Why doesnt any version of Windows show folder sizes in the 'size' column?

Keltik THC

Keltik THC

Keltik THC

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This has always confused me.

Microsoft always have a 'size' column but it only works with individual files and not folders.

It obviously knows the size of them because when you hover the mouse over the folder it shows you the size.

I remember downloading a hack for XP years ago that allowed me to show folder size in this column, might try and find something similar for Win7.

I just wondered if anyone knew why this was? if there was any technical reason or if it was just Microsoft being slack again.
 
Keltik THC said:
I just wondered if anyone knew why this was? if there was any technical reason or if it was just Microsoft being slack again.
Click to expand...

I doubt it was MS being slack. At a rough guess.....nobody ever asked them to put the feature in?
 
Performance reasons. When you hover over a folder, it scans the folder's content to determine the size before showing you the pop-up. If it tried to show you the size of all folders currently in view, your hard disk would potentially get thrashed to hell in a lot of scenarios... the resource hit just wouldn't be worth it. Try it sometime with a folder containing hundreds/thousands of small files, and you'll see it takes a while before it can display the info.
 
This is really something they should add in now, by default it should only be active for indexed locations..

You can get it for XP / 2003

Google 'foldersize', it's an awesome addon, doesn't work in Vista/7
I use it on my fileserver
 
Even on my crummy old Dell 1.4ghz 1gb, 80gb laptop it doens't really 'hit' it, scans for a few seconds when I open My Computer, but you can use it whilst it's updating anyway
 
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