DiskRoot 0.7.0

DiskRoot 0.7.0: a fast disk space analyzer for Windows 10/11. It shows what fills your drive, what each thing is, and whether it's safe to delete.

New in 0.7.0

A new window, designed as "DiskRoot Studio", and a map that answers more questions. Still one small exe, offline, read-only scanning.

• Studio window: the map in the middle, the folder list on the left and the Inspector (what it is, is it safe, its size history) under the map. Both sides resize and minimize (Ctrl+B, Ctrl+J); F shows only the map.
• Ctrl+K command palette: every command and every folder or file by name, biggest first.
• Map colours: Size, Growth, Reclaimable. Growth shows what grew or shrank since the previous scan; Reclaimable shows what DiskRoot's rules label safe to clear (green) and caches or Windows leftovers to check first (amber). Personal folders aren't counted as reclaimable.
• Optional 2.5D map (2D stays the default): a tilted treemap "city" or a stepped sunburst, boxes standing up by size.
• Home is a page of its own: the drive at a glance with four answers you can click, what changed, ways to get space back and the biggest items.
• While it scans: growth rings, one per order of magnitude of items found, with the count, speed and (when the place was scanned before) how far along.
• Drive health is a page too, a card per drive.
• A short guided tour after the first scan (and Help → Take the tour), and grouped suggestions in an empty Ctrl+K.
• Breadcrumbs on the map, short transitions when you open a folder, notices for what just happened, and a Save space badge with the biggest single way to get space back.
• Studio look (dark and Daylight) is the new default; the Classic look is under View.
• Runs without a graphics driver: if OpenGL can't start (virtual machines, some Remote Desktop sessions, the Basic Display Adapter), DiskRoot draws on the CPU instead, automatically. It redraws only what changed.
• Slow PCs: if the map's transitions draw at under ~20 frames a second, DiskRoot turns them off by itself (and says so).

New in 0.6.1

• New logo and app icon: the DiskRoot leaf, without the dark tile, in the taskbar, Start menu, title bar, start screen and About.

New in 0.6.0

• DiskRoot. New name, same promises: offline, read-only scanning, nothing changes without your OK. The command-line tool is droot: droot scan C:\, droot health, droot writes, droot history.
• Upgrading from an earlier version: just run the installer. It removes the previous version first (files, shortcuts, right-click entry, PATH entry, scheduled task) and keeps your settings and saved scans, which DiskRoot picks up on its first start. If you used scheduled scans, open View → Scheduled scans and press Save once.
• Downloads: diskroot-setup.exe and diskroot-portable.zip.

New in 0.5.1

Fixes from a full audit of 0.5.0, before anything new:

• Much less writing to your SSD: DiskRoot's own saved scans are now compressed. Saving a scan of a 1.5 TB drive writes about 44 MB instead of ~150 MB, and the "while you were away" baseline costs nothing. The recommended scan interval also keeps DiskRoot's own writes under about 1 GB a day. Older saved scans still open.
• Hardlinks counted once only where that's reliable: on local NTFS drives. On ReFS and network drives every name counts again (their file IDs can't be trusted for this), so no real file can be shown as 0 B by mistake.
• Started with "Run as administrator": DiskRoot now says so, and its own scans stay folder walks; reading the raw drive happens only in the locked-down Fast-scan helper.
• Fixed: the app and a scheduled scan saving at the same moment could damage each other's files; live updates could count a hardlinked file twice again; the window redrew every second while live updates were on (idle CPU is now near zero); scheduling from a portable copy now warns that the task points at that file.
• Honest numbers: compression is about 5–9× faster than compact.exe in our test (not 15×), idle CPU is near zero (not zero), and scanning never changes your files but DiskRoot does save its own scans (docs updated).

New in 0.5.0

DiskRoot now shows not only what fills your drive, but how the drive is doing and what wears it, and it can keep watch by itself. Everything still works without admin, offline, read-only.

• Home (Ctrl+H): the drive at a glance when DiskRoot opens: how full, when it would be full, drive health, what changed, the top ways to get space back, the biggest items.
• Drive health (View → Drive health): each SSD's own report in plain words: % of rated life used, data written and read, temperature, spare blocks, errors, TRIM. Writes per day over time, an honest life estimate (a range, only once there's data), and what you'd lose if the drive failed. Also droot health.
• Who's writing (View → Who's writing): the programs writing to your drives right now and while the PC is idle, next to the drive's own counter, and the folders that change most. Known offenders are flagged with what to do (e.g. AMD's atieclxx.exe bug of Nov 2026, Samsung 990 PRO firmware 0B2QJXD7), with sources. Also droot writes.
• Scheduled scans (View → Scheduled scans): DiskRoot can scan by itself every 30 minutes or more (it recommends how often), no admin, no window, nothing left running. When you open it: what changed while you were away. Optional notifications: low free space, fast growth, a program writing a lot while idle, a weekly report (each at most once a day/week).
• Size history and forecast (View → Size history): a chart for the drive and every folder, what grew in the last day/week/month, "C: would be full in about 40–70 days" (after a week of scans, never a date), log files that keep growing. Also droot history.
• Where every GB is: the drive's used space against what the scan counted, what the difference is, and the list of folders a normal scan couldn't read.
• Hardlinks counted once in the normal scan: e.g. C:\Windows 46 → 36 GB on our test PC. Your first scan after updating shows that drop once in What changed (it says why).
• Smarter categories: code projects (Node, Rust, Python, .NET, Java, Gradle, CMake, Go, Unreal) with their rebuildable parts marked safe to clear, AI models, datasets (csv, jsonl, ...), databases, temp files and unfinished downloads. "Unclassified" on our test drive: 22.8 → 1.6 GB. Belongs to: which installed program or Steam/Epic game a folder is part of. Teach DiskRoot: right-click a folder → This is… (my project, a dataset, a game, ...).
• Light on your PC: DiskRoot's own RAM and CPU in the status bar, free its memory with one click (the scan stays saved), gentle scanning, Save space and Home worked out off the UI thread.
• Fixed: a normal scan whose description mentioned the MFT was taken for a Fast scan in What changed (no warning when comparing the two methods).
• Keyboard shortcuts list (Help), screen-reader names for the map and its legend.

In 0.4.1

• One download, everything ready: the installer now puts droot on PATH, so it works in any new terminal right after installing (the uninstaller removes exactly that entry again).
• Always-latest links: diskroot-setup.exe and diskroot-portable.zip on every release, so https://github.com/JayD108/DiskRoot/releases/latest/download/diskroot-setup.exe always gives the newest version.
• Compress skips hardlinked files (their data is shared with names that may be outside the folder you chose).
• Save space warns when the scan it uses was saved by an older DiskRoot without arrival dates.
• New guide for the command line: docs/CLI.md.

