Can't see folder size in Explorer

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  1. Posts : 1,255
    Windows 10 Pro
       #11

    Windows Explorer is the default file management utility in Windows unless another is installed. It needs to be an appropriate tool with no serious problems for a wide user base, not just home users. As already explained obtaining the folder size by current methods has some serious potential issues when used in a corporate network, and some other situations as well. That makes this feature inappropriate for Windows Explorer. Maybe some other implementation is possible without these issues but only an experienced developer who thoroughly under stands the issues could make that judgement. This is far more complex than most people imagine.

    If a user desires this feature they can install a third party utility. In that case the user takes on the responsibility for any issues it may cause.
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  2. Posts : 13,896
    Win10 Version 22H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       #12

    For accuracy in looking for information Windows Explorer was renamed to File Explorer in Win8 and later. For historical info, on Win3.xx/WFW3.xx it was called File Manager, changed in Win95.

    I've found the display settings play a part in hiding the drives' Properties item at the bottom of right-click menus, sometimes helps to Maximize the File Explorer window.
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  3. Posts : 4
    Windows 10
       #13

    dalchina said:
    XYplorer manages this quite effectively - a dual pane tabbed full-featured file manager, so I would guess there are other 3rd party file managers that can do this too.
    A file manager is so basic to an operating system. This kind of problem is ridiculous. Microsoft has head up ass. I've been coping with it for 35 years now since before windows NT. 3 out of 4 versions they put out are crap, windows 10 included. I'm going back to windows 7.
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  4. Posts : 4
    Windows 10
       #14

    better still, get Linux!
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  5. Posts : 1,255
    Windows 10 Pro
       #15

    DannyBoy said:
    A file manager is so basic to an operating system. This kind of problem is ridiculous. Microsoft has head up ass. I've been coping with it for 35 years now since before windows NT. 3 out of 4 versions they put out are crap, windows 10 included. I'm going back to windows 7.
    Of course Microsoft could have shown folder sizes in Windows Explorer, and done it better than any third party file manager. But they choose not to for reasons explained in posts #5 and #11. It certainly can be lightning fast on a small folder on a local drive. But on a network drive with a slow network connection (and there are plenty of those) it would be anything but fast. It could saturate the network bandwidth for lengthy periods of time, and all for a relatively minor feature. If it had come to that corporate IT managers would have demanded, begged that Microsoft not include this feature.
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  6. Posts : 1
    win 10
       #16

    lx07 said:
    There are plenty of third party tools which will show you the size of folders (such as treesize free ) but File explorer will not.
    Just so people are aware... as of right now, treesize free file download...according to virustotal.com is registering a single virus in this file.

    So before you install go to virustotal and reanalyze it to be sure.
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  7. Posts : 1
    Windows 10 Pro 64bit
       #17

    LMiller7 said:
    Of course Microsoft could have shown folder sizes in Windows Explorer, and done it better than any third party file manager. But they choose not to for reasons explained in posts #5 and #11. It certainly can be lightning fast on a small folder on a local drive. But on a network drive with a slow network connection (and there are plenty of those) it would be anything but fast. It could saturate the network bandwidth for lengthy periods of time, and all for a relatively minor feature. If it had come to that corporate IT managers would have demanded, begged that Microsoft not include this feature.
    I disagree with 'relatively minor feature' it is an extremely valuable feature, and it's an absolute pain-in-the-ass that it doesn't exist within the OS and that I have to buy other software to do it. It is almost fundamental to an operating system that it knows how much space is being used by files at storage locations, and yet this information is kept from the user. Frankly it's retarded.
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  8. Posts : 13,896
    Win10 Version 22H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       #18

    I may be missing something here but doesn't the right-click of a Folder then click on Properties give the total size of a Folder? All of mine do in both the left pane and right pane of File Explorer just like it did in the earlier Windows Explorer. I used the feature just last night in determining how to break up a Folder full of subFolders containing picture files for transfer onto DVD discs.
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  9. Posts : 42,735
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #19

    I think what is hoped for is sthg like this:
    Can't see folder size in Explorer-snap-2016-10-06-16.18.52.jpg
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  10. Posts : 5,478
    2004
       #20

    Berton said:
    I may be missing something here but doesn't the right-click of a Folder then click on Properties give the total size of a Folder?
    @Berton I've spent more than an hour trying to phrase this response better but in short no. Right click does show some kind of folder size but not what any normal person would understand as "the total size"

    I keep writing some kind of dissertation and deleting it.

    There are various ways to look at size:

    • How big is something assuming the whole file is perfectly aligned on disk boundaries?
    • How big would it be if it was/wasn't compressed? Do you want to see compressed or uncompressed size?
    • How big would it be if it was/wasn't compressed but some blocks were identical on DASD? Would it be the same?
    • How big would it be if your were deduping it and 95% was the same as some other file? Then what?


    I have spent a bit of time with the TreeSize guys attempting to get them to report DASD utilization more accurately. It annoyed me that their software would say my compressed Windows directory (I compress it a xpress16k) was shown as 1.9GB when clearly (to me) it was more like 3GB. They said it was too difficult to show compressed disk sizes accurately.

    It really isn't an easy question to answer and no, while right click will give you one answer it is not necessarily the correct one or the answer to the question you were asking.

    If you want to know how much disk space something requires it needs a more specific question I think.

    For example: If I add another mp4 copy of Star Wars or another Windows VM how much more disk space will it take?

    I can tell you if I add another Windows VM to my Server (which is running Server TP5) it will increase disk use by around about 500MB. So you tell me - how big is that VM? 500MB as all the software is the same? 20GB as that is the disk size? If I add another copy of star wars it should be zero (almost).
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