of hundred files they don't need the windows folder file count for example, so it could be enabled on certain folders only.

In any case the user should be allowed to make the choice to display it or not, it's not as though someone's life is in their hands.