In 0.4.0

• Ways to save space (the new Save space button): two lists from your scan, biggest first.
  • Compress: folders and big files whose files haven't changed or arrived for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, with the expected saving and a one-click Compress… (Maximum suggested for things untouched for a year).
  • Other ways: caches and temp files, build folders in old projects, AI model stores, Recycle Bin, hibernation file, previous Windows, restore points, big files that won't compress, WSL/Docker disks, OneDrive copies, folder copies, old installers, duplicates and Compact OS, each with its size and exactly how.
    Nothing is changed from this window.
• Arrival dates: downloads and unpacked datasets keep their authors' old dates. DiskRoot now also reads when each file arrived on your PC, so a dataset downloaded last month no longer looks "2 years old".
• Honest compression estimates from real measurements per file type (e.g. text ~55%, EEG .edf ~33%, .npy ~15%, .parquet/.pt ~6–8% with Fast) instead of a flat 50%.
• Safer cache labels: a folder named cache inside your own projects is now "check first", not "safe to clear"; app caches in AppData stay safe.
• Fixed: the drive strip and totals at the bottom now update after Compress/Uncompress.
• Help wanted: a call for compression research and a list of open problems: see CONTRIBUTING.md and docs/HELP-WANTED.md.

In 0.3

• Fast built-in compression (right-click → Compress…, ~15× faster than compact.exe in our tests, undoable), Similar folders, and fixes for compressed files in the normal scan and for "What changed" across scan methods.

What it does

• Scans a whole NTFS drive in about 1–2 seconds by reading its Master File Table, read-only, after the Windows admin prompt. Without admin it walks folders (no prompt).
• Tree-table with a sunburst or treemap. Groups by location or by category (apps, media, dev stuff, AI & data, system, temp & caches…).
• Explains known folders in plain English with a safety label, and locks Windows and system folders.
• Deletes only t...

DiskRoot 0.6.1

DiskRoot 0.6.1: a fast disk space analyzer for Windows 10/11. It shows what fills your drive, what each thing is, and whether it's safe to delete.

New in 0.6.1

• New logo and app icon: the DiskRoot leaf, without the dark tile, in the taskbar, Start menu, title bar, start screen and About.

New in 0.6.0

• DiskRoot. New name, same promises: offline, read-only scanning, nothing changes without your OK. The command-line tool is droot: droot scan C:\, droot health, droot writes, droot history.
• Upgrading from an earlier version: just run the installer. It removes the previous version first (files, shortcuts, right-click entry, PATH entry, scheduled task) and keeps your settings and saved scans, which DiskRoot picks up on its first start. If you used scheduled scans, open View → Scheduled scans and press Save once.
• Downloads: diskroot-setup.exe and diskroot-portable.zip.

New in 0.5.1

Fixes from a full audit of 0.5.0, before anything new:

• Much less writing to your SSD: DiskRoot's own saved scans are now compressed. Saving a scan of a 1.5 TB drive writes about 44 MB instead of ~150 MB, and the "while you were away" baseline costs nothing. The recommended scan interval also keeps DiskRoot's own writes under about 1 GB a day. Older saved scans still open.
• Hardlinks counted once only where that's reliable: on local NTFS drives. On ReFS and network drives every name counts again (their file IDs can't be trusted for this), so no real file can be shown as 0 B by mistake.
• Started with "Run as administrator": DiskRoot now says so, and its own scans stay folder walks; reading the raw drive happens only in the locked-down Fast-scan helper.
• Fixed: the app and a scheduled scan saving at the same moment could damage each other's files; live updates could count a hardlinked file twice again; the window redrew every second while live updates were on (idle CPU is now near zero); scheduling from a portable copy now warns that the task points at that file.
• Honest numbers: compression is about 5–9× faster than compact.exe in our test (not 15×), idle CPU is near zero (not zero), and scanning never changes your files but DiskRoot does save its own scans (docs updated).

New in 0.5.0

DiskRoot now shows not only what fills your drive, but how the drive is doing and what wears it, and it can keep watch by itself. Everything still works without admin, offline, read-only.

• Home (Ctrl+H): the drive at a glance when DiskRoot opens: how full, when it would be full, drive health, what changed, the top ways to get space back, the biggest items.
• Drive health (View → Drive health): each SSD's own report in plain words: % of rated life used, data written and read, temperature, spare blocks, errors, TRIM. Writes per day over time, an honest life estimate (a range, only once there's data), and what you'd lose if the drive failed. Also droot health.
• Who's writing (View → Who's writing): the programs writing to your drives right now and while the PC is idle, next to the drive's own counter, and the folders that change most. Known offenders are flagged with what to do (e.g. AMD's atieclxx.exe bug of Nov 2026, Samsung 990 PRO firmware 0B2QJXD7), with sources. Also droot writes.
• Scheduled scans (View → Scheduled scans): DiskRoot can scan by itself every 30 minutes or more (it recommends how often), no admin, no window, nothing left running. When you open it: what changed while you were away. Optional notifications: low free space, fast growth, a program writing a lot while idle, a weekly report (each at most once a day/week).
• Size history and forecast (View → Size history): a chart for the drive and every folder, what grew in the last day/week/month, "C: would be full in about 40–70 days" (after a week of scans, never a date), log files that keep growing. Also droot history.
• Where every GB is: the drive's used space against what the scan counted, what the difference is, and the list of folders a normal scan couldn't read.
• Hardlinks counted once in the normal scan: e.g. C:\Windows 46 → 36 GB on our test PC. Your first scan after updating shows that drop once in What changed (it says why).
• Smarter categories: code projects (Node, Rust, Python, .NET, Java, Gradle, CMake, Go, Unreal) with their rebuildable parts marked safe to clear, AI models, datasets (csv, jsonl, ...), databases, temp files and unfinished downloads. "Unclassified" on our test drive: 22.8 → 1.6 GB. Belongs to: which installed program or Steam/Epic game a folder is part of. Teach DiskRoot: right-click a folder → This is… (my project, a dataset, a game, ...).
• Light on your PC: DiskRoot's own RAM and CPU in the status bar, free its memory with one click (the scan stays saved), gentle scanning, Save space and Home worked out off the UI thread.
• Fixed: a normal scan whose description mentioned the MFT was taken for a Fast scan in What changed (no warning when comparing the two methods).
• Keyboard shortcuts list (Help), screen-reader names for the map and its legend.

In 0.4.1

• One download, everything ready: the installer now puts droot on PATH, so it works in any new terminal right after installing (the uninstaller removes exactly that entry again).
• Always-latest links: diskroot-setup.exe and diskroot-portable.zip on every release, so https://github.com/JayD108/DiskRoot/releases/latest/download/diskroot-setup.exe always gives the newest version.
• Compress skips hardlinked files (their data is shared with names that may be outside the folder you chose).
• Save space warns when the scan it uses was saved by an older DiskRoot without arrival dates.
• New guide for the command line: docs/CLI.md.

