How to order folders by their content size in Vista?

Question

How do I get folders to order by their content size in Windows Vista?

Answer 1

While Windows Explorer doesn't allow to sort files by folder size, all is not lost.

Meet Folder Size Browser, a nifty little utility that does what it says on the tin.

i can't vouch for Vista but since it works in Windows 7, it should do so in Vista.

Folder Size Browser is free and portable.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, in default Explorer, there is no way to order by the size of a folder.

I have not done it in years, but for XP I used this free addon, but I have no idea if it is still compatible and works with Vista.

Answer 3

Total commander has this built in

• menu Configuration -> Options, go to Display settings and for Sorting Directories select "Like files"
• make sure you are showing full info (menu Show -> Full)
• click on Size column button (default sorts from biggest to smallest, click again to reverse it)
• press Alt+Shift+Enter and wait for the directories to be scanned, depending on the size it could take a while

Result will be all directories showing cumulative size of all the files in them (including in all subdirectories)

Answer 4

For viewing disk usage I prefer Steffen Gerlach's Scanner, for its innovative and visual pie display:

Answer 5

Something perhaps more powerful than a folder size utility is Space Sniffer. It's free; it works in Windows 7, so presumably works in Vista too. It allows you to quckly drill down to large files and folders.