Installation Steps
Once you have downloaded WinDirStat, install the program on the machine(s) whose storage you intend to manage. You will see the following installation screens,



Select the defaults if you are using Windows XP/2000/Vista. Those who are still on the Windows 9x platform will have to select the 'ANSI' option as well. Click Next to continue with the installation.



Leave the default installation path as is or specify directory in which you would like WinDirStat to be installed. Click Install.

Using WinDirStat
Here are some noteworthy features in WinDirStat you will find to really useful while managing your storage devices.



WinDirStat immediately detects all the local storage media including internal and external storage. The program can also detect shared network storage drives. This is a very useful feature as you can remotely check and administer (provided you have access to the shared folder) local drives as well as data/backup servers from your desktop. (Click Ok to proceed.)



The WinDirStat window consists of three panes as shown in the image above. The topmost pane is similar to Windows Explorer, which shows the directory and file structures. It also shows a little bar graph with a percentage indication of the space occupied by this folder on the drive. This allows you to drill down tree to the last file and folder. It also shows the typical folder details like size, last modified, number of items, number of files, number of sub-directories, etc.

The pane on the right, lists the type of files, present on the drive, by their extension. Since each file type is assigned a colour (which can also be customized later within the Configure WinDirStat dialog box). This ensures that you can identify what files are songs, images, system files, Web, images, documents, etc. and identify which ones occupy the most storage space.

The bottom most pane is the 'treemap.' From the treemap you can get to the right file without browsing into folders and subfolders. This allows a user to know which file is occupying how much space with a single click. It also allows you to delete files directly from the pane. For example, if someone attempts to 'ZIP' a movie in an attempt to go undetected, it can immediately be checked here.



WinDirStat took approximately 54 seconds to scan a 160 GB hard drive, full of data, to create a database. The bottom pane displays a 'treemap' user interface. After the initial drive scan, the software presents all the data in this treemap. As you can see, the treemap represents each file as a colored rectangle, the area of which is proportional to the file's size. Ever folder is also represented as a rectangle, which contain all their files and sub-directories. So their area is proportional to the size of the sub-trees. The color of a rectangle indicates the type of the file, as shown in the extension list. This makes the process of identifying information extremely easy.

A cleanup of all unwanted content of the 160 GB hard drive was performed in under 15 minutes. This cleanup resulted in 60 percent of freed up space. Of course, what needs to be deleted varies from company to company.



System administrators can also e-mail a simple text-based report using WinDirStat. In order to be able to send an e-mail ensure that you have an e-mail client like Outlook Express or Mozilla Thunderbird configured on your computer. WinDirStat uses the default e-mail client used on the computer. To ensure that WinDirStat launches the right e-mail client, open Internet Options in Control Panel and select your default e-mail client under the Programs tab.
Simply select the drive or folder, whose statistics you would like to send via e-mail and click Report > Send Mail to Owner.

Conclusion
WinDirStat is easy to use and does not require a very technically inclined person to operate it. It is a must-have tool for all system administrators, IT managers, or even individual business users who need an easy storage management solution.