In 0.4.0

• Ways to save space (the new Save space button): two lists from your scan, biggest first.
  • Compress: folders and big files whose files haven't changed or arrived for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, with the expected saving and a one-click Compress… (Maximum suggested for things untouched for a year).
  • Other ways: caches and temp files, build folders in old projects, AI model stores, Recycle Bin, hibernation file, previous Windows, restore points, big files that won't compress, WSL/Docker disks, OneDrive copies, folder copies, old installers, duplicates and Compact OS, each with its size and exactly how.
    Nothing is changed from this window.
• Arrival dates: downloads and unpacked datasets keep their authors' old dates. DiskRoot now also reads when each file arrived on your PC, so a dataset downloaded last month no longer looks "2 years old".
• Honest compression estimates from real measurements per file type (e.g. text ~55%, EEG .edf ~33%, .npy ~15%, .parquet/.pt ~6–8% with Fast) instead of a flat 50%.
• Safer cache labels: a folder named cache inside your own projects is now "check first", not "safe to clear"; app caches in AppData stay safe.
• Fixed: the drive strip and totals at the bottom now update after Compress/Uncompress.
• Help wanted: a call for compression research and a list of open problems: see CONTRIBUTING.md and docs/HELP-WANTED.md.

In 0.3

• Fast built-in compression (right-click → Compress…, ~15× faster than compact.exe in our tests, undoable), Similar folders, and fixes for compressed files in the normal scan and for "What changed" across scan methods.

What it does

• Scans a whole NTFS drive in about 1–2 seconds by reading its Master File Table, read-only, after the Windows admin prompt. Without admin it walks folders (no prompt).
• Tree-table with a sunburst or treemap. Groups by location or by category (apps, media, dev stuff, AI & data, system, temp & caches…).
• Explains known folders in plain English with a safety label, and locks Windows and system folders.
• Deletes only to the Recycle Bin, after you confirm. It re-checks the item on disk first and warns about OneDrive folders, Git repositories and very large deletes. A deletion history is kept on your PC.
• No network connections, no telemetry, no accounts.

Download

• diskroot-setup-0.6.1.exe: installer (recommended). Installs into Program Files, which protects the admin helper used by Fast scan. Includes an uninstaller (Settings → Apps).
• diskroot-0.6.1-portable.zip: no install. Unzip and run diskroot.exe.

Signature: Not signed yet (SignPath application pending). Windows SmartScreen will warn; check the SHA-256 checksums below.

How it was built

Every file in this release was built by GitHub Actions from the tagged commit of JayD108/DiskRoot. Check them against SHA256SUMS.txt.

Privacy: this program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it.

