Easy to view folder size in Windows 8.1 with Folder Size 2.6
Folder Size is a small but very useful shell extension designed to show folder size in Windows Explorer. In fact, this tool shows the folder size right in Windows XP’s Explorer, but it doesn’t show size of folders inside the Explorer when you’re using it in Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8.1, and instead, whenever you open up a folder containing sub folders, it shows a pop-up window with size of all folders.
There are some problems:
Sizes are difficult to interpret correctly! Since Windows Vista, the system makes use of hard links, where the same physical file can appear in multiple directory entries. This has the effect of making the Windows directory appear larger than it really is! I think the best solution is to split Size into two concepts: Logical Size and Physical size. I’ve started this, but it’s not working yet.
The background service is difficult to manage with Windows’s UAC model. The system-permissions service should really be abandoned in favor of user-level caches. The service already does this internally. This would work better with multiple accounts in Windows XP too.
Background scanning is not optimized: Windows Vista/7/8 support I/O priorities, which should be used to keep scanning fast while keeping the system responsive.
Popup windows frequently cover up Explorer’s Close button. The popups auto-size and position, but it’s tricky. Ideally, simple UI behavior would handle many usage styles: small or maximized Explorer windows, single or multiple monitors, etc.
