Scanner 2.12
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Content:

1. Purpose And Usage
2. Initial folder
3. Optimization by Parallel Scanning
4. Language Support
5. System Requirements
6. Installation/Deinstallation
7. Terms of Use
8. Known Bugs And Limitations
9. FAQ
10. Version History


1. Purpose And Usage

The Scanner provides a visualization of your media usage. To show the
relations optimally, all files and folders of the selected disk(s)
are displayed together in one diagram - with an area size proportional
to the used space. Smaller objects are invisible, of course. So the
Scanner is not intended to be a File Manager.

The Scanner uses an extended pie chart with concentric rings. Outer
segments represent deeper directory levels. When you move the cursor
over a particular colored area you will see descriptive information
about it. Right-click on it to open its context menu. It provides
several actions depending on the object type:
  - Show/Hide folder contents
  - Zoom into a folder (also directly available via left-click)
  - Rescan a folder
  - Open a file/folder with the appropriate application
  - Recycle a file/folder (delete it by moving it to Recycle Bin)
  - Remove a file/folder

After the initial scan you get a hard disk summary. To get similar
results for any other drives on your computer, please select the
appropriate button on the left side. Clicking on the selected drive
again causes a rescan action. Determine which drives are part of the
summary by using the "Summary" switch in the drive context menu
(right-click the appropriate button).

Use the "Back" button to change to the previously focused folder,
"Parent Folder" to step up in the folder hirarchy. The "Rescan Folder"
button causes rescanning of the focused folder only.

Additionally, the program provides fast access to two means of space
regain: Software Removal and empty the Recycle Bin. Note: while the
latter function will be recognized automatically, you should let the
display update after you removed software.

You can change the size of the application window with the buttons "+"
and "-".

If you detect any bugs, please report them to me. Include an exact
description of your drives and the logfile 'Scanner.log', which you can
generate by pressing 'L' from the Scanner.


2. Initial folder

In order to start the tool zoomed to a certain drive or folder, pass the
path of that drive or folder in the command line. This option can also 
be used to incorporate the Scanner into the Windows Explorer context 
menu of drives and folders. You can do that either manually in the 
"Folder Options" or using the file "Add Scanner to Context Menu.reg" 
which is contained in the package. For the latter, do the following 
steps:
1. Edit the file "Add Scanner to Context Menu.reg"
2. There are two paths "...\Scanner.exe" contained, change them to the
   actual location of the tool
3. Save the changes and close the file
4. Merge the file to the registry by double click

To remove the context menu entries, merge the file "Delete Scanner from 
Context Menu.reg" to the registry. You don't need to edit this one 
before.


3. Optimization by Parallel Scanning

This paragraph is only of interest to you if your system contains more
than one physical hard disk. The program is capable of scanning all
disks simultaneously, thereby reducing the scan time. Each drive has a
context menu (right-click the appropriate button), where you can adjust
the physical device ID. Drives with different numbers are beeing
scanned simultaneously. Note: Do not adjust partitions on the same
physical disk to different numbers - you'd make the program slower!


4. Language Support

Scanner is capable of detecting the language of your windows system. If
a translation for this language is available, Scanner will automatically
use it. In case you experience problems with your localization, please 
delete the file 'Scanner.lang', so the program will appear in English.

If you'd like to have the program in your native language, but it 
appears in English on your system, you may send a translation of all 
used words and phrases (see following list) to me
(http://www.steffengerlach.de/contact/), I'll include it. Send the words as 
attached textfile, not inside the mail text! Please have a look in 
which context the words appear before translating them.

  Scanning...
  Bytes
  Files
  Total
  Used on
  Free on
  Summary
  Recycle Bin
  Virtual Memory*
  Application Wizard
  Empty Recycle Bin
  Parent Folder
  Back
  Rescan Folder
  Version
  Zoom
  Rescan
  Open
  Recycle
  Remove
  Physical Device ID
  Cluster Size*
  Auto Detect*
  Show
  Hide
  
*outdated, no longer in use  


5. System Requirements

Windows XP or subsequent Windows version


6. Installation/Deinstallation

After you have unpacked the ZIP-Archive, the Scanner is ready for use.
If you want to incorporate the program into the Start Menu, it has to be
done manually. To uninstall, simply delete all Scanner.* files. The
program does not change the Windows system directory.


7. Terms of Use

This software is Freeware. Usage is not time-limited and does not
require registration. Everyone is permitted to distribute the package in
any way without my explicit agreement.

Copyright (C)2012 by Steffen Gerlach

Visit my freeware page for the latest version:
http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/

From there it's also possible to make a donation.

