Space used by Programs, Part 1

Infopackets Reader Victor V. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

I love your newsletters and read them every time I receive it. I have a question for you and I hope you can help. Can you tell me how can I tell what programs are taking all my space in my hard drive and how to remove them? I am running out of space! "

My Response:

To get a general idea of what is installed on your system, you could start with the Add / Remove programs in the Control Panel. Here you will find a list of installed programs.

Since all programs are installed to folders (99.99% of the time, anyway), you can then attempt to find out how much space is being eaten up by a program by locating its program folder and viewing the folder Properties. Please note that this method does not cover installed system files (such as .DLLs and registry) -- but it will give you a very *general* idea of installed program file usage.

Option #1: Look at your Program Files folder

Go to c:\program files folder (or wherever you install the majority of your programs), and look what folders are available here. Right click any folder listed here and select Properties. Windows will tell you how much space is being taken up by the program (see picture below).

Again -- this will only give you a * rough estimate * for the installed program size. There are more files installed elsewhere on your system which are related to the program.

Option #2: Attempt to locate a Program Folder using the Start -> Find -> Files / Folders feature.

Let's say you have Paint Shop Pro on your system. You could then Search for "paintshop" or "psp", and the result should have a few matches. If the search result is a Folder: Right-click and select Properties. This will tell you (roughly) how much space is being taken up by the installed program.

If the search result is a File, and the file is related to the program you're searching for, you'll need to locate where this file is stored on your system so that you can view its folder properties. In this case, right-click the file and select Properties. The Properties will tell you where this file is located on your computer (see Location: in the above picture). All you need to do now is navigate to the listed folder and view its Properties.