Suspected PayPal Hackers Seek Deal To Stay Out Of Prison
2 Men Arrested After Teen Was Run Over For His iPad
DLS Review: Scanner disk-space visualization software
Scanner lets you visualize disk space usage using a futuristic-looking, color-coded pie chart. Having tested it, I must say it does not come close in usefulness (or even visual appeal, but that's subjective) to WinDirStat, which is my go-to for this type of thing.
Pros:
- Once scanning is done, navigation is very snappy.
- It looks nice!
- Easily remove unwanted files using the context menu (right-click > "Remove" or "Recycle").
- It's free -- actually, open-source.
- No installation needed -- perfectly portable, and small.
Cons:
- The window is not very large, and cannot be resized.
- It feels somewhat dated. Maybe that's because it's written in Delphi, or the UI toolkit it's using, I'm not sure.
- I find the interface less than intuitive, but that's just me. This kind of pie chart makes it difficult for me to drill in and out of my filesystem and maintain a clear mental image of what's where.
- When you run it, it immediately starts scanning your entire system, which is a time-consuming operation. What if I just want to scan a single drive?
- The name is not Google-friendly. Googling "Scanner disk space" does work, though.
Bottom line:
The concept is interesting, and might work using a more modern UI toolkit. Kudos on making it free and OSS. I would give it 6 out of 10, and stick to WinDirStat.
Comments
8
Subscribe to commentsPeterApr 21st 2010 6:50PM
I really dislike those "pie chart" views also. It makes it much harder to see what is actually going on.
I prefer Sequoia View. It gives you basically the same view as WinDirStat but it doesn't require installation, it's a standalone executable.
http://w3.win.tue.nl/en/research/research_computer_science/visualization/sequoiaview/
ZintinioApr 21st 2010 6:52PM
This looks similar to the gnome disk usage analyzer, cool that it's on windows.
alahmnatApr 21st 2010 7:13PM
It also looks like DaisyDisk on the Mac. Hooray for commonality in interfaces! ;)
Sean Su saysApr 25th 2010 10:36AM
Except DaisyDisk is new. Scanner is over 10 years old.
Ian PerezApr 22nd 2010 9:19AM
OverDisk, anyone?
http://users.forthnet.gr/pat/efotinis/programs/overdisk.html
AnthonyApr 22nd 2010 9:32AM
The UI has nothing to do with it being made in Delphi, that's just a weird UI altogether. :-)
That said, I happen to like the starburst charts. Other programs that also generate them (for Windows, at least) are TDP x-Ray (http://www.tdp.cz/downloads/en/xray-lite), Disk Space Fan (diskspacefan.com), and TreePIE (SourceForge project treepie).
For those that prefer the Treemap style charts (e.g. SequoiaView, WinDirStat, SpaceMonger), one project I hadn't heard of until recently is SpaceSniffer (http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/index.html). It claims to even scan Alternate Data Streams, which isn't something you hear about from most disk space visualization software.
Only 3 URLs? GAH.
Brian!Apr 22nd 2010 11:42AM
I prefer SpaceMonger over WinDirStat.
Sean Su saysApr 25th 2010 10:35AM
No offense, but looks like Erez Zuckerman didn't spend enough time reviewing the program...
Erez says: The window is not very large, and cannot be resized.
Reality: Actually it can. That's what the + and - buttons are. Not exactly intuitive but it works.
Erez says: It feels somewhat dated. Maybe that's because it's written in Delphi, or the UI toolkit it's using, I'm not sure.
Reality: That's probably because Steffen Gerlach hasn't updated Scanner nor it's page for over 9 years. I've been using it since May of 2000 and he barely, if ever, updated anything for Scanner.
Erez says: I find the interface less than intuitive, but that's just me. This kind of pie chart makes it difficult for me to drill in and out of my filesystem and maintain a clear mental image of what's where.
Reality: Just mouse over any folders and it will show you what folder you're pointing at or what file it is.
Erez says: When you run it, it immediately starts scanning your entire system, which is a time-consuming operation. What if I just want to scan a single drive?
Reality: Click on a single drive and it'll immediately stop, then scan only that drive or folder immediately.
Erez says: The name is not Google-friendly. Googling "Scanner disk space" does work, though.
Reality: Yes it isn't friendly which is why most people don't know about it. You could also search for "Scanner Gerlach" and that'll work too.