James Hunt scours the internet for the best
freeware, shareware and paid-for application releases.
Welcome again to the latest instalment of
The Download Directory. Each month, you’ll find us scouring the internet in the
hope of bringing to light the latest application releases, software updates and
browser plug-ins that you don’t know you can’t live without. We cover
everything from freeware to shareware to budget-price commercial software, and
review everything from giant, multi-application office suites to the tiniest
system tray applets. As long as you can download it, we’ll take a look at it.
This month, our investigations have
uncovered WinDirStat, a hard drive analysis tool that helps you locate
space-hogging files and filetypes; PhotoScape, and image-editing program that
throws off the shackles of PhotoShop; A-PDF split, a PDF editor designed as an
affordable alternative to Adobe Acrobat; and IsMyLcdOK, a charmingly names test
program to help you troubleshoot and diagnose potentially ailing monitors. As
well as that, we’ve also got a quick look at the latest beta versions to be
released this month to help you keep track of the new releases coming your way
soon.
WinDirStat 1.1.2
Release Type: Freeware (Open Source)
Official Site: windirstat.info/index.html
There was a time when clearing up a hard
drive meant copying your save games onto a floppy disk. Then it was burning
them to a CD or DVD. And now, who knows what’s big enough to store backups of
modern hard drives. Other hard drives?
Still, as big as the current generation of
hard drives are, they’re still not infinite, even in practical terms. Indeed,
their size actually means that when they start to fill up, it can be quite hard
to pin down where your space has gone and how you can recover it. WinDirStat is
an application that can automate and visualise the process, giving you a quick
and easy way to see exactly which portions of your drive are wasting space, and
how you can free it up.
In fact, it doesn’t just tell you which
directories are full, it also tells you what types of files are taking up
space, and allows you to filter them by various criteria. In a few clicks, you
can weed out the files that you don’t want, while making sure you hang onto the
important stuff. The information is displayed both visually and as a list of
stats, percentages and figures, so that you can get an intuitive and precise
idea about the make-up of your system at the same time.
The interface is immediately clear to read
and use, allowing you to ‘zoom’ into blocks of files to delete them, and to
create regular clean-up jobs, which can be executed in a tiny number of steps.
The open-source nature of the software makes it slightly difficult to figure
out on occasion (the documentation is often out-dated, if not entirely absent),
but it’s not impossible to decipher the more complex areas of the program, and
once you do, it’ll make perfect sense.
Beginners may wish to take extra care,
however. WinDirStat is perhaps a little too cavalier about deleting vast
swathes of files. It would be nice to see them temporarily placed into a
holding area or ‘quarantine’ section by default, instead of simply wiped
outright but, on the other hand, you can’t plan for every eventuality,
especially where human interaction is the problem.
The only other sticking point is the sheer
amount of time it takes to perform a full analysis: ten minutes to scan a large
hard drive, give or take five. Still, that’s a limitation of the hardware. Set
it going, lose yourself down a Wikipedia hole for a few minutes, then come back
once your drive stops churning and you’ll have no complaints to speak of in
that area.
Although those with hundreds of gigabytes
free on their hard drives might scoff, it’s worth noting that the software
would be particularly useful for SSD drives, which have brought the size of
desktop and notebook storage media right back down to 2001 levels. In that
sense, WinDirStat is an excellent tool for analysis, which can also offer
immediately tangible and practical benefits. Portable, free, and expertly
designed, you’d be a fool not to at least try it.
Pros:
Looks great, excellent features, simple to use.
Cons: Poor
documentation of advanced features, potentially damaging in the wrong hands.
Rating: 