Complaints, comments or proposals may be sent using this web form:
http://www.steffengerlach.de/contact/


8. Known Bugs And Limitations

- When starting with a command line parameter (e.g. from Explorer context 
  menu), the progress bar doesn't work for the first scanning.
- The number of accessable drives depends on how many buttons fit to
  the chosen window size.
- You can't zoom into folders that are too small to be visible from the
  parent folder.
- On some systems, the tool doesn't work with network drives.
- There are minor problems with some characters from the extended set 
  (e.g. code 0xB4) when contained in the name of a file or folder. Such objects
  cannot be passed in the command line (by long file name), and the context
  menu doesn't fully work for them.
- The recycle bin folder is recognized by its name. If a normal folder with a
  name starting on 'RECYCL' is located in the root of a drive, it might be 
  confused.
- Sometimes, the tool doesn't show absolutely correct values for the space
  used by folders. However, this inaccuracy should be very little (far less than 
  1%).
- Unformatted drives and drives with file systems which are not 
  accessable for Windows can't be scanned, even if a button for them 
  appears.


9. FAQ

Question: After launch, the program immediately starts scanning all hard
disks. I dont like that, because this process takes rather long on my 
system and I'm only interested in some selective information. What can I 
do?

Answer: Just do what you want to, don't let the scanning process stop 
you. The scanning will automatically be abandoned if you order something
else.

Question: I got more than 13 drives and I'd like to access all of them.

Answer: Enlarge the Scanner window with the "+" button.

Question: I'd like to scan a flash drive but there's no button for it.

Answer: Exit and restart the tool. It only recognizes drives that exist when
it starts.

Question: One/some of my hard disks appear as hard disk symbols in the 
drive list to the left, but are not shown in the summary chart. A bug?

Answer: Probably it was yourself who (accidently) removed these drives 
from the summary. See section 1.

Question: Does the program have a problem with calculating folder sizes? 
E.g. for my cookies folder, which contains several thousands of very 
small files, it displays a size of some hundred MB, but the files make 
not even one MB in total.

Answer: The Scanner shows used space, not cumulated file sizes. Those 
values may be very different, particularly in the case of small files 
combined with a large cluster size, because each file consumes a whole 
cluster in minimum. The cluster size depends on the file system and can 
be up to 32 KB.

Question: Scanner tells a total used space for my drive that is smaller than 
the sum of the folder sizes that it tells. How can that be?

Answer: These values are coming from different sources. The drive usage is
queried from Windows and thus definitely correct. In contrast, the folder sizes
are calculated by Scanner, which might not be absolutely exact. However, this 
inaccuracy should be very little (far less than 1%).

Question: Why is the window resizing of the Scanner that awkward and not 
smooth as usual in Windows applications?

Answer: The process of painting and smoothing the special pie chart 
takes too much time for a fast, continuous resizing.


10. Version History:

2.13 (07/12/12)
  - bugfix: hangup when breaking multiple drive scan

2.12 (05/15/12)
  - welcome to the age of TByte
  - network drives with most of the content not visible to the user: visible 
    files are not assigned to total drive usage anymore - only visible files 
	are shown now, not the free/used space of the drive
  - bugfix: chart update problems when deleting files

2.11 (01/31/12)
  - bugfix: folders with long filenames not found on some volumes
  - bugfix: recycle bin not recognized on some volumes under Windows Vista and later
  - bugfix: correct recognition of sparse file size
  - bigger window possible

2.10 (01/21/09)
  - target platform is now Window XP and newer -- the quirks of older systems 
    are no longer cared for
  - support for compressed folders and files
  - overall usage of drives is no longer calculated but queried from the OS, so 
    these values are always right
  - recycle bin content is now counted used space, which avoids strange 
    miscalculations when the data changes after scanning
  - bug with filenames containing certain extended characters fixed
  - complete rework

2.8 (03/23/06)
  - fixed crash after rescan

2.7 (03/17/06)
  - initial path as command line parameter possible
  - folders that only link to content in other folders/on other drives are not 
    scanned
  - thousand separator is no longer used for sizes because it could easily be 
    confused with the decimal separator

2.6 (04/13/02)
  - show/hide option

2.5 (09/01/01)
  - parallel scanning errors of version 2.3 fixed
  - variable window size
  - less strict recycle bin recognition
  - application responds during scanning

2.3 (06/06/00)
  - serious bug (with files >=2GByte) fixed

2.2 (05/09/00)
  - uncommon display problems in high color mode fixed
  - support for languages with different character set

2.1 (01/17/00)
  - chart object context menu
  - experimental network support

2.0 (07/25/99)
  - folder zoom
  - drive selectable, all drive types supported
  - automatic k/M/GBytes display
  - optional parallel scanning of drives
  - no more limitation on the total folder number

1.6 (07/05/99)
  - display preparation speeded up

1.5 (05/30/99)
  - multi-lingual

1.4 (05/04/99)
  - serious bug (on partitions >=4GByte) fixed

1.3 (05/02/99)
  - serious bug (with more than one large partition) fixed
  - Scanner can generate logfiles now

1.2 (04/17/99)
  - button graphics changed
  - anti-aliasing can be turned off now

1.1 (04/14/99)
  - serious bug (when 16384+ files) fixed

1.0 (03/14/99)
