Scanner is a disk space analyzing and management tool for
Microsoft Windows operating systems. It displays the disk space usage of any drive or directory in the form of a
multilevel pie chart
A pie chart (or a circle chart) is a circular statistical graphic, which is divided into slices to illustrate numerical proportion. In a pie chart, the arc length of each slice (and consequently its central angle and area) is proportional t ...
which can be navigated up and down through the directory tree. When the mouse cursor is placed above a pie the program displays which directory the pie represents, how many files it contains and the overall disk space occupied by it. A context menu allows users to open the directory inside the
Windows Explorer
File Explorer, previously known as Windows Explorer, is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface for accessing the file ...
, hide and un-hide it from the diagram as well as deleting the pie from the disk either via the
Recycle Bin
A recycling bin (or recycle bin) is a container used to hold recyclables before they are taken to recycling centers. Recycling bins exist in various sizes for use inside and outside homes, offices, and large public facilities. Separate con ...
or permanently.
Initially released in 1999, it is an early example of the
sunburst
A sunburst is a design or figure commonly used in architectural ornaments and design patterns and possibly pattern books. It consists of rays or "beams" radiating out from a central disk in the manner of sunbeams. Sometimes part of a sunburs ...
method of visualising disk usage and inspired the
KDE
KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-known products include the ...
package
Filelight.
[ Excerpt from source code of Filelight acknowledging inspiration of Scanner.]
References
External links
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Disk usage analysis software
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