WinDirStat

Also known as: Windows Directory Statistics

Active · Website · Source repository · Store listing

GPL-3.0 disk usage analyzer and cleanup tool for Windows: couples a directory tree with an interactive squarified treemap (the view that made treemaps mainstream on Windows), plus hash-based duplicate finder, permission and storage-cost reports, remote storage scanning (S3/Azure/WebDAV, MTP devices), deleted-file recovery, and a headless CLI for CSV/JSON exports. A 2003 Windows clone of KDE's KDirStat, dormant for roughly two decades, then revived in October 2024 by maintainer Bryan Berns - now shipping frequent 2.x releases again.

Platforms

• Windows

Interface

• GUI
• CLI

Tech stack

• C++

C++ Win32 (2.9 series moved to a native Win32/GDI interface; WiX-built MSI installers); originally MFC

Features

• Space Usage Visualize
• Duplicate Finder
• Storage Tracker

Dev-junk cleaning

Not a focus

Development

Lead developer + community · continued under new maintainer

NoMoreFood

Created by Bernhard Seifert (2003); responsibility passed to Oliver Schneider, then Bryan Berns (GitHub NoMoreFood), who joined ~2023 and leads the 2.x revival; community supplies translations and fixes.

License

GPL

GPL-3.0-or-later (relicensed from GPLv2 in v2.9.2, October 2026)

Price

Donation-supported

Free and open source; donations via GitHub Sponsors and Buy Me a Coffee (maintainer FUNDING.yml)

Launched

Oct 1, 2003

first_release_at

Repo created

Apr 4, 2016

First release

Oct 1, 2003

Domain registered

May 24, 2016 (windirstat.net)

Last seen alive

Oct 31, 2026

Checks

Mechanical checks derived from the fields above. Each row is one fact; "not yet checked" means exactly that, not a failure. There is no composite score; read them together.

• MSI installers are Authenticode-signed (verified on WinDirStat-x64.msi, v2.9.3, Certum); Store MSIX packages are signed through the Microsoft Store
• No in-app updater in the source; Microsoft Store and package-manager installs update through those signed channels
• The only network client code is user-initiated remote storage scanning (WebDAV/S3/Azure endpoints); no telemetry found in the source tree
• Elevation is explicit: 'relaunch with elevated credentials' option, plus backup/restore-privilege scanning of inaccessible files
• No SECURITY.md or dedicated security contact found; public GitHub issue tracker

Relations

• clone of KDirStat

  Seifert on the KDE original: 'I didn't worry too much about the functionality but simply cloned KDirStat.'

Research notes

• Windows clone of KDE's KDirStat (Stefan Hundhammer): Bernhard Seifert wrote it in 2003 after finding nothing equivalent on Windows, implementing the Bruls/Huizing/van Wijk squarified and cushion treemap papers; the pac-man scan animation 'was not his idea'.
• The long sleep: after the 1.1.x series (last file 2007) no official release shipped for ~17-19 years, until Bryan Berns joined ~2023 and shipped 2.0.1 with Oliver Schneider in October 2024 - one of the longest maintenance gaps ever revived.
• 2.x is a real modernization, not a re-skin: multithreaded scanning, native x64/ARM64 builds, hash-based duplicate finder, direct NTFS scanning, dark mode, remote storage and MTP-device scanning, deleted-file recovery, sunburst and flame-graph views - in a ~2.5 MB installer.
• Documented impersonation problem: the README warns users to install only via windirstat.net, GitHub releases, the Microsoft Store, or listed package managers - 'The team reports impersonation sites when possible, but takedowns are not always successful.' Store search also surfaces lookalikes ('Disk Analysis Tool' by PeakTools).
• Relicensed GPL-2.0 to GPL-3.0-or-later in v2.9.2 (October 2026).
• Treemap lineage: KDirStat itself became QDirStat on Linux, GrandPerspective is the macOS sibling, and WizTree is the freeware speed rival (reads the NTFS MFT directly).

Announcements

1 recorded

Sources

Wrong, stale, or missing something? Flag this listing: corrections reach the site operator, not WinDirStat's developer.