SHA-256 checksums

3a8d2e1d50cb2fbe5e5daf491d2857f91149192f04a1cef93930015c67e58f51  diskroot-portable.zip
64d70bbe4479720c5da32bbedc7204bc993d735e1f6c18b0ccff7503c0538229  diskroot-setup-0.6.1.exe
64d70bbe4479720c5da32bbedc7204bc993d735e1f6c18b0ccff7503c0538229  diskroot-setup.exe
7235f20861441a5f421277526ff3dc69a6836e2d7f7d754433b9fef5a1167dc5  diskroot.exe
efb5742db5defe91493c61304b057ab717873d5fb8907aeb7cb3ed8e4e32c257  droot.exe
```n

DiskRoot 0.6.0

DiskRoot 0.6.0: a fast disk space analyzer for Windows 10/11. It shows what fills your drive, what each thing is, and whether it's safe to delete.

New in 0.6.0

• DiskRoot. New name, same promises: offline, read-only scanning, nothing changes without your OK. The command-line tool is droot: droot scan C:\, droot health, droot writes, droot history.
• Upgrading from an earlier version: just run the installer. It removes the previous version first (files, shortcuts, right-click entry, PATH entry, scheduled task) and keeps your settings and saved scans, which DiskRoot picks up on its first start. If you used scheduled scans, open View → Scheduled scans and press Save once.
• Downloads: diskroot-setup.exe and diskroot-portable.zip.

New in 0.5.1

Fixes from a full audit of 0.5.0, before anything new:

• Much less writing to your SSD: DiskRoot's own saved scans are now compressed. Saving a scan of a 1.5 TB drive writes about 44 MB instead of ~150 MB, and the "while you were away" baseline costs nothing. The recommended scan interval also keeps DiskRoot's own writes under about 1 GB a day. Older saved scans still open.
• Hardlinks counted once only where that's reliable: on local NTFS drives. On ReFS and network drives every name counts again (their file IDs can't be trusted for this), so no real file can be shown as 0 B by mistake.
• Started with "Run as administrator": DiskRoot now says so, and its own scans stay folder walks; reading the raw drive happens only in the locked-down Fast-scan helper.
• Fixed: the app and a scheduled scan saving at the same moment could damage each other's files; live updates could count a hardlinked file twice again; the window redrew every second while live updates were on (idle CPU is now near zero); scheduling from a portable copy now warns that the task points at that file.
• Honest numbers: compression is about 5–9× faster than compact.exe in our test (not 15×), idle CPU is near zero (not zero), and scanning never changes your files but DiskRoot does save its own scans (docs updated).

New in 0.5.0

DiskRoot now shows not only what fills your drive, but how the drive is doing and what wears it, and it can keep watch by itself. Everything still works without admin, offline, read-only.

• Home (Ctrl+H): the drive at a glance when DiskRoot opens: how full, when it would be full, drive health, what changed, the top ways to get space back, the biggest items.
• Drive health (View → Drive health): each SSD's own report in plain words: % of rated life used, data written and read, temperature, spare blocks, errors, TRIM. Writes per day over time, an honest life estimate (a range, only once there's data), and what you'd lose if the drive failed. Also droot health.
• Who's writing (View → Who's writing): the programs writing to your drives right now and while the PC is idle, next to the drive's own counter, and the folders that change most. Known offenders are flagged with what to do (e.g. AMD's atieclxx.exe bug of Nov 2026, Samsung 990 PRO firmware 0B2QJXD7), with sources. Also droot writes.
• Scheduled scans (View → Scheduled scans): DiskRoot can scan by itself every 30 minutes or more (it recommends how often), no admin, no window, nothing left running. When you open it: what changed while you were away. Optional notifications: low free space, fast growth, a program writing a lot while idle, a weekly report (each at most once a day/week).
• Size history and forecast (View → Size history): a chart for the drive and every folder, what grew in the last day/week/month, "C: would be full in about 40–70 days" (after a week of scans, never a date), log files that keep growing. Also droot history.
• Where every GB is: the drive's used space against what the scan counted, what the difference is, and the list of folders a normal scan couldn't read.
• Hardlinks counted once in the normal scan: e.g. C:\Windows 46 → 36 GB on our test PC. Your first scan after updating shows that drop once in What changed (it says why).
• Smarter categories: code projects (Node, Rust, Python, .NET, Java, Gradle, CMake, Go, Unreal) with their rebuildable parts marked safe to clear, AI models, datasets (csv, jsonl, ...), databases, temp files and unfinished downloads. "Unclassified" on our test drive: 22.8 → 1.6 GB. Belongs to: which installed program or Steam/Epic game a folder is part of. Teach DiskRoot: right-click a folder → This is… (my project, a dataset, a game, ...).
• Light on your PC: DiskRoot's own RAM and CPU in the status bar, free its memory with one click (the scan stays saved), gentle scanning, Save space and Home worked out off the UI thread.
• Fixed: a normal scan whose description mentioned the MFT was taken for a Fast scan in What changed (no warning when comparing the two methods).
• Keyboard shortcuts list (Help), screen-reader names for the map and its legend.

In 0.4.1

• One download, everything ready: the installer now puts droot on PATH, so it works in any new terminal right after installing (the uninstaller removes exactly that entry again).
• Always-latest links: diskroot-setup.exe and diskroot-portable.zip on every release, so https://github.com/JayD108/DiskRoot/releases/latest/download/diskroot-setup.exe always gives the newest version.
• Compress skips hardlinked files (their data is shared with names that may be outside the folder you chose).
• Save space warns when the scan it uses was saved by an older DiskRoot without arrival dates.
• New guide for the command line: docs/CLI.md.

In 0.4.0

• Ways to save space (the new Save space button): two lists from your scan, biggest first.
  • Compress: folders and big files whose files haven't changed or arrived for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, with the expected saving and a one-click Compress… (Maximum suggested for things untouched for a year).
  • Other ways: caches and temp files, build folders in old projects, AI model stores, Recycle Bin, hibernation file, previous Windows, restore points, big files that won't compress, WSL/Docker disks, OneDrive copies, folder copies, old installers, duplicates and Compact OS, each with its size and exactly how.
    Nothing is changed from this window.
• Arrival dates: downloads and unpacked datasets keep their authors' old dates. DiskRoot now also reads when each file arrived on your PC, so a dataset downloaded last month no longer looks "2 years old".
• Honest compression estimates from real measurements per file type (e.g. text ~55%, EEG .edf ~33%, .npy ~15%, .parquet/.pt ~6–8% with Fast) instead of a flat 50%.
• Safer cache labels: a folder named cache inside your own projects is now "check first", not "safe to clear"; app caches in AppData stay safe.
• Fixed: the drive strip and totals at the bottom now update after Compress/Uncompress.
• Help wanted: a call for compression research and a list of open problems: see CONTRIBUTING.md and docs/HELP-WANTED.md.

In 0.3

• Fast built-in compression (right-click → Compress…, ~15× faster than compact.exe in our tests, undoable), Similar folders, and fixes for compressed files in the normal scan and for "What changed" across scan methods.

What it does

• Scans a whole NTFS drive in about 1–2 seconds by reading its Master File Table, read-only, after the Windows admin prompt. Without admin it walks folders (no prompt).
• Tree-table with a sunburst or treemap. Groups by location or by category (apps, media, dev stuff, AI & data, system, temp & caches…).
• Explains known folders in plain English with a safety label, and locks Windows and system folders.
• Deletes only to the Recycle Bin, after you confirm. It re-checks the item on disk first and warns about OneDrive folders, Git repositories and very large deletes. A deletion history is kept on your PC.
• No network connections, no telemetry, no accounts.

Download

• diskroot-setup-0.6.0.exe: installer (recommended). Installs into Program Files, which protects the admin helper used by Fast scan. Includes an uninstaller (Settings → Apps).
• diskroot-0.6.0-portable.zip: no install. Unzip and run diskroot.exe.

Signature: Not signed yet (SignPath application pending). Windows SmartScreen will warn; check the SHA-256 checksums below.

How it was built

Every file in this release was built by GitHub Actions from the tagged commit of JayD108/DiskRoot. Check them against SHA256SUMS.txt.

Privacy: this program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it.

SHA-256 checksums

fb5b20a641908ff150bb89c35092877e0d1533c18b596795517656ab19db6014  diskroot-portable.zip
068b181984b83714f198b1a6f0f1eb5b7459439bbdded348b432e525d4b4a90b  diskroot-setup-0.6.0.exe
068b181984b83714f198b1a6f0f1eb5b7459439bbdded348b432e525d4b4a90b  diskroot-setup.exe
80e8aea5072c739b50e6bf8528e8f0579231c9182e55d9577e20e0472a42638d  diskroot.exe
2aa8be087525de515539a71348e11fb9a6b8355cfa7508485eaa7a3337346fb4  droot.exe
```n

Xylem 0.5.1

Xylem 0.5.1: a fast disk space analyzer for Windows 10/11. It shows what fills your drive, what each thing is, and whether it's safe to delete.

New in 0.5.1

Fixes from a full audit of 0.5.0, before anything new:

• Much less writing to your SSD: Xylem's own saved scans are now compressed. Saving a scan of a 1.5 TB drive writes about 44 MB instead of ~150 MB, and the "while you were away" baseline costs nothing. The recommended scan interval also keeps Xylem's own writes under about 1 GB a day. Older saved scans still open.
• Hardlinks counted once only where that's reliable: on local NTFS drives. On ReFS and network drives every name counts again (their file IDs can't be trusted for this), so no real file can be shown as 0 B by mistake.
• Started with "Run as administrator": Xylem now says so, and its own scans stay folder walks; reading the raw drive happens only in the locked-down Fast-scan helper.
• Fixed: the app and a scheduled scan saving at the same moment could damage each other's files; live updates could count a hardlinked file twice again; the window redrew every second while live updates were on (idle CPU is now near zero); scheduling from a portable copy now warns that the task points at that file.
• Honest numbers: compression is about 5–9× faster than compact.exe in our test (not 15×), idle CPU is near zero (not zero), and scanning never changes your files but Xylem does save its own scans (docs updated).

New in 0.5.0

Xylem now shows not only what fills your drive, but how the drive is doing and what wears it, and it can keep watch by itself. Everything still works without admin, offline, read-only.

