ShowSize now ignores and skips any symbolic links found during scanning.
A new command line option /svcsva now continues adding to the same CSV file instead of overwriting it.
Added an option to turn off the graying of alternate rows in the reports. Also, to speed up the graying for very large lists, only the items currently displayed are considered. This means that when you scroll the list, the same item may not remain grayed depending on its location in the list of displayed items.
Documented a new fact that the separator character used in CSV export is taken from that set up in Windows Settings--Control Panel--Regional Options--Customize dialog.
Some minor bug fixes are included.
New features in ShowSize 4.2
The splash screen is eliminated in the paid version for a faster start up.
Automatically start another ShowSize: You can put on a new advanced option to automatically start another copy of ShowSize when the drive is different. This leaves the current ShowSize window undisturbed. See the Advanced page of the options dialog. This option is kept off by default because the concept is a little unusual and might confuse some users.
HTML export option: A new option on the Tools menu is available to export a report to an html file. An html file can be viewed in an Internet browser.
Helpful hints: A new introductory guide in the form of "Helpful Hints" is available on the help menu.
Shown items display: A new optional status display below the report has been added that shows the number of files and folders after taking filtering into account. This display can be put ON or OFF in the General options. Put it ON if you are using filters and this information helps you. We leave it off by default. Why? It needs some extra processing and for huge reports, this delay at the end of report may be unacceptable to you. Another point--when it is on, the shown totals also appear in the summary report.
Total size of selected files: When you select one or more files in many of the reports, you get the total size of the files automatically in a popup pane. Earlier this feature was only there in the Folder Sizes report. Moreover, the copy button on this popup pane is improved in that it also copies the names of the selected items to the clipboard along with the total size.
Stricter network licensing: Starting with this version, ShowSize enforces stricter licensing on the number of copies running on different computers on the network. One extra copy is allowed. But beyond that, it refuses to run.
You can now put off the top bigger toolbar on the View menu.
Improved filter processing for "larger than" filter in that a folder will be shown even if it is larger in case it contains files in that particular report that are visible as per the filter.
The "Install menu in Explorer" feature now also checks for invalid menus belonging to other ShowSize copies and warns you to uninstall them before installing the new ones.
New features in ShowSize 4 as compared to earlier versions
The new ShowSize 4 is a next generation software as far as capacity is concerned. Theoretically, it can scan and report even terabytes of disk space! Why theoretically? Because, we have no means to test this. The highest a user has reported is successful scanning of a 120 GB disk containing a million or so file entries!
Six reports: Folder Sizes, File Types, Only Files, Folders and Files, Unused Files, and Active Folders.
Great capacity of huge listings: The earlier version depended on Windows lists which couldn't fill all the views if a huge number of folders were involved. The new version uses the latest technology so that it won't get bogged down by a huge number of folders. Moreover, it can now list files too in many reports.
Reuse of scanned data: New ShowSize now caches data so that if you drill down to a folder within the results, it does not rescan again and only fills the reports. This is much faster, especially for huge lists.
Drag and drop column customization: You can drag and drop to select what columns you want to see in a report and in what order. Menus are also available to do that.
Easier drop down list for sorting: A toolbar gives you easier sorting operations.
Visual bars for size comparisons: By default, you can compare sizes easily by visual bars with the values. You can even put off this feature.
More control on scanning: By default, ShowSize ignores system and hidden folders. You can also add more folders to be excluded in the scan. It also uses the later of modified and create time as modified time for file listings. You can put off these options if you don't like them.
Find files in huge lists: Now you can find the file names in the report easily by typing the first few characters of the file name.
Filters to hide items without affecting the totals: You can hide items by size to reduce the listings without affecting the total statistics. For example, by default, ShowSize does not show the system files and folders.
Better handling of compressed sizes and wasted space: ShowSize automatically uses compressed sizes on NTFS volumes when necessary. It also decides to report the wasted space depending on what columns you have chosen. For example, if you know that the cluster works differently on some netware drives and you don't want the wasted space displays for these netware drives, you can remove wasted space related columns entirely from the report.
Much better printing: You have more choices on printing, including the wysiwyg printing of the trees. Now that ShowSize displays files too, you will find that it is a great file-list printing utility too.
Improved file types report: Now you can see the list of files too for each file type.
Find size of selected folders: In the Folder Sizes report, you can also select a few folders and calculate the total size of them. This helps, for instance, when fitting stuff on a CD.
Explorer operation: You get explorer operation on the right-click menu for all the reports so that you can use ShowSize as a file manager too.
Files only report: You get the Files Only report and get all the advantages described on the page for Files At A Glance. In fact, ShowSize now integrates all the functionality described there.
New active folders report: The new Active Folders report is an attempt to show folders by the size or number of files modified or read in the last so many days.
Powerful command line features continued: All sorts of command line switches for power users so that they can run ShowSize from batch files.
Better interface with Explorer: Now you can selectively install a right-click menu in explorer for each type of report.
Export to CSV format: Now you can export the lists to CSV format files from the Tools menu. This allows them to import them in a database or spreadsheet.
