WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

Description

WinDirStat is a disk usage analyzer and cleanup assistant for Microsoft Windows. Scan drives, folders, network shares, or connected MTP devices, then explore disk usage through sortable file lists, file-type statistics, and interactive treemaps, sunbursts, or flame graphs.

Find large or duplicate files, inspect permissions, estimate storage costs, export reports, and run cleanup or deleted-file recovery tools. See the website for an overview and the user guide for usage details.

Major features

• Scan multiple drives or folders together, with pause/resume, refresh, and accelerated local NTFS scanning when elevated
• Explore largest files, file types, logical versus physical size, hardlinks, and free/unknown space with configurable visualizations
• Search scanned results by name, size, file/folder type, or owner; filter scans by path, name, size, or age, with regular-expression support
• Detect duplicates using configurable hashes and cloud-file safeguards; optional sparse hashing labels sampled matches as Probable duplicates
• Inspect file and folder permission entries and estimate storage tier costs by file modification age
• Watch file-system changes, save/load scans as CSV or JSON, and export scan, duplicate, or permission reports from the command line
• Recover deleted files from local NTFS, exFAT, and FAT drives with administrator access; recovery depends on surviving metadata and file data
• Open, move, or delete files; run Windows cleanup tools, NTFS compression, hardlink deduplication, and custom cleanup commands
• Customize layouts, columns, colors, fonts, and toolbar size, with dark mode, portable settings, translations, and Explorer integration

For changes in recent versions, please check out the change log.

Getting started

1. Choose drives or Individual Folders in Select Drives. Use the add-folder button to scan several folders together. Connected MTP devices appear under Individual Drives.
2. Enable Scan for duplicate files only when needed; hashing adds file reads. For accelerated full-drive NTFS scans, use File > Run Elevated.
3. Sort All Files or open Largest Files, select an item to locate it in the visualization, and use Ctrl+F to search. Right-click column headers to choose details and use View to switch graphs.
4. Review items in Explorer before cleanup, then refresh affected results. Use File > Save Results To CSV/JSON to keep a scan snapshot.

For scripting, use /SaveTo, /SaveDupesTo, or /SavePermsTo followed by an output filename and scan targets. Save modes write a report and exit; /LoadFrom reopens a saved scan. See command-line examples and export formats.

Installation

The recommended way to install WinDirStat is with a package manager, which also makes future updates easier:

• Install from the Microsoft Store for Store-managed installation and updates
• Install with winget install -e --id WinDirStat.WinDirStat (or use winget upgrade later)
• Install with choco install windirstat (or use choco upgrade windirstat later)
• Install with scoop install extras/windirstat (requires scoop bucket add extras)

If you prefer a manual installer, need a portable archive, or want to browse older versions and beta builds, use the GitHub releases page. If you are not sure which file to choose, download the 64-bit MSI installer.

Copyright / Licenses

• Copyright © WinDirStat Team (windirstat.net)

The application itself is distributed under the terms of the GPL v3 or later, but parts of the source code are also available under more lenient license terms.

The logo and all derivatives are available under the terms of the Creative Commons license CC BY 3.0.

Compatibility

WinDirStat 2.x has been developed for and tested on the following operating systems. It may work on older or newer operating systems, but those systems are not supported.

• Windows 7
• Windows 8
• Windows 8.1
• Windows 10
• Windows 11
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025

Resources

• A website
• The user guide and reference
• A blog
• Twitter/X as @windirstat
• SubReddit r/WinDirStat

Find a more up-to-date list of resources on the website and the blog at any point in time.

Official Downloads and Malware Warning

WinDirStat's popularity has led to unofficial websites that copy the project's name, branding, or downloads. These sites are not operated by the WinDirStat team, may offer outdated or modified files, and may expose users to malware.

For your safety, install WinDirStat only through the Microsoft Store link and package managers listed above, the official GitHub releases, or links from windirstat.net. The team reports impersonation sites when possible, but takedowns are not always successful.

Building

WinDirStat can be built with Visual Studio 2022 or later. A Visual Studio solution file can be loaded from windirstat.sln.

Contributors

You can contribute by responding to issues, developing source code, or developing translations.

Thank you to everyone who has helped shape WinDirStat over the years.

For additional historical contributors, testers, and translators, please check out the contributors page.

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