• Home (Ctrl+H): the drive at a glance when Xylem opens: how full, when it would be full, drive health, what changed, the top ways to get space back, the biggest items.
• Drive health (View → Drive health): each SSD's own report in plain words: % of rated life used, data written and read, temperature, spare blocks, errors, TRIM. Writes per day over time, an honest life estimate (a range, only once there's data), and what you'd lose if the drive failed. Also xylem-cli health.
• Who's writing (View → Who's writing): the programs writing to your drives right now and while the PC is idle, next to the drive's own counter, and the folders that change most. Known offenders are flagged with what to do (e.g. AMD's atieclxx.exe bug of Nov 2026, Samsung 990 PRO firmware 0B2QJXD7), with sources. Also xylem-cli writes.
• Scheduled scans (View → Scheduled scans): Xylem can scan by itself every 30 minutes or more (it recommends how often), no admin, no window, nothing left running. When you open it: what changed while you were away. Optional notifications: low free space, fast growth, a program writing a lot while idle, a weekly report (each at most once a day/week).
• Size history and forecast (View → Size history): a chart for the drive and every folder, what grew in the last day/week/month, "C: would be full in about 40–70 days" (after a week of scans, never a date), log files that keep growing. Also xylem-cli history.
• Where every GB is: the drive's used space against what the scan counted, what the difference is, and the list of folders a normal scan couldn't read.
• Hardlinks counted once in the normal scan: e.g. C:\Windows 46 → 36 GB on our test PC. Your first scan after updating shows that drop once in What changed (it says why).
• Smarter categories: code projects (Node, Rust, Python, .NET, Java, Gradle, CMake, Go, Unreal) with their rebuildable parts marked safe to clear, AI models, datasets (csv, jsonl, ...), databases, temp files and unfinished downloads. "Unclassified" on our test drive: 22.8 → 1.6 GB. Belongs to: which installed program or Steam/Epic game a folder is part of. Teach Xylem: right-click a folder → This is… (my project, a dataset, a game, ...).
• Light on your PC: Xylem's own RAM and CPU in the status bar, free its memory with one click (the scan stays saved), gentle scanning, Save space and Home worked out off the UI thread.
• Fixed: a normal scan whose description mentioned the MFT was taken for a Fast scan in What changed (no warning when comparing the two methods).
• Keyboard shortcuts list (Help), screen-reader names for the map and its legend.

In 0.4.1

• One download, everything ready: the installer now puts xylem-cli on PATH, so it works in any new terminal right after installing (the uninstaller removes exactly that entry again).
• Always-latest links: xylem-setup.exe and xylem-portable.zip on every release, so https://github.com/JayD108/Xylem/releases/latest/download/xylem-setup.exe always gives the newest version.
• Compress skips hardlinked files (their data is shared with names that may be outside the folder you chose).
• Save space warns when the scan it uses was saved by an older Xylem without arrival dates.
• New guide for the command line: docs/CLI.md.

In 0.4.0

• Ways to save space (the new Save space button): two lists from your scan, biggest first.
  • Compress: folders and big files whose files haven't changed or arrived for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, with the expected saving and a one-click Compress… (Maximum suggested for things untouched for a year).
  • Other ways: caches and temp files, build folders in old projects, AI model stores, Recycle Bin, hibernation file, previous Windows, restore points, big files that won't compress, WSL/Docker disks, OneDrive copies, folder copies, old installers, duplicates and Compact OS, each with its size and exactly how.
    Nothing is changed from this window.
• Arrival dates: downloads and unpacked datasets keep their authors' old dates. Xylem now also reads when each file arrived on your PC, so a dataset downloaded last month no longer looks "2 years old".
• Honest compression estimates from real measurements per file type (e.g. text ~55%, EEG .edf ~33%, .npy ~15%, .parquet/.pt ~6–8% with Fast) instead of a flat 50%.
• Safer cache labels: a folder named cache inside your own projects is now "check first", not "safe to clear"; app caches in AppData stay safe.
• Fixed: the drive strip and totals at the bottom now update after Compress/Uncompress.
• Help wanted: a call for compression research and a list of open problems: see CONTRIBUTING.md and docs/HELP-WANTED.md.

In 0.3

• Fast built-in compression (right-click → Compress…, ~15× faster than compact.exe in our tests, undoable), Similar folders, and fixes for compressed files in the normal scan and for "What changed" across scan methods.

What it does

• Scans a whole NTFS drive in about 1–2 seconds by reading its Master File Table, read-only, after the Windows admin prompt. Without admin it walks folders (no prompt).
• Tree-table with a sunburst or treemap. Groups by location or by category (apps, media, dev stuff, AI & data, system, temp & caches…).
• Explains known folders in plain English with a safety label, and locks Windows and system folders.
• Deletes only to the Recycle Bin, after you confirm. It re-checks the item on disk first and warns about OneDrive folders, Git repositories and very large deletes. A deletion history is kept on your PC.
• No network connections, no telemetry, no accounts.

Download

• xylem-setup-0.5.1.exe: installer (recommended). Installs into Program Files, which protects the admin helper used by Fast scan. Includes an uninstaller (Settings → Apps).
• xylem-0.5.1-portable.zip: no install. Unzip and run xylem.exe.

Signature: Not signed yet (SignPath application pending). Windows SmartScreen will warn; check the SHA-256 checksums below.

How it was built

Every file in this release was built by GitHub Actions from the tagged commit of JayD108/Xylem. Check them against SHA256SUMS.txt.

Privacy: this program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it.