The history of fixes in version 4 since the beta release
Beta Version 4.0.4: Released on November 10, 2003
On Windows ME, on startup, an access violation error message was seen. Fixed.
Sometimes, after exit, the tasks for ShowSize continued to run when seen with the task manager. Fixed.
Some users got hangs on the automatic tips dialog when starting ShowSize for the first time. Now the tips are not shown at startup unless you select that option.
Pre-release Version 4.1.1: Released on February 20, 2004
Decimal separator problem fixed on print margin entry.
Implemented pie chart.
Fixed refresh with left pane off.
New feature added on Folder Sizes report for interactive display of total size of the selected folders.
Drag and drop from Folder Sizes report to Explorer now supported.
Cache was not used when "Go to this folder" was used on the report menus. Fixed.
Cache was not used when Auto mode was switched off. Fixed.
Implemented percent display option for bars.
Implemented better progress indicators and cancel feature when filling the reports.
Implemented byte display option for the column values.
Implemented backup size column in folder sizes.
Explorer installed menus now no longer force the options. They just bring up the reports.
Put hints on column headers.
Fixed the operation, Start another copy of ShowSize.
The filter to hide system items was put off by default as it doesn't report the "temporary
internet folders" that many users want.
Fixed search for names by edit box.
Better progress indicators on sorting.
Optimized the scanning further for speed.
Optimized all the reports for speed.
Fixed initial expand on Folder Sizes report that was not occurring for single level folders.
Fixed refresh problem on slow network drives.
Implemented Warning message to avoid installing too many menus in the Explorer.
Fixed CD cluster reliability so that no warning now occurs on Windows XP where this problem doesn't occur in Windows.
Put up Top Level Files display in the Folder Sizes report for better pie chart capability.
Pre-release Version 4.1.2: Released on February 24, 2004
Print Wysiwyg was not printing beyond the first page. Fixed.
On a cancel, the Free Disk space status message was removed. Fixed.
Version 4.1.3: Released on April 2, 2004
The startup speed is improved.
The network verify for number of copies running is much improved so that it causes minimum delays in a ShowSize session.
Uses better detection and reporting of limitations when using network drives, either directly or through mapped drive letters.
Some intermittent problems on the latest patches of Windows have been eliminated. If you see any more such problems, please report them.
Version 4.1.5: Released on April 26, 2004
Earlier, when ShowSize could not determine compressed size of a file due to an error, such as, Access Denied or File in Use error, it reported the problem but did not list the files for which these errors occurred. This has been fixed and now a list of the files appears in the Summary Information of the reports.
Now an XP style hint is displayed when ShowSize can not determine the correct cluster size. Moreover, this hint can be put off in the options dialog.
The progress indication on slower network locations has been improved.
The "Save to text file" didn't work properly if WYSIWYG printing was selected in the print options. Fixed.
The strange richedit "hyperlink message" appearing on old Windows 98 systems has been eliminated.
Version 4.1.7: Released on June 14, 2004
Command line switches were not working properly. Fixed.
Strange loop situation occuring on hyperthreading CPUs fixed.
Options dialog post processing took too much time for large lists. Fixed.
Version 4.1.8: Released on June 14, 2004
Some licensing issues when running ShowSize on a network caused a message, "Number of running copies exceeds the number of licenses." This is now fixed. Now ShowSize single-user-license allows a network path scanning for simultaneous usage on up to two computers on the network. For example, if you have two computers connected on the network, and you run ShowSize single-user-license on both of them you will have no problem scanning network paths on any computer.
Multi-user licenses: If you have more than two computers, the network scanning will be disallowed on the third computer if you start ShowSize (single-user-copy) there at the same time when it is already running on other two computers. In this case, it is better to buy multi-user packs of ShowSize. Multi-user licenses also carry good discounts. For prices, please see the Buy Now page.
If you use command line features then please note that this version allows both /SV and /CSV switches in the same command line session. You need to specify two different files for them. Hence, in one scanning, you get both a CSV report and a TXT report. The CSV report is good for importing in a spreadsheet or database, and the TXT report is useful for getting the overall summary which can't be given in a CSV report.
Version 4.1.9: Released on July 26, 2004
ShowSize produced occasional faults for the latest service packs of Windows 2000/XP. This has been fixed.
New CSV export option: A new option on the menu is available next to Export CSV operation. This allows you to put only the shown items in the exported CSV data. Earlier full report was always exported. Note that for command line use, the above option is not needed as the levels specification in the command line switches works for CSV export too.
If you use command line features then please note that this version allows both /SV and /CSV switches in the same command line session. You need to specify two different files for them. Hence, in one scanning, you get both a CSV report and a TXT report. The CSV report is good for importing in a spreadsheet or database, and the TXT report is useful for getting the overall summary which can't be given in a CSV report.
The click on "Free Disk Space" display at the bottom was not working. We have now given a button next to it that refreshes this display. This feature may be useful when you are deleting some files and want to see how much space is freed up without refreshing the report.
Why we claim that ShowSize is designed for speed and high capacity?