SHA-256 checksums

f4e9dcb7dc7b6e0d5b16227639af008f3e8eaa47f9709e7b456d2dd638f1a35d  xylem-cli.exe
438b918f9f1d46354390b43bf8b2086196d84b22d5ab5fab3b0a60890f233003  xylem-portable.zip
4cd9f0f0a1d7089f45b06ad9d9a9a46bbded0d412956538f6dd828095f51c04a  xylem-setup-0.5.1.exe
4cd9f0f0a1d7089f45b06ad9d9a9a46bbded0d412956538f6dd828095f51c04a  xylem-setup.exe
4f27ee7c7d08e417cc7943a81e4e7459e6644aba33fedf0b4e2ca30dd5ab9787  xylem.exe
```n

Xylem 0.5.0

Xylem 0.5.0: a fast disk space analyzer for Windows 10/11. It shows what fills your drive, what each thing is, and whether it's safe to delete.

New in 0.5.0

Xylem now shows not only what fills your drive, but how the drive is doing and what wears it, and it can keep watch by itself. Everything still works without admin, offline, read-only.

• Home (Ctrl+H): the drive at a glance when Xylem opens: how full, when it would be full, drive health, what changed, the top ways to get space back, the biggest items.
• Drive health (View → Drive health): each SSD's own report in plain words: % of rated life used, data written and read, temperature, spare blocks, errors, TRIM. Writes per day over time, an honest life estimate (a range, only once there's data), and what you'd lose if the drive failed. Also xylem-cli health.
• Who's writing (View → Who's writing): the programs writing to your drives right now and while the PC is idle, next to the drive's own counter, and the folders that change most. Known offenders are flagged with what to do (e.g. AMD's atieclxx.exe bug of Nov 2026, Samsung 990 PRO firmware 0B2QJXD7), with sources. Also xylem-cli writes.
• Scheduled scans (View → Scheduled scans): Xylem can scan by itself every 30 minutes or more (it recommends how often), no admin, no window, nothing left running. When you open it: what changed while you were away. Optional notifications: low free space, fast growth, a program writing a lot while idle, a weekly report (each at most once a day/week).
• Size history and forecast (View → Size history): a chart for the drive and every folder, what grew in the last day/week/month, "C: would be full in about 40–70 days" (after a week of scans, never a date), log files that keep growing. Also xylem-cli history.
• Where every GB is: the drive's used space against what the scan counted, what the difference is, and the list of folders a normal scan couldn't read.
• Hardlinks counted once in the normal scan: e.g. C:\Windows 46 → 36 GB on our test PC. Your first scan after updating shows that drop once in What changed (it says why).
• Smarter categories: code projects (Node, Rust, Python, .NET, Java, Gradle, CMake, Go, Unreal) with their rebuildable parts marked safe to clear, AI models, datasets (csv, jsonl, ...), databases, temp files and unfinished downloads. "Unclassified" on our test drive: 22.8 → 1.6 GB. Belongs to: which installed program or Steam/Epic game a folder is part of. Teach Xylem: right-click a folder → This is… (my project, a dataset, a game, ...).
• Light on your PC: Xylem's own RAM and CPU in the status bar, free its memory with one click (the scan stays saved), gentle scanning, Save space and Home worked out off the UI thread.
• Fixed: a normal scan whose description mentioned the MFT was taken for a Fast scan in What changed (no warning when comparing the two methods).
• Keyboard shortcuts list (Help), screen-reader names for the map and its legend.

In 0.4.1

• One download, everything ready: the installer now puts xylem-cli on PATH, so it works in any new terminal right after installing (the uninstaller removes exactly that entry again).
• Always-latest links: xylem-setup.exe and xylem-portable.zip on every release, so https://github.com/JayD108/Xylem/releases/latest/download/xylem-setup.exe always gives the newest version.
• Compress skips hardlinked files (their data is shared with names that may be outside the folder you chose).
• Save space warns when the scan it uses was saved by an older Xylem without arrival dates.
• New guide for the command line: docs/CLI.md.

In 0.4.0

• Ways to save space (the new Save space button): two lists from your scan, biggest first.
  • Compress: folders and big files whose files haven't changed or arrived for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, with the expected saving and a one-click Compress… (Maximum suggested for things untouched for a year).
  • Other ways: caches and temp files, build folders in old projects, AI model stores, Recycle Bin, hibernation file, previous Windows, restore points, big files that won't compress, WSL/Docker disks, OneDrive copies, folder copies, old installers, duplicates and Compact OS, each with its size and exactly how.
    Nothing is changed from this window.
• Arrival dates: downloads and unpacked datasets keep their authors' old dates. Xylem now also reads when each file arrived on your PC, so a dataset downloaded last month no longer looks "2 years old".
• Honest compression estimates from real measurements per file type (e.g. text ~55%, EEG .edf ~33%, .npy ~15%, .parquet/.pt ~6–8% with Fast) instead of a flat 50%.
• Safer cache labels: a folder named cache inside your own projects is now "check first", not "safe to clear"; app caches in AppData stay safe.
• Fixed: the drive strip and totals at the bottom now update after Compress/Uncompress.
• Help wanted: a call for compression research and a list of open problems: see CONTRIBUTING.md and docs/HELP-WANTED.md.

In 0.3

• Fast built-in compression (right-click → Compress…, ~15× faster than compact.exe in our tests, undoable), Similar folders, and fixes for compressed files in the normal scan and for "What changed" across scan methods.

What it does

• Scans a whole NTFS drive in about 1–2 seconds by reading its Master File Table, read-only, after the Windows admin prompt. Without admin it walks folders (no prompt).
• Tree-table with a sunburst or treemap. Groups by location or by category (apps, media, dev stuff, AI & data, system, temp & caches…).
• Explains known folders in plain English with a safety label, and locks Windows and system folders.
• Deletes only to the Recycle Bin, after you confirm. It re-checks the item on disk first and warns about OneDrive folders, Git repositories and very large deletes. A deletion history is kept on your PC.
• No network connections, no telemetry, no accounts.

Download

• xylem-setup-0.5.0.exe: installer (recommended). Installs into Program Files, which protects the admin helper used by Fast scan. Includes an uninstaller (Settings → Apps).
• xylem-0.5.0-portable.zip: no install. Unzip and run xylem.exe.

Signature: Not signed yet (SignPath application pending). Windows SmartScreen will warn; check the SHA-256 checksums below.

How it was built

Every file in this release was built by GitHub Actions from the tagged commit of JayD108/Xylem. Check them against SHA256SUMS.txt.

Privacy: this program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it.

SHA-256 checksums

9de2b8f9e0f02d621a8299bc774d1d0dd3f92a054ebcae53d599b8d7301048e7  xylem-cli.exe
5a0ed34864294b9038513de810089d31dd9ee9de07118654fc00daa71e94e8de  xylem-portable.zip
86fb6c1ed5302d7616d28cf57e5889aaa3b84a901e7b871d1274ee2880015358  xylem-setup-0.5.0.exe
86fb6c1ed5302d7616d28cf57e5889aaa3b84a901e7b871d1274ee2880015358  xylem-setup.exe
f1606f3286ae06bd84eb07f56978d7d1c10e083de1c2f949614e22faa45c9128  xylem.exe
```n

Xylem 0.4.1

Xylem 0.4.1: a fast disk space analyzer for Windows 10/11. It shows what fills your drive, what each thing is, and whether it's safe to delete.

New in 0.4.1

• One download, everything ready: the installer now puts xylem-cli on PATH, so it works in any new terminal right after installing (the uninstaller removes exactly that entry again).
• Always-latest links: xylem-setup.exe and xylem-portable.zip on every release, so https://github.com/JayD108/Xylem/releases/latest/download/xylem-setup.exe always gives the newest version.
• Compress skips hardlinked files (their data is shared with names that may be outside the folder you chose).
• Save space warns when the scan it uses was saved by an older Xylem without arrival dates.
• New guide for the command line: docs/CLI.md.

In 0.4.0

• Ways to save space (the new Save space button): two lists from your scan, biggest first.
  • Compress: folders and big files whose files haven't changed or arrived for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, with the expected saving and a one-click Compress… (Maximum suggested for things untouched for a year).
  • Other ways: caches and temp files, build folders in old projects, AI model stores, Recycle Bin, hibernation file, previous Windows, restore points, big files that won't compress, WSL/Docker disks, OneDrive copies, folder copies, old installers, duplicates and Compact OS, each with its size and exactly how.
    Nothing is changed from this window.
• Arrival dates: downloads and unpacked datasets keep their authors' old dates. Xylem now also reads when each file arrived on your PC, so a dataset downloaded last month no longer looks "2 years old".
• Honest compression estimates from real measurements per file type (e.g. text ~55%, EEG .edf ~33%, .npy ~15%, .parquet/.pt ~6–8% with Fast) instead of a flat 50%.
• Safer cache labels: a folder named cache inside your own projects is now "check first", not "safe to clear"; app caches in AppData stay safe.
• Fixed: the drive strip and totals at the bottom now update after Compress/Uncompress.
• Help wanted: a call for compression research and a list of open problems: see CONTRIBUTING.md and docs/HELP-WANTED.md.

In 0.3

• Fast built-in compression (right-click → Compress…, ~15× faster than compact.exe in our tests, undoable), Similar folders, and fixes for compressed files in the normal scan and for "What changed" across scan methods.

What it does

• Scans a whole NTFS drive in about 1–2 seconds by reading its Master File Table, read-only, after the Windows admin prompt. Without admin it walks folders (no prompt).
• Tree-table with a sunburst or treemap. Groups by location or by category (apps, media, dev stuff, AI & data, system, temp & caches…).
• Explains known folders in plain English with a safety label, and locks Windows and system folders.
• Deletes only to the Recycle Bin, after you confirm. It re-checks the item on disk first and warns about OneDrive folders, Git repositories and very large deletes. A deletion history is kept on your PC.
• No network connections, no telemetry, no accounts.

Download

• xylem-setup-0.4.1.exe: installer (recommended). Installs into Program Files, which protects the admin helper used by Fast scan. Includes an uninstaller (Settings → Apps).
• xylem-0.4.1-portable.zip: no install. Unzip and run xylem.exe.

Signature: Not signed yet (SignPath application pending). Windows SmartScreen will warn; check the SHA-256 checksums below.

Code signing policy

Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation (pending approval).

Every file in this release was built by GitHub Actions from the tagged commit of JayD108/Xylem. Team roles and the privacy policy are on the project page.

Privacy: this program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it.

SHA-256 checksums

aeee717897cc16cc8427995fe7f62bc808c4bf55d2416c8fb74c8402f8cf680a  xylem-cli.exe
875c5ffa3d8c8bac3330a6bf6d0759f68238f38afcea13ae25bc7df45a419ec8  xylem-portable.zip
c49a069098247b1e2ad008160b074293589f29ded0fc119b7c513afc67303f65  xylem-setup-0.4.1.exe
c49a069098247b1e2ad008160b074293589f29ded0fc119b7c513afc67303f65  xylem-setup.exe
05c180e8d95cfddaa674d228f7ee94b16578f5181d66061f2dbf8fa276ae80c7  xylem.exe
```n

Xylem 0.4.0

Xylem 0.4.0: a fast disk space analyzer for Windows 10/11. It shows what fills your drive, what each thing is, and whether it's safe to delete.

New in 0.4

• Ways to save space (the new Save space button): two lists from your scan, biggest first.
  • Compress: folders and big files whose files haven't changed or arrived for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, with the expected saving and a one-click Compress… (Maximum suggested for things untouched for a year).
  • Other ways: caches and temp files, build folders in old projects, AI model stores, Recycle Bin, hibernation file, previous Windows, restore points, big files that won't compress, WSL/Docker disks, OneDrive copies, folder copies, old installers, duplicates and Compact OS, each with its size and exactly how.
    Nothing is changed from this window.
• Arrival dates: downloads and unpacked datasets keep their authors' old dates. Xylem now also reads when each file arrived on your PC, so a dataset downloaded last month no longer looks "2 years old".
• Honest compression estimates from real measurements per file type (e.g. text ~55%, EEG .edf ~33%, .npy ~15%, .parquet/.pt ~6–8% with Fast) instead of a flat 50%.
• Safer cache labels: a folder named cache inside your own projects is now "check first", not "safe to clear"; app caches in AppData stay safe.
• Fixed: the drive strip and totals at the bottom now update after Compress/Uncompress.
• Help wanted: a call for compression research and a list of open problems: see CONTRIBUTING.md and docs/HELP-WANTED.md.

In 0.3

• Fast built-in compression (right-click → Compress…, ~15× faster than compact.exe in our tests, undoable), Similar folders, and fixes for compressed files in the normal scan and for "What changed" across scan methods.

What it does

• Scans a whole NTFS drive in about 1–2 seconds by reading its Master File Table, read-only, after the Windows admin prompt. Without admin it walks folders (no prompt).
• Tree-table with a sunburst or treemap. Groups by location or by category (apps, media, dev stuff, AI & data, system, temp & caches…).
• Explains known folders in plain English with a safety label, and locks Windows and system folders.
• Deletes only to the Recycle Bin, after you confirm. It re-checks the item on disk first and warns about OneDrive folders, Git repositories and very large deletes. A deletion history is kept on your PC.
• No network connections, no telemetry, no accounts.

Download

• xylem-setup-0.4.0.exe: installer (recommended). Installs into Program Files, which protects the admin helper used by Fast scan. Includes an uninstaller (Settings → Apps).
• xylem-0.4.0-portable.zip: no install. Unzip and run xylem.exe.

Signature: Not signed yet (SignPath application pending). Windows SmartScreen will warn; check the SHA-256 checksums below.

Code signing policy

Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation (pending approval).

Every file in this release was built by GitHub Actions from the tagged commit of JayD108/Xylem. Team roles and the privacy policy are on the project page.

Privacy: this program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it.

SHA-256 checksums

7425d2c1bb7794e7979030db5a1a1386a53290bb554e569679da7dc2daab2fe3  xylem-cli.exe
019ff11bb8516fab82e04348eba137ab949ce2264ed3ab9ca1093a603fe05bac  xylem-setup-0.4.0.exe
12ddd11131e168b6016e89f92e056fe1d90e5ac2dde3525d93f54a6053d14181  xylem.exe
```n

Xylem 0.3.0

Xylem 0.3.0: a fast disk space analyzer for Windows 10/11. It shows what fills your drive, what each thing is, and whether it's safe to delete.

New in 0.3

• Fast compression, built in: right-click any folder → Compress…. Xylem now runs Windows' own file compression itself, on many files at once, instead of through compact.exe: about 15× faster at the new Fast level and 5× faster at Maximum in our tests (763 MB of mixed data). Files stay where they are and open as usual. It skips files that won't shrink, shows real progress with speed and time left, can be stopped, and Uncompress undoes it.
• Similar folders (View menu): finds folders that look like copies of each other, and projects with similar names (project, project_v2, project - Copy), with how much each group takes.
• Fixed: compressed files were counted as almost 0 bytes by the normal (no-admin) scan. Folders compressed with Windows' file compression (compact /EXE, CompactOS, Xylem's Compress) now show their real size on disk. Fast scan was not affected.
• Fixed: "What changed" could compare a normal scan with a Fast scan as if your files had changed. Xylem now remembers how each scan was made and says so when the two differ; it also shows how far apart the scans were.
• Clearer text about what needs admin rights and what Xylem can change; percentages no longer round a part up to 100%.

What it does

• Scans a whole NTFS drive in about 1–2 seconds by reading its Master File Table, read-only, after the Windows admin prompt. Without admin it walks folders (no prompt).
• Tree-table with a sunburst or treemap. Groups by location or by category (apps, media, dev stuff, AI & data, system, temp & caches…).
• Explains known folders in plain English with a safety label, and locks Windows and system folders.
• Deletes only to the Recycle Bin, after you confirm. It re-checks the item on disk first and warns about OneDrive folders, Git repositories and very large deletes. A deletion history is kept on your PC.
• No network connections, no telemetry, no accounts.

Download

• xylem-setup-0.3.0.exe: installer (recommended). Installs into Program Files, which protects the admin helper used by Fast scan. Includes an uninstaller (Settings → Apps).
• xylem-0.3.0-portable.zip: no install. Unzip and run xylem.exe.

Signature: Not signed yet (SignPath application pending). Windows SmartScreen will warn; check the SHA-256 checksums below.

Code signing policy

Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation (pending approval).

Every file in this release was built by GitHub Actions from the tagged commit of JayD108/Xylem. Team roles and the privacy policy are on the project page.

Privacy: this program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it.

SHA-256 checksums

9b7b6e29825cd9a9afd3ed27d762c485f1668b03e75755cd6ec192e7ef47ad82  xylem-cli.exe
d44f0769231a348f264424a1ce2b21d9b879631cc61c783e79f4521411162c07  xylem-setup-0.3.0.exe
390f08cff144ebab60b3ae207ba1ad98b8c4de827df99ae939921a1b7855594d  xylem.exe
```n

Xylem 0.2.0

Xylem 0.2.0: a fast disk space analyzer for Windows 10/11. It shows what fills your drive, what each thing is, and whether it's safe to delete.

New in 0.2

• Instant reopen and "what changed": your last scan opens in under a second; after a rescan, the folders that grew or shrank are listed and shown in a Change column.
• Clean up with confidence: "Mark all" for safe-to-clear places (node_modules, Rust target, caches), a Leftovers view (old installers, archives and disk images in Downloads, Windows upgrade leftovers, possibly orphaned app data), custom rules, and Windows' own DISM / System Protection / Storage cleanups.
• See it happen: colour by age (last modified), live updates while the app is open, size alerts.
• Power tools (opt-in): export marked items as a PowerShell cleanup script (dry run by default), NTFS compression with compact.exe, guided WSL/Docker virtual-disk compaction.
• Finding space: largest files with search, file types, duplicate finder, hardlink names, CSV export, Explorer right-click.
• Safer: the elevated helper drops its admin rights before reading drive data; deletes keep the folder chain locked until the Recycle Bin move ends; a running app that uses a cache is pointed out before deleting it.
• Lighter: scan data for 1.9M items 204 → 143 MB.

What it does

• Scans a whole NTFS drive in about 1–2 seconds by reading its Master File Table, read-only, after the Windows admin prompt. Without admin it walks folders (no prompt).
• Tree-table with a sunburst or treemap. Groups by location or by category (apps, media, dev stuff, AI & data, system, temp & caches…).
• Explains known folders in plain English with a safety label, and locks Windows and system folders.
• Deletes only to the Recycle Bin, after you confirm. It re-checks the item on disk first and warns about OneDrive folders, Git repositories and very large deletes. A deletion history is kept on your PC.
• No network connections, no telemetry, no accounts.

Download

• xylem-setup-0.2.0.exe: installer (recommended). Installs into Program Files, which protects the admin helper used by Fast scan. Includes an uninstaller (Settings → Apps).
• xylem-0.2.0-portable.zip: no install. Unzip and run xylem.exe.

Signature: Not signed yet (SignPath application pending). Windows SmartScreen will warn; check the SHA-256 checksums below.

Code signing policy

Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation (pending approval).

Every file in this release was built by GitHub Actions from the tagged commit of JayD108/Xylem. Team roles and the privacy policy are on the project page.

Privacy: this program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it.

SHA-256 checksums

c573344d7572f0138da7589587ffabe1b9b9ff133c36a49569dc7b81f26c272e  xylem-cli.exe
85781d8de65bce41d34db47b7ea06d0a7485501a6222187d6439f08a2e530a0d  xylem-setup-0.2.0.exe
96cc507aeecb64b53937cc895e974ab86a154710c83d6e8d051abc7055e85e61  xylem.exe
```n

Xylem 0.1.0

Xylem 0.1.0: a fast disk space analyzer for Windows 10/11. It shows what fills your drive, what each thing is, and whether it's safe to delete.

What it does

• Scans a whole NTFS drive in about 1–2 seconds by reading its Master File Table, read-only, after the Windows admin prompt. Without admin it walks folders (no prompt).
• Tree-table with a sunburst or treemap. Groups by location or by category (apps, media, dev stuff, AI & data, system, temp & caches…).
• Explains known folders in plain English with a safety label, and locks Windows and system folders.
• Deletes only to the Recycle Bin, after you confirm. It re-checks the item on disk first and warns about OneDrive folders, Git repositories and very large deletes. A deletion history is kept on your PC.
• No network connections, no telemetry, no accounts.

Download

• xylem-setup-0.1.0.exe: installer (recommended). Installs into Program Files, which protects the admin helper used by Fast scan. Includes an uninstaller (Settings → Apps).
• xylem-0.1.0-portable.zip: no install. Unzip and run xylem.exe.

Signature: Not signed yet (SignPath application pending). Windows SmartScreen will warn; check the SHA-256 checksums below.

Code signing policy

Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation (pending approval).

Every file in this release was built by GitHub Actions from the tagged commit of JayD108/Xylem. Team roles and the privacy policy are on the project page.

Privacy: this program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it.

SHA-256 checksums

5038d65e9a6964e59594bcc21405120036a70a3eca686d0186ad8a5f89c3a087  xylem-cli.exe
79c084ad5a14182a243a18100e19f64b09252bdf2479b1150224749998875124  xylem-setup-0.1.0.exe
934c3940c47c2a29972f23f089c8d8338910e582b01e8ea9991e896d538dea90  xylem.